The One Weekend a Year Highlands Ranch's Private Trails Open to Everyone

Walk up to any trailhead at the Backcountry Wilderness Area on a normal Saturday and the first thing you notice isn't the view. It's the checkpoint. Access to the 8,200 acres of trail behind Rocky Heights Middle School and the BackCountry neighborhood runs through the Highlands Ranch Community Association, and getting past the gate means showing an HRCA membership card, not a park pass anyone can buy. That's true 364 days a year. This fall, for one morning, it isn't.

On November 7, the 18th Annual Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon sends anyone who registers, HRCA member or not, out onto the Douglas County East/West Trail and into the wilderness area itself. It's not the only thing loosening up around here this season. A Metro District event that used to run through the homeowners association dropped its admission fee entirely. A vacant brewery space finally has a tenant. And a new public park is taking shape along the same fence line that's kept the Backcountry's best trails behind a members-only door for years.

The Card at the Gate

The Backcountry Wilderness Area is the reason a lot of people in this town own hiking boots. It's more than 25 miles of natural surface trail, split between the beginner-to-intermediate Wildcat Mountain Trail System and the steeper, tighter Highlands Point network, plus a direct connection to the Douglas County East/West Regional Trail. Elk and mule deer move through it. Some trail segments close from January through March to protect wintering wildlife. It's the kind of amenity that gets namedropped in every conversation about why people stay in Highlands Ranch.

It's also gated. Access is limited to HRCA members and the guests they bring with them, card required. For most of the neighborhoods that border it, that membership comes bundled with the HOA dues everyone already pays. But it means the trail system isn't a public park in the way Highland Heritage Regional Park or Civic Green Park are. It's a members' amenity with a fence around it, and the fence is the point.

One Morning, No Card Required

The Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon is the exception, and it's been the exception for 18 years now. The race is a single 13.1-mile loop, entirely dirt, gravel, and singletrack, and it runs straight through the same terrain that's normally off limits without a card. Cash prizes go three deep for male, female, and non-binary finishers, topping out at $600 for first place. Registration is open to the public through RunSignUp, no HRCA card in the checkout flow.

A few things to know if you're thinking about running it:

• Race day is Saturday, November 7, starting at 9 a.m.
• Dogs and strollers are prohibited, for the safety of both runners and the wildlife the area protects.
• There are two hard cutoffs on course: the Griggs Road Pavilion checkpoint around 11:45 a.m., and the finish line cutoff around 1 p.m.
• November trail conditions can mean mud, snow, or ice, and the race runs through most of it. Only excessive moisture that makes the trails unsafe triggers a postponement.

For one Saturday morning, the fence comes down for anyone with a race bib. The other 364 days, it's back up.

Western Fest Lost Its Gatekeeper Too

The Backcountry isn't the only Highlands Ranch institution that changed who gets to walk through the door. Western Fest, the annual celebration of local history at the Highlands Ranch Mansion, started more than 20 years ago as Highlands Ranch Pioneer Days, an HRCA production. The Metro District co-presented it alongside the association for a couple of years before taking the whole thing over and rebuilding it as a free, public event under a new name.

It happens this Saturday, September 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mansion, a building that turns 100 years old this year. The Mansion was built in 1926, which makes this Western Fest its own quiet centennial on top of whatever else the calendar is marking. The lineup reads like a small county fair: Native American dance performances, a group called the Legendary Ladies who portray historical figures from different eras, line dancing, a banjo player, hayrides, self-guided tours of the Mansion, blacksmith demonstrations, and storytimes from the Douglas County Libraries. Food and coffee trucks handle the concessions.

The one wrinkle is parking. There isn't any at the Mansion itself, aside from a handful of accessible spots for vehicles with a placard. Everyone else parks at St. Andrew United Methodist Church on South University Boulevard and rides a free shuttle in. It's a small logistics note, but it's the kind of detail that saves you from circling the block on a Saturday morning.

The same day, the Fall Craft Fair runs at Eastridge Rec Center, also free, with local vendors selling handmade goods and seasonal décor. Two free events, same Saturday, opposite ends of the neighborhood.

What Else Is on the Calendar

September and early October stack up fast this year. Here's the rest of what's worth putting on the fridge:

Two separate Oktoberfests land on the calendar this September, a week apart, and the overlap trips people up every year. Prost Brewing's own biergarten hosts its Oktoberfest on the 19th, in true German biergarten style with the brewery's regular menu and beer list. The following Saturday, the 26th, Highlands Ranch Town Center runs its own citywide Oktoberfest with live music, food, competitions, and a morning 5K for anyone who wants to earn their first stein. Different organizers, different venues, same theme, different weekend.

New Ground Along the Same Fence Line

The Backcountry's membership fence isn't going anywhere on its own, but the land right next to it is changing. Wildcat Regional Park is a 202-acre site tucked behind Rocky Heights Middle School, stretching between Monarch Boulevard and Griggs Road, right along the Backcountry's border. The land has been part of Douglas County's open space inventory since 1996, and the current plan calls for ADA-accessible walking loops, directional mountain bike trails, and multi-use paths connecting to neighborhood sidewalks and the regional trail network, with interpretive signage about local wildlife.

As of the most recent public update, construction was targeted to start in spring 2026 and wrap by fall of the same year, with HRCA taking over long-term management once it's built. If that timeline held, this is the season the new mileage starts showing up. It won't replace the membership requirement on the existing Backcountry trails, but it does mean more trail is arriving on the same stretch of land, built through a different process than the HOA-run system next door.

A New Tenant in an Old Brewery

One more door changed hands this year, and it has nothing to do with trails. The space at 9579 South University Boulevard used to hold HopsnDrops, a brewery that closed in spring 2025. Its brewing equipment is gone now, replaced by Egg Harbor Cafe, which opened its doors here in March with a grand opening weekend on March 13 and 14. It's the Chicago-based chain's first Colorado location, serving scratch-made breakfast and brunch daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the same building where the taps used to run.

It's a small story next to a trail system and a century-old Mansion, but it fits the pattern of the season. A building that used to serve one purpose now serves a different one, open to more people than before.

What This Adds Up To

None of this changes who owns the Backcountry Wilderness Area or how the HRCA membership system works day to day. But this particular fall, more of the neighborhood's calendar is unlocked than usual, a race through the private trails, a Mansion event that dropped its membership ties, a new park taking shape along the fence, and a new restaurant in a building that used to be closed to anyone who didn't drink beer. If you've lived here long enough to know which gates usually stay shut, this is the season a few of them didn't.

If you're weighing what any of this means for your own property, or you're simply curious what your home is worth in a neighborhood that keeps adding to its calendar, the team at Joni Jagger knows this stretch of Douglas County block by block. Request Your Home Valuation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.