14-04-2025
Rocky Mountain National Park entrance could be closed Tuesday for prescribed burn
DENVER (KDVR) — If the weather and forest conditions remain favorable, fire managers at Rocky Mountain National Park plan to conduct a prescribed burn on Tuesday.
The goal is to burn about 60 acres of the 334-acre Headquarters Unit, which is located west of Beaver Meadows Visitor Center and south of Highway 36. Because of the location, Highway 36 inside the park will be temporarily closed from just west of the visitor center to the Beaver Meadows Entrance between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
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To access the park during this time, visitors will need to use the Fall River Entrance on Highway 34. The Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, the Rocky Mountain Conservancy Nature Store and RMNP's Wilderness office, located inside the visitor center, will remain open as usual.
Park officials said that crews will be mostly burning grasses and small shrubs in the area and do not anticipate heavy or prolonged smoke from the planned burn.
The park said in its release that the main goal of the prescribed burn is to reduce the threat of wildland fires to adjacent communities, like Estes Park, as well as National Park Service infrastructure.
'When fighting the East Troublesome Fire in 2020 and the Fern Lake Fire in 2012, firefighters were able to take advantage of previous and existing prescribed fire and hazardous fuels treatment areas that provided a buffer between the fire and the town of Estes Park,' RMNP said in a release. 'Prior hazard fuels projects were instrumental in stopping the fire from jumping Bear Lake Road and Trail Ridge Road.'
The East Troublesome Fire burned over 193,000 acres after igniting in October 2020.
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