website: www.salidamountaintrails.org
email: salidamountaintrails@gmail.com
Salida Mountain Trails (SMT) is an all-volunteer 501c3 organization dedicated to planning, building, and maintaining non-motorized multi-use recreational trails near the City of Salida. We were founded in 2004 to address the need for developing legal, environmentally responsible trails to replace a network of user-created unsustainable trails. We have built over 23 miles of trails near Salida – creating both the Arkansas Hills Trail System and the Methodist Mountain Trail System. SMT has established strong effective relationships with the BLM, Forest Service, City of Salida, Chaffee County, and local professional trail builders.
SMT accomplishes all this with 1) 20-30 volunteers working to maintain and build trail, 2) fundraising events, 150 dues paying members, donations from local businesses, and city/county support, and 3) grants to leverage our money.
We still have 3.6 miles of the Cottonwood Trail project to build in 2015. We also have proposed 12 miles of new trail to the BLM that will help continue our Arkansas Hills and Methodist Mountain trail systems. This proposal is in the early stages of the BLM approval process.
