Hiking trails around the Mount Sanitas area are about to receive significant repairs thanks to a $1.1 million grant the Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) Department landed to conduct trail repairs and construct two new short trails for users to enjoy, Boulder city officials said Thursday.

The OSMP will also utilize some of the money to improve climbing experiences in the area and sustain natural areas on the mountain by closing and restoring undesignated trails that can harm vegetation and wildlife.

“Trails in the Mount Sanitas area are among Open Space and Mountain Parks’ ‘legacy trails’ and the trails provide unique outdoor Boulder experiences, but are steep and prone to erosion, requiring extensive and ongoing trail maintenance,” the City said.

More than 375,000 visitors trek to Mount Sanitas annually, making the 678-acre area on the western edge of Boulderone of the city’s most popular open space areas.

“We are dedicated to helping our community enjoy and protect open space and thank the state and the federal government for their support in helping us with that mission,” Dan Burke, director of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks said. “We look forward to using this grant to improve, maintain and preserve an iconic Boulder area for our community and future generations.”

Grant funding will help OSMP to do the following:

• Conduct significant repairs to the approach to the summit of Mount Sanitas, on both the Mount Sanitas and East Ridge trails.
• Design and construct a new trail to connect neighborhoods located northeast of Mount Sanitas to the OSMP trail network.
• Design and construct a new trail to provide access to historically significant rock quarries on the mountain.
• Add infrastructure around the eight bouldering formations on the Mount Sanitas trail, including adding gathering space in bouldering areas, steps, fencing and signage.
• Close and restore undesignated trails, which can reduce the size of natural areas that wildlife and plants need to thrive.

The OSMP anticipates planned trail and ecological restoration work to begin in 2025 and be completed in 2027 — part of the OSMP’s fulfilling of past planning and part of the OSMP’s Master Plan and West Trail Study Area Plan.

“More durable trail infrastructure on Mount Sanitas will also help OSMP generate annual maintenance savings, allowing the department to conduct additional repair and maintenance work in other areas of OSMP’s 155-mile trail system,” according to a news release.

The City said OSMP will partner with the Boulder Open Space Conservancy — the department’s official philanthropic partner — to leverage additional fundraising opportunities to support grant-funded trail improvements and ecological restoration work on Mount Sanitas.

“For the past three years, BOSC has focused on increasing awareness for how special Mount Sanitas is, fostering volunteer group opportunities to support the Mount Sanitas Trail and raising more than $100,000 to support area trail and ecological restoration,” Alyson Duffey, BOSC executive director said in the release. “This grant is a major boost for our partnership with Open Space and Mountain Parks, and we will continue to inspire the community and visitors to join the collective stewardship of one of Boulder’s most beloved, iconic areas.”