Naming of Colorado trail highlights more diverse participation in outdoor recreation

The 3.5 miles of trail was a chore for Stan Pentecost, but he loved it.

"Top of the world. We did the whole loop," said Pentecost as he hiked with Kia Ruiz and her son.

"They should call it the Winston Wildflower Walk. There are at least 15 different varieties up there of everything up there and it's gorgeous right now," said Ruiz.

They were the first three to walk the newly named Winston K. Walker Loop Trail at O'Fallon Park in Kittredge.

The trail is the first in the Denver Mountain Parks System to be named for a Black person. Walker was iconic in breaking down barriers that shut out people of color from outdoor activities. Over a span of decades, he brought thousands of people into the woods with him to experience the wild.

"I got hooked the first one," said Pentecost about hiking with his friend. Walker died in 2019, but Monday in a dedication, an unnamed trail in O'Fallon Park was named in his honor.

"Winston said to me, before he passed away, 'Jess, I need to teach you everything I know about the outdoors,'" said Jessica Newton, executive director and founder of Vibe Tribe Adventures. "I think he knew he was getting sicker and sicker and I'm just grateful that he was able to be my mentor to actually help carry on the next generation to encourage the Black and brown community to adventure."

Newton also helps get people of color into Colorado's wild places. Often, the Vibe Tribe Adventures organization will bring groups of people for experiences they may never have tried. Recently it was a dozen young men.

"We took them out to Florissant for three days and we were camping and it was hailing on us, but oh well, we're out here," she said. "It gives them the education to feel confident enough to come back with their moms and their friends and their family and it creates that generational change."

Generational change is what she knows is needed. The Outdoor Recreation Industry in a 2022 study noted 72% of outdoor recreation participants are White. Less than 10% were Black or African American and a little more than 10% percent were Hispanic. Without more diversity, the industry forecasts the percentage of outdoor recreation participants in the population as a whole could drop from 54% to under 40% by 2060.

Creating a new future for outdoor recreation for minorities will involve moving on from a difficult past.

"We weren't allowed to reserve spaces, to go into our national parks," said Newton of generations of discrimination. But there is a need for more physical activity.

"Black women in particular have the highest rate for cardiovascular disease. And so getting up into the outdoors helps us mitigate diabetes, high cholesterol."

The Vibe Tribe Adventures group and other groups like Girl Trek where Ruiz has helped lead groups in the wild, are trying to get people moving into places they may not have been.

"We go out in groups. We stay clustered together for safety reasons actually," explained Newton. "We've had park rangers called on us. We've had sheriff's people called on us. We've had police called on us and the question is 'why are you here?' and it's like, I have hiking boots, I've got my backpack."

It's also about developing a love of the outdoors and changing conversations. Newton talked about a typical conversation about her weekend at work.

"It's like, 'Hey Jess what did you do?' and like, oh I went skiing in Vail and I went to Portugal and climbed the highest mountain and then I ask my community what did you do and it's like, 'Oh, worked, you know."

That, she believes, will help get more people into physically and mentally healthy places, like the Winston K. Walker Loop Trail: "It's changing the mindset that hey I have a weekend, let's go up together as a community."

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