Senate Advances Bill to Finally Complete the Continental Divide Trail

On December 17, the Continental Divide Trail got one step closer to becoming an officially completed footpath. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources voted in bipartisan support of the Continental Divide Trail Completion Act (S.1470/HR. 2877), which if passed as law, requires the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to prioritize the completion of the CDT. 

Officially, there’s no complete route to the CDT. There are still more than 160 incomplete miles along the 3,100-mile thru-hike, even though the trail received formal National Scenic Trail designation in 1978. Those incomplete miles reroute hikers onto roads and highways or force them to bushwhack. This contributes to the CDT’s reputation of the most difficult to navigate among the Triple Crown trails.

This act prioritizes moving the road-walking miles and creating a continuous footpath, with the big caveat that it doesn’t allow for direct land acquisition, eminent domain, or automatic government spending.

The Continental Divide Trail Completion Act, now in bill form, will move to the full Senate for a vote. The text of the act indicates some timelines to get this done. Within one year after the enactment of the act, the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior would establish a trail completion team with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to facilitate the completion and assist with the plan for development. Within three years of establishing this team, the Secretary of Agriculture is to complete the trail’s development plan. Depending on appropriations, the measure specifies that within 10 years of its enactment, the trail should be a complete, continuous route.

Senators Steve Daines, Martin Henrich, James Risch, John Barrasso, and John Hickenlooper, who represent the five states along the CDT, all sit on the committee that passed this act. Senators Daines and Henrich are its sponsors in the Senate.

“The Continental Divide Trail is not just for thru-hikers,” Senator Heinrich said in a committee hearing, noting that the trail also brings international tourists to local mountain towns and boosts their economies. 

This isn’t the first time the Legislative Branch discussed completing the CDT. Back in 2021, Representative Joe Neguse introduced the Continental Divide Trail Completion Act (later renamed to the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act) in the House. It had the same goal to complete the CDT but with a more expedited timeline to finish by 2028, the trail’s 50th anniversary. The House passed it in 2022, but the bill died in Senate. Provisions from that bill were eventually transferred into others, which have since become law.