[NEW PODCAST] Discovering Sweetwater Lake, Colorado’s 43rd State Park

In a first of its kind partnership in Colorado to create a state park on U.S. Forest Service land, it was recently announced by Governor Jared Polis that Sweetwater Lake will become Colorado’s 43rd state park.

This hidden gem, both as a destination and gateway to the Flat Tops Wilderness, has great potential for even more recreational opportunities in northwest Colorado.

Colorado Outdoors, the podcast for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, sat down with Deputy Regional Manager Jacob Bray to talk about the newest state park and this unique partnership.

CPW, The White River National Forest, and Eagle Valley Land Trust will come together to modernize facilities and provide updated and sustainable recreational services through this partnership.

Facility and infrastructure construction will take some time before it is all in place, a master plan for the park is in the works. However, thanks to the Eagle Valley Land Trust, visitors can look forward to a new boat dock next spring when the lake opens up to boating for the season.

“As you can imagine, it is not going to happen overnight,” Bray said in the podcast episode. “We’ll start with some of those standard amenities and we’re kicking off the planning process. There will be some opportunities for getting out there and experiencing the property, but a full build-out will not happen for several years.”

The Colorado Outdoors podcast can be found online or on any of your favorite listening platforms, such as:

iHeart Media
Spotify
Apple/iTunes
Google Podcasts
Stitcher
Radio Public
TuneIn
NPROne
Pandora
Amazon Music and Audible

Topic List
1:55 – background on how this state park all came together
2:50 – discussing the one-of-a-kind partnership between CPW, the U.S. Forest Service and Eagle Valley Land Trust
3:40 – recreational opportunities that will be available at Sweetwater Lake
5:00 – a new boat dock will be installed come opening time next spring
5:50 – how do you go about developing a master plan for the park
7:00 – caring for the natural resources on the property
7:45 – timeline people can expect to have the infrastructure of the park in place
8:40 – characteristics and features of Sweetwater Lake
10:25 – second state park to open within a year
11:00 – Can you take the planning process from Fishers Peak State Park that opened last year and apply it to Sweetwater Lake?