Red Hill, situated with its watchful eye over the tight-knit community of Carbondale, is one of the most used hiking trails throughout the entire Roaring Fork Valley, and for good reason. 

The lookout off Mushroom Rock, accessible through Three Gulch Trail and Blue Ribbon, offers spectacular views of Carbondale, Mount Sopris, and the lower Roaring Fork Valley to over 70,000 visitors per year according to the Bureau of Land Management. 

Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV), is hosting their second of four 2025 trail maintenance projects on Thursday as the nonprofit continues their undying dedication to educating and supplying the Roaring Fork outdoor community. 

“This project in particular is trying to create a long term solution,” RFOV Executive Director Rebbeca Schild said. “We are trying to make the trail more resilient to use because it’s such a go to place for people to recreate that they just don’t necessarily adhere to ‘don’t walk on muddy trails.'”

Thursday’s maintenance project, spanning from 2-6 p.m., will continue the work RFOV began last month during the first of the 2025 Red Hill trail maintenance series, focused on the sage meadow on Blue Ribbon.

“We had a project with over 40 volunteers come out on May 22,” Schild said. “It”s a flat area, and gets really muddy from snow melt. So it just becomes this perpetual mud zone for a couple months in the spring.”

Schild added that this work is focused on trying to create drainage and tread on one of the most used trails throughout the valley. 

“We worked to install some culverts to direct water underneath the trail, and then we built some drainage features along the trail,” Schild said. “Thursday, we’ll just continue that work of establishing that drainage runoff features, and then working to improve some of the tread. Because, when people are hiking on muddy trails, it leaves not as smooth of a surface when the trail dries out.”

Because of Red HIll’s extreme use by locals and tourists alike, the extensive work that both the town of Carbondale and Red Hill Council put into trying to reduce usage during muddy season predominantly goes unheard. Schild said she hopes that the projects at Red Hill will contrarily boost some of the other gorgeous trails the Roaring Fork Valley offers. 

“I think that when people get out there’s an educational component, and they actually see the impacts from walking on muddy trails.” she said. “They see how much work it takes to sustain these trails, and then they become ambassadors to their community. Maybe they’re with their friends, and they suggest a different hike, because they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that hike tends to be really muddy, maybe we should go up Ruthie’s Run instead.’ I think that builds buy-in throughout the community.”

Thursday’s RFOV project will be their second of four events hosted at Red Hill in 2025. Thursday will wrap up their summer Red Hill series, as they will shift focus onto other areas in need until returning to Red Hill in the fall with two more projects in September and October. 

For more information about the project, or to register to volunteer on Thursday, visit rfov.org/calendar.