Lost ski areaColoradoSan Juan MountainsRocky Mountains
Forest Lakes
Ran 1972–1983. A small beginner hill built for the Forest Lakes subdivision north of Bayfield, open from 1972 to 1983.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Forest Lakes Ski Area was built along with the housing development north of Bayfield, off County Road 501, and mostly served the people who lived there. Its main lift, a 900-foot Heron-Poma surface lift built in 1971 that the page also calls a J-bar, usually ran at half speed because the hill was meant for beginners; a second tow is also listed.1
Read the whole historyTimeline
3 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Forest Lakes, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Forest Lakes
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1976–1986 · 17.5 mi away · ColoradoA small beginner ski hill run by the Tamarron resort north of Durango, with a rope tow from the mid-1970s and a short double chair from 1981.
- 1957–1959 · 21 mi away · ColoradoA family rope-tow hill on the Yeager Ranch west of Durango that ran from 1957 to 1959.
- 1951–1985 · 44.1 mi away · ColoradoA club-run ski area on Highway 145 at Stoner, 26 miles from Cortez, with T-bars and a large vertical drop for its size, open from 1951 to 1985.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 1 page below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Forest Lakes Ski Area was built along with the housing development north of Bayfield, off County Road 501, and mostly served the people who lived there. Its main lift, a 900-foot Heron-Poma surface lift built in 1971 that the page also calls a J-bar, usually ran at half speed because the hill was meant for beginners; a second tow is also listed. A 1985 guide gave the hill 274 feet of vertical below a 7,684-foot summit.1
Its listed seasons end in 1983, the year the Colorado Tramway Board went unpaid for inspecting the J-bar. Colorado Ski History does not know exactly why it closed, but suspects too little snow, too few skiers and too little money.1
Sources for this history (1)
- 1Colorado Ski History · Forest Lakes Ski Area
Photos
No photographs of Forest Lakes we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Forest Lakes, in their own words.
Facts
Location
37.3195° N · 107.5885° W · Colorado · San Juan Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1972–1983
Closed after the 1983 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain