Parks advisory board: Casper Mountain trail center parking to open Tuesday; building closed pending EPA water testing

The Toronto County Parks Advisory Board on Feb. 4 received operational updates from Parks Director Michael Brown about the Casper Mountain Trail Center, Nordic pass enforcement and grooming plans for mountain trails.

Michael Brown, parks director, said the county expects to receive a temporary certificate of occupancy for the Casper Mountain Trail Center “hopefully, Tuesday afternoon,” but cautioned that the building will remain closed to the public until potable-water testing is complete. “That's a minimum of a 2 week process,” he said, adding that plumbers are still finishing work and county staff cannot allow public use of bathrooms or water fixtures until regulators confirm the water is safe.

The County will make the trail-center parking lot available once the temporary certificate is issued, Brown said, and he will post an update to the Nordic blog and county website. He offered to schedule a site walk for board members after county staff complete operations-and-maintenance training at the facility.

Brown reported current Nordic-pass sales and enforcement plans, saying the county has sold 482 adult season passes, 240 youth passes and 78 day passes. He said the county will add a full-time staff member Feb. 1 whose primary duties will include lodge maintenance and pass enforcement — educating users about leash rules, trail rules and the requirement to have a trail pass whether skiing, snowshoeing or fat-biking.

On grooming and the biathlon area, Brown said operating and grooming agreements were pulled from the county commissioners’ agenda and remain unsigned; in the interim county crews will begin limited grooming and track packing on a long loop that connects from the top to the parking lot and back. He said the county will not groom the firing line or penalty loops used for biathlon competition because those areas are not intended for general recreational use: “We will not be grooming the firing line, the penalty loops, none of that,” Brown said.

Brown also described local trail access and site work: the Central Wyoming Trails Alliance recently built a connector trail from Bear Trap to Skunk Hauler to provide off-road access between parking areas and ski trails; county crews are installing rock barriers at Grama Reef to deter unauthorized vehicle traffic that has caused soil rutting near the river; and routine construction work continues at lakes, cabins and the marina.

Brown told the board that parks rules and proposed parks fees discussed by county trustees were moved to public comment. “They chose to put those out for public comment for the 45 day period,” he said; until that comment period ends, parks fees will not change.

Procedural note: the board accepted the minutes from its Dec. 12, 2024 meeting by motion during the Feb. 4 meeting.