West Avon Preserve Trails: Rules, Access & Winter Closures

On October 9, the Town of Avon asked residents to weigh in on three places at once: Saddleridge Park, O'Neal Spur Park and the West Avon Preserve. They appear together in one survey and one set of meetings. They aren't governed the same way. The Town's management plan places O'Neal Spur Pocket Park outside the Preserve. The Preserve is owned by the Town, but it is protected by a conservation easement held by the Eagle Valley Land Trust and managed under a plan both parties agreed to. Three of the four trailheads into the Preserve sit outside that easement. So the edges of the trail system are where things can change most easily. Two months remain before the winter gates close.

What the easement allows and what it rules out

The West Avon Preserve Management Plan is the document that governs the hillside between Wildridge and Interstate 70. The Town and the Land Trust list the recreation they agree can happen there: hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, running, picnicking, photography, wildlife viewing, bird watching, orienteering and kite-flying. Frisbee is allowed as long as it isn't disc golf. All of it is permitted only if it doesn't create new unauthorized trails or harm the property's conservation values.

The rules list is specific:

• Dogs must be under voice command at all times, and handlers must carry a leash at all times
• No motorized or electrically assisted recreation, except Class 1 e-bikes, which the plan defines as pedal-assist only, with motor assistance up to 20 mph
• No drones, camping, smoking, loud music or overnight parking in trailhead lots
• No off-trail use that would create new social trails

Building is tightly limited. The easement allows two building envelopes of 2 acres each. They can hold trailhead facilities, parking, sheds and restrooms, but only after notifying and consulting the Land Trust, and only once the plan designates where the envelopes go. The plan says no restrooms are planned. If one were ever added, it would sit next to a trailhead, and the Town and the Land Trust would both have to agree it's needed before it could go on the Preserve.

Three of the four trailheads sit off the Preserve

The plan names four trailheads into the trail system. Only one of them sits on the easement.

O'Neal Spur is the piece where this month's input round meets the trail system. It's one of the three spaces in the survey. It sits just outside the easement, and the plan already describes it as having "existing on-street parking spaces and park facilities." PB&J runs 1.08 miles from the pocket park and connects to Saddle Ridge, Lee's Way and the Easy Loop trails. The Beaver Creek Point lot is the only parking actually on the Preserve, and it holds six cars. Vail Daily puts it plainly: "parking here is very limited."

The Town's announcement doesn't list specific proposals for any of the three spaces. It says the feedback will "help guide future improvements and establish priorities." Recreation Director Michael Labagh said in the Town's release that the Town wants "to hear directly from the community about how these spaces are used today and how they can be improved."

Why some paths were closed this summer

The easement explains the work crews did on the hillside in July. On June 26, the Town announced it would close and decommission several social trails in the Preserve, working with the Eagle Valley Land Trust and the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance. The release said informal paths can fragment habitat, erode soil and affect sensitive wildlife areas. Restoration was scheduled from June 29 through the end of July. The work included closing unauthorized routes, replanting, and adding signs that mark closed trails and point users to designated ones.

The designated network that remains is ten named trails. The plan lists their lengths:

• Avon-Singletree Connector, 2.36 miles
• Wild West Ridge, 2.18 miles
• Saddle Ridge, 1.98 miles
• Wyse Way, 1.14 miles
• PB&J, 1.08 miles
• Lee's Way, 0.93 miles, bike-only and downhill only
• Our Backyard, 0.89 miles, a loop
• Beaver Creek Overlook, 0.41 miles
• BLT, 0.29 miles
• Carroll's Cutoff, 0.2 miles

The next two months, before December 15

Every year from December 15 through at least April 15, most of the Preserve closes to protect wildlife winter habitat. The Town's release for last winter laid out how that works on the ground. Green gates and signs went up at closed trail entrances. Our Backyard and PB&J stayed open for multi-use. The Beaver Creek Point lookout trail stayed open to foot traffic only. The December 15 start for the coming winter comes from the annual pattern set in the management plan.

That leaves the full network open until mid-December. The loop Vail Daily featured in August 2025 is a 4.5-mile circuit from the Nottingham Road trailhead. It climbs Saddle Ridge for about 2 miles at an average 6 percent grade, comes down Lee's Way, and finishes on the BLT Jump Line. The paper rated it intermediate to advanced, with about 1,000 feet of climbing and a riding time of 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes. It also noted that hiking Lee's Way is not recommended. Riders coming from town can skip the drive. The paper points to a bike path along the north side of I-70 that ends right at the trailhead, and it warns that the Nottingham Road cul-de-sac can be busy with traffic from local businesses.

The same piece describes a bigger outing local riders call the Tour de WAP. It heads west on the Connector, climbs Saddle Ridge, crosses PB&J, drops to June Creek, climbs Wild West, returns east and up Wyse Way and PB&J, and finishes on Lee's Way. Almost every piece of that route closes on December 15.

After the gates go up, the only open parts of the Preserve are the trails at the two Wildridge trailheads. Our Backyard is a 0.89-mile loop that starts and ends in the Beaver Creek Point lot. PB&J starts at O'Neal Spur Pocket Park. Saddle Ridge and Lee's Way, the trails PB&J normally links to, are among the closed ones. From mid-December to mid-April, O'Neal Spur Pocket Park, one of the three spaces in this month's survey, is the main way into the open part of the Preserve.

Three evenings at the O'Neal Spur picnic shelter

All three meetings are held at the O'Neal Spur Park picnic shelter, 2799 Old Trail Road:

1. Wednesday, October 14, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
2. Monday, October 19, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
3. Thursday, October 29, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The Town is also running an online survey, linked from the Wildridge Park & Open Space Improvements page on avon.org. Feedback from each meeting will be compiled and considered alongside the survey responses. Questions go to Recreation Director Michael Labagh at [email protected] or 970-748-4446. The last meeting falls about seven weeks before most of the Preserve closes for winter.

Thinking about how Wildridge's trail access, open space and pocket parks fit into a home decision on Avon's north side? Adam Bartlett has followed these neighborhoods for nearly two decades and can walk you through how the Preserve's easement and the Town's parks plans affect the streets around them. Request a Free Vail Valley Market Consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.