Roll out of the Loma boat launch parking lot on a Saturday morning this month and the trail feels the same as it always has: dust, heat, the first climb out toward Mary's Loop before the sun gets serious. But pull into the Highline Lake boat ramp a few miles north and you will likely find something new, a line of trucks waiting their turn at an inspection station, drivers who have not had to think about zebra mussels in years suddenly explaining their gear to a park ranger. Fire up the charcoal at a picnic table while you wait and you could be looking at a $500 ticket.
None of this is a rumor or a one-off inconvenience. Loma's two defining outdoor spaces, the Kokopelli trail network and Highline Lake State Park, have each gone through a real operational shift within the past year or two, and neither one works quite the way it did the last time most residents used it without checking first.
The Trailhead Was Never Fruita's, It Just Got Better Marketing
Say "Kokopelli Trail" out loud in the Grand Valley and most people picture Fruita. The trail is usually described as connecting the mountain bike and dirt bike capitals of Fruita and Moab, and that framing has stuck for so long that it obscures a simpler fact: the trail begins at the Loma boat launch parking lot, not anywhere in Fruita. From the interstate it is the Loma exit, a short stretch of gravel frontage road, and you are standing at the start of a route that runs 142 miles to Moab.
Volunteers with the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association spent six weekends in the spring of 1989 stitching together old uranium-mining roads between Loma and Moab into a single route, and the trail officially opened on May 6, 1989, with a ceremony held by the Hopi Flute Clan at the halfway point in Cisco, Utah. That history is still managed locally through COPMOBA's Grand Valley Trails chapter, and the loop system closest to town has grown well beyond the original through-route. Riders and hikers based in Loma can reach all of the following without loading a bike rack:
- Mary's Loop, the entry point most locals use first
- Wrangler Loop and Steve's Loop, both connecting back into Mary's
- Horsethief Bench Loop, a steep drop to a river bench that most riders skip
- Troy Built, mostly intermediate with a few advanced sections
- Rustler's Loop, the easier warm-up or cooldown option
- Moore Fun, the longest single trail in the network at 4.5 miles
- Mack Ridge (East), the steepest, averaging a 6.6 percent grade
- Pizza Point, one of three marked scenic viewpoints in the loop system
The One Rule That Changed On March 1
For years the entire Kokopelli Trail was closed to e-bikes because of a single 1.7-mile non-motorized section that legally defaulted the whole route to no e-bike access. That changed on March 1, 2026. Class I e-mountain bikes, the pedal-assist-only kind with no throttle, are now allowed on the full trail. Class II and Class III e-bikes remain prohibited. If you are riding assisted this season, that distinction is the whole rule. There is still no fee to ride any part of the Kokopelli system itself, though a couple of the backcountry campgrounds farther out toward Utah, like Dewey Bridge and Rock Castle, do charge for camping.
Highline Lake Just Finished A Two-Year Rebuild
The lake tells a longer story. On September 14, 2022, staff found the first adult zebra mussel ever discovered in Colorado waters, attached to a buoy at Highline Lake. Treatments with a copper-based molluscicide through 2023 did not work. By 2024 the lake was closed to all motorized boating for the first time since the 1960s, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife had fully drained it by mid-November of that year.
Refilling began on March 31, 2025, when park staff and the Grand Valley Water Users Association opened the headgate on the Government Highline Canal. At full capacity the lake holds roughly 3,400 acre-feet of water, more than 1.1 billion gallons, and it took one to two months of steady flow to bring it back. Boating reopened in mid-May 2025.
The 2026 season brought the next piece: a new dip-tank decontamination station, built specifically to handle boats that used to take up to 45 minutes to clear inspection. Park staff have described it plainly as "a hot bath for large boats." It is faster, but it does not remove the underlying requirement. CPW's invasive species program has been clear that Highline Lake stays classified as infested until the park logs five consecutive years with no mussels found, which means every boat still gets inspected on the way in and decontaminated on the way out.
| Before the drain (2022–2024) | This season (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Motorized boating | Closed entirely for the 2024 season | Open, with mandatory inspection |
| Boat inspection time | Up to 45 minutes for larger boats | Faster, via new dip-tank station |
| Campsites | None new added | 20 open, with a plan for 80 |
| Infested classification | Newly assigned in 2022 | Still active, pending 5 clean years |
The park also opened a new campground this year, starting with 20 sites on the way to a planned 80. The swim beach runs from the second weekend of May through the end of September, so there is still time on the calendar this year. If you want a sense of what keeps the park running day to day beyond CPW staff, the Friends of Highline Lake is a volunteer nonprofit that holds public meetings and organizes much of the maintenance work around both lakes.
The Fire Rules Are The Reason Any Of This Feels Urgent
Mesa County moved into Stage 2 fire restrictions at 12:01 a.m. on June 26, 2026, citing extremely dry conditions across the region. The next day, the Snyder Fire ignited near Loma and grew to 28,264 acres before crews brought it to full containment. The fire is contained now, but the restrictions that preceded it are still in effect, and they apply to private land as well as public land managed by the BLM's Grand Junction Field Office.
Stage 2 is stricter than the Stage 1 restrictions the county had briefly used earlier in June. Wood fires of any kind are prohibited, including firepits, chimineas, and tiki torches, at picnic areas, campgrounds, and private residences. Charcoal grills and wood-burning stoves fall under the same ban. Propane and other liquid-fuel devices are still allowed. The fine for a first offense is $500, and a second offense runs $1,000.
That means the 44 picnic sites scattered around Highline Lake and Mack Mesa are currently propane-only, and so is your own backyard grill if it burns charcoal or wood. Before you head out this month, it is worth running through a short list:
- Confirm your e-bike is Class I before riding assisted sections of Kokopelli. Class II and III are still off-limits.
- Expect an inspection line at the Highline Lake boat ramp. The new dip tank moves things faster than it used to, but the check is still mandatory every time you launch or pull out.
- Leave the charcoal and firewood at home. Stage 2 restrictions mean propane or nothing, whether you are grilling lakeside or in your own yard.
What This Season Actually Means
Loma's identity has always run through this trailhead and this lake. What is different this year is that the rulebook for both changed within the same twelve months, whether that meant a single access rule flipping on the trail or a slower, multi-year rebuild finally catching up at the lake. A resident who rides or boats here out of habit, without checking the current rules, is the one most likely to get something wrong, whether that is an e-bike that does not qualify, a longer wait than expected at the ramp, or a grill that is not legal to light right now.
Dee Dee Hansen Simpson has spent more than 30 years working the Grand Valley, including the towns like Loma that do not always get the same attention as their bigger neighbors. If you are weighing what it actually costs to live near a trailhead like this one, or you just have questions about the area worth asking someone who pays attention to it year-round, Hansen & Associates Realty is a good place to start. Schedule a consultation whenever you are ready.
