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Colorado is home to 58 mountains whose peaks reach 14,000 feet above sea level. Familiarly known as “14ers” to Coloradoans, attempting to summit each of these mountains has become a popular activity and trend. From 2015-2020, 14er hiker estimates surged 52.82% from 346,490 total hikers to 529,499 total hikers, with some peaks estimating over 37,500 visits. Such an increase in a short period of time can have drastic impacts on natural resources as well as emergency resources like search and rescue teams who have more incidents to respond to. As a response, some 14ers now require permits or have been closed due to increased visitation.
14er Visitation and Difficulty Index
Number of Hikers on Colorado 14ers, 2020
Using R, data from the Colorado 14ers Association, and an index I developed (right), I analyzed visitation trends on Colorado's highest peaks. The map to the left visualizes the number of hikers at each mountain throughout the state. Just from a glance, we can see that mountains closer to Denver have the highest amount of hikers in 2020.
The index classifies three categories that influence a mountains overall 14er difficulty.
Trail Class * Trail Length Index * Distance from Denver Index = Overall 14er Difficulty Rating
From this equation, I developed ratings for each mountain, and compared them with visitation numbers. The higher the 14er difficulty rating, the higher the predicited visitation.
Results and R-Value
The R-value (left) associated with my data (-0.6477) suggest a moderate/moderately-high negative correlation, meaning that higher x-values may be correlated with low y-values and vice versa. The combined impact of various geographic factors, such as topography (route difficulty), trail length, and distance from major cities influence visitor use on different mountains across Colorado. The data in this study is important because it can be used to help public land researches and emergency responders predict where more impact is likely to occur so resources can be more effectively allocated. One factor I explored that I found most impactful was hikers to distance from a major city/transportation hub (below). In the future, I would like to explore the impact of other factors on visitor use in public lands.
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