Winter Wonderland at Stagecoach State Park

Winter just got a lot more fun in Oak Creek, Colorado at Stagecoach State Park! There are so many activities you and your family can do, including ice fishing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, dog sled tours, ice skating and more. Stagecoach is offering eight miles of groomed trails around the reservoir for winter recreation. The Lake View Trail is two miles long and can be accessed from the Keystone day use area, or the parking lot on RCR 14. The six-mile Elk Run Trail is used periodically by dog sled tours and a tour schedule is located on the cabin in the parking lot on RCR 16. Remember that Nordic skiers yield to dog sleds, and snowshoers yield to skiers.

Stagecoach welcomes nearly 12 million visitors each year and offers some of the best outdoor recreation destinations in the state. The job of the Colorado State Parks is to protect the landscape, educate the public about the ecosystem, the nature around them and how they can enjoy the experience, while leaving it unchanged for the generations to come. There is abundant wildlife to see and photograph and for anglers, there is a reservoir stocked with trout that run around 12 inches long. Stagecoach is a popular ice fishing destination and currently holds the state record for the largest northern pike. Fishing for Rainbow trout, Brook trout, Brown trout and Snake River Cutthroat trout challenges anglers. Northern pike and Kokanee salmon are also in the 775 surface acre lake. If you plan to ice fish, please use caution while going out on the ice.

Park staff recommends that:

anglers never go on the ice alone
wear a life jacket or personal floatation device (PFD)
and always assume that unsafe ice conditions may occur anywhere.

Ice thickness varies from place to place. Four inches of ice will provide a margin of safety and is generally considered safe for ice fishing and ice-skating, but anglers should not judge ice thickness solely on appearance. If you want more information on safety on the ice, please read our article “Danger – Thin Ice”.

If you would like to visit Stagecoach State Park – from Steamboat Springs, go four miles east on U.S. 40, then south on Colorado 131 for five miles to Routt County Road 14. Drive seven miles south and you will be at the park entrance.