Colorado Trail Explorer

This is a good app, and a great alternative for Colorado residents who don’t want to pay a subscription for a commercial app. I still prefer AllTrails for the kinds of hikes that I do, but still cross-reference with COTrEx from time to time. Both apps have both false negatives and false positives in terms of trails. It is a bit disappointing for a CPW-sanctioned app to be missing trails that clearly exist in the real world (and aren’t just social trails), and to generally be outdated. My biggest disappointment is the slow turnaround time on bug-fixing, all too common in software development these days. I reported a bug more than a year ago about the keyboard covering the bottom of your Trip description, and even submitted a screen recording illustrating the issue. A PM immediately responded saying they would get it fixed. More than a year later, and I still have to use the website to type Trip descriptions, despite the app having received multiple updates in that time.

Okay, so after I wrote the scathing review, I found the red button - which does not show up on opening page, you must press the directional arrow in lower menu bar to find it - & recorded my walks. Two days in a row the same 5.6 mile trail I’ve walked for two years is now 7.1 & 7.2 miles respectively. I am comparing this to another mapping app which has always read within 0.2 miles of COTREX, so I know the original mileage was correct. Much as I’d like to brag about walking 7 miles daily before breakfast, that’s just not accurate. I always carry my phone in side pants pocket so there is no chance of extra movement being the sudden difference. Please fix this!!! —————— …until the recent update that removed the Record A Trip feature. I hike daily with my dog near our home & thus am familiar with the official trails. We often go off trail through the woods, sometimes using COTREX to stay oriented & always to keep track of our route. Now all that’s available is the Create Route feature which makes assumptions about where I want to go based on input of only 2 location points, completely useless. After I transfer my 190 recorded trips to my computer, I’ll be deleting this app. So disappointed!

Finally a trail navigating app that is run by the people that control the trails! I only just downloaded the app, I will update this review when I take it out and use it around the Taylor Park area. Huge props for actually having the trail names on here, instead of just the trail numbers. That one feature makes it better than the other apps that I have been using for trail navigation. One suggestion to the developers: take the community aspect of this app to the next level. Make it to where you can add friends and leave comments on each trail that can either be seen by friends only, or the public. This would enable people to warn trail goers of dangers (rockslide, fallen trees, etc.). Also make it to where you can form a group. Say you are riding with 4 other people that each have their own OHV/ATV. You could share a pin/waypoint with the whole group so that if anyone gets separated, they would know where to go. Add the ability to send a distress call, that can be seen be sent to all nearby app users as a push notification. (For example: “Ran out of gas”, or “rollover, broken leg, need help”). This app is already amazing, but also has so much more potential! Thanks devs!