Pinnacle trail reroute complete, Offers friendly winter and summer trails
Published at | Updated at
DRIGGS — The new road connecting to the Pinnacle trail was completed last Thursday.
The trail has been used for decades by valley residents and from those in Rexburg and Idaho Falls areas as an ATV trail and snowmobile trail, but official access was lost when the private land that the trailhead was located on changed hands.
The previous owner had granted permission for public use, but those rights were not secured in the change of ownership, and were lost.
An “unofficial access” route was established, but now with funding from Wyoming State Parks, part of the Wyoming Trails and Pathways Connector Trail program, a new safer access route has been built to both establish and preserve the access to the Pinnacles.
“Everything went really well,” said the US Forest Service Trail Coordinator Scott Bossell. “The WY crew came in and did a great job building it.”
Bossell added that they were helped a lot by the Skyliners Club.
“We’ve done some additional work clearing the trail for winter,” said Wade Kaufman, president of the Skyliner’s Club. “We’re looking at doing some extra work next summer on the upper half of the trail next summer.”
Kaufman added that the trail would be much more suitable for beginners and families.
“It’s much safer, much bigger and better than what it was before. Thanks to the crew out of Lander,” he said.
The Pinnacle trail now connects with Nelson’s Springs trail (US Forest road 051), which is accessed off the Darby Canyon road.
“It wasn’t a very popular ATV route,” said Bossell. “But by connecting it to the Pinnacle, it now has a logical conclusion.”
Bossell added that the work was thanks to Wyoming state registration funds.
“When people pay for their registration, this is what we receive in exchange,” he said. “That program funds the Wyoming trail crew, [which] is a tremendous benefit to the trails around here.”
“It’s good to see our dollars going to the right place,” said Kaufman. “I’m excited to see snowfall and get out on it.”
This article was originally published in the Teton Valley News. It is used here with permission.