COTREX App Shows Hikers Which Trails Are Open In Colorado

DENVER (CBS4)- As counties plan to lift stay-at-home orders, many Coloradans are wondering where they are allowed to safely recreate during the coronavirus pandemic. A Colorado Parks and Wildlife app called COTREX can now help guide hikers as it maps out open and closed trails across the state.

"People are looking for official guidance on where they can go outside, how far can you travel from home and that sort of thing," explained Alex Alma, the Trails and Recreation Project Manager. "This is a trusted source with information straight from land managers."

This past winter, the project team began adding a new feature to the app, that would mark trail closures. Little did they know, that tool would immediately come in handy.

"We were designing it more so for muddy trails and the occasional trailhead closure for construction and that type of thing," Alma said. "So when COVID-19 hit, we looked at the tools that we created and thankfully they were flexible enough to adapt and shift and put these closures in."

Alma said not only does it show closures, but also provides guidance on where you can safely recreate.

"It's hard to be 6 feet away from people when you're on a single track trail," Alma said. "In COTREX, some of our trails are paved or concrete and you can kind of assume are a little bit wider. So maybe people can discover some of those by the house and be able to have an easier time social distancing."

Alma said right now, the guideline is to recreate no more than 10 miles from your home to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The app also shows some trails in Boulder for example, that have been reduced to one-way traffic to help with social distancing. Alma said they also added streets in downtown Denver that have been closed for recreation purposes as pop-up trails on the map.

"Gone are the days where you can just hearsay that something is open or not," Alma said. "Now you can just go onto the application and get the information from a trusted source."

The app is free and can be accessed through the computer or on a smartphone.

"I think COTREX will really be helpful as things start to open up more, and on the federal side and up in the mountains when that recreation there is encouraged again," he said.

LINK: COTREX