Hiking is having a moment, and in an age where annual sales of hiking boots are reaching billions of dollars per year, it's unusual for popular trails to see a decline in visitorship, but that's exactly what's happened among Colorado's highest peaks.
According to a new report from the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, foot traffic on the state's 14ers – mountains over 14,000 feet high – fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade in 2023. The report finds that last year saw just 260,000 hiker use days across the state's 54 highest peaks, which equals the initial estimate from 2015, the CFI's first year of reporting. This represents a 6.8 percent decline from 2022’s estimate, and reflects a broader trend of decreased hiking activity since the peak in 2020 according to the report.
