Forest Recovery from Fire

The Medicine Bow Rail Trail has five fire scars along the route.

Expect to go through burn areas, where burned trees continue to stand and tumble down with time and wind.  Look down, though, to see how the forest is coming back after fire.

Map showing four of the fire scar areas – excludes the Mullen Fire.

When first opened in 2007, the route passed through one fire scar, the Gramm Fire that burned in 2003 and covered 720 acres. Since then, fire has been a part of the forest and, by the end of 2018, there are now three additional fire scares along the route.

The Squirrel Creek Fire can be seen from the trail on the segment between Lincoln Gulch and Lake Owen.  This fire burned in 2012 and covered 11,000 acres.

The Lake Owen Fire burned in 2014 and can be seen on the north bank of Lake Owen and between the Lake Owen and Dry Park trailheads.  It covered 450 acres.

The Badger Creek Fire burned in 2018 and the scar is visible between the Vienna and Woods Creek trailheads. The fire burned the north side of the corral at Vienna and also toppled the road sign at the trailhead; repairs to these are planned for 2019. The fire covered 21,310 acres and included the area of the Gramm Fire where some of the young 10-foot tall pines were lost.

The latest fire that crossed the Rail Trail is the Mullen Fire. This huge fire started on September 17, 2020 in the Savage Run Wilderness Area, well west of the Rail Trail.  The fire continued to burn to the end of October, eventually scorching 176,878 acres. Trail segments north of Highway 230 were all within the burn area.  The Mullen Fire is especially obvious between Fox Park and the Lincoln Gulch Trailhead and again west of Lake Owen.  This fire destroyed the caboose at the Lake Owen Trailhead; it will be removed soon.  Note the mosaic, though, of burned and unburned areas intermixed along the Rail Trail.