Paonia State Park is closed for the season now, but when it reopens on May 1, 2024, kayakers, paddleboarders and canoers may have more reason to show up, at least on Tuesdays.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is considering closing the boat ramp in the park once a week to motorized vessels in future summers, something it has also done at Highline State Park. Both Paonia and Highline state parks are located on Colorado’s Western Slope.
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“The closure would allow us to focus our staff on other activities and increase the user experience across the park,” said Jed Potter, senior ranger with the agency, in a statement.
The goal of going “wakeless” is so that “non-motorized boaters can feel a bit safer out in the open water,” added park manager Scott Rist in the same statement.
And Tuesdays are a good day for it as CPW reports that Paonia State Park has had “two or fewer motorized boats launched on 92% of Tuesdays the last three years.” (An exception to the Tuesday closures would be made for holidays, like the Fourth of July, if they fall on that day.)
Highline State Park implemented Wakeless Wednesdays in 2021, and it has since become the busiest day of the year, according to The Daily Sentinel newspaper in Grand Junction.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is taking public feedback on the wakeless Tuesday idea (send an email to crawford.park@state.co.us by Nov. 25). The 1.523-acre state park is 17 miles northeast of Paonia in Gunnison County, and is popular with campers and wildlife watchers.
