Building Bridges — Boulder Ventures Ltd.

*The new West Ridge Bridge in Eldorado Canyon State Park, with the Redgarden Wall behind it.*

One of the hardest and most rewarding things we do in life is building bridges. Bridges are expensive and often controversial. Their span is a complex combination of engineering and art. Their installation requires competence, planning, and coordination among a variety of interested parties over years of effort. Once completed, bridges must be maintained for generations.

Even under the best conditions, a small number of loud voices will always oppose building bridges, and their opposition can thwart even the best ideas. The most successful bridge builders have lots of other things to do and do not need the public scrutiny and headaches that often accompany these projects. But these same individuals are not easily distracted by background noise in pursuit of a worthy goal.

Eldorado Canyon State Park outside Boulder is among the finest traditional rock-climbing areas in the world. Eldo is a reason why many of us choose to live and work in Boulder, and its colorful sandstone walls and complex movement challenge the best trad climbers. Rich with history, Eldo climbing is more like a ritual than a sport. In season, my fellow Eldo aficionados and I go climbing there almost every day.

The West Ridge is a fantastic section of the cliff and by itself would be one of the best climbing areas around. The steep trail at its base was only accessible from the road via a technical and dangerous scramble across the slab above South Boulder Creek, or an even more dangerous traverse across the river in high water or on slippery rocks – both approaches have been the scene of many accidents over the years among climbers and hikers.

The sensitive riparian habitats on the banks of South Boulder Creek were disrupted each season by hundreds of climbers thrashing across the reeds to access the West Ridge trail.

When there is a climbing accident on the West Ridge, rescuers had to rig a complex Tyrolean traverse across the river to rescue the injured party, adding hours to the rescue scenario.

In fact, the reasons for a West Ridge Bridge – climber access, improved riparian habitat, rescue safety – are all so obvious and so good that it’s astonishing that it hadn’t happened yet. But inertia, money, and a small, vocal group of local climbers opposed to safe access kept the bridge from being built.

That changed in 2023 when a group of us conspired to create a public/private partnership to build a bridge under the leadership of Mike McCue.

McCue is a special character in the history of Eldo. For the past twenty-five years, he’s been the principal architect of the complex network of access trails that anchor the steep scree slopes below Eldo’s cliffs. These trails take years to build and are each a work of masonry art that serve to both stabilize loose slopes and provide a landing zone for Eldo climbers about to begin their ascent. During the Boulder Floods of 2013, McCue’s trails held Eldo together and prevented the Park’s ruin, a fact not lost on Colorado’s land managers.

Since the Flood, McCue and his team of builders have been busy updating and stabilizing Eldo’s access trails using public and private money. The West Ridge Bridge is the cornerstone for McCue’s visionary trail network on the east side of South Boulder Creek, and its design and implementation is a testament to his skill and experience in Eldo. We formed a group to support Mike in this effort and raised money from private donors and the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a grant source that has been supporting the building of trails and bicycle paths in Colorado since 1965.

The new West Ridge Bridge was installed on August 26, 2025, and dedicated to the public on October 16, 2025, in a ceremony attended by Eldo’s land managers, neighbors and climbers.

Then we walked across the bridge we all built and went climbing on the West Ridge.