The Palisade Plunge Trail project is a unique, world-class mountain biking trail route that connects the top of the Grand Mesa (10,780’ elevation) to the valley floor in the Town of Palisade (4,728’ elevation). At approximately 34 miles long and with over 6,000’ of vertical relief, The Plunge is one of a handful of similar singletrack trail routes worldwide. For almost half of its length, The Plunge traverses through areas not previously accessible to the public due to lack of trails, inaccessible terrain, watershed restrictions, and private leaseholder fencing. The Palisade Plunge is a collaborative effort between Mesa County, BLM, USFS, CPW, Town of Palisade, City of Grand Junction, Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA) and other numerous other minor stakeholders. Mesa County was elected by the stakeholders to be the primary stakeholder to handle all the design and construction for the project. The estimated annual economic impact from the Palisade Plunge Trail to the Mesa County communities is $5 million annually. All partners involved with this project have been proactively seeking to make this a demonstration project for how to proceed with both persistence and compromise to ultimately bring the vast majority of the people and organizations on-board to complete a vision of the project that begun ten years ago. Come journey with presenters as they traverse this winding, wild ride and cover some of the numerous lessons learned during the bidding and construction of this unique project.

Contributor/Source

Greg Mazu;Josh Springer;Laura Page, PE

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