Animas Trail Extension and Gateway Park Master Planning and Design

Sites has been working with the City of Farmington to design several challenging extensions of its centerpiece Animas River Trail system. The first trail segment extended the riverside path from the ‘Among the Waters’ trailhead at the Bisti Highway nearly a mile to the east, replacing a flood-damaged culvert crossing with a new bridge and traversing a steep, 30’-high bluff that looms over the Animas just upstream from its confluence with the San Juan River. The second reach will nearly double the total length of the trail system, extending it three miles east from the Riverside Nature Center, past the Farmington Museum and squeezing behind a row of businesses across another steep embankment above the river. As part of the northern trail extension project, Sites also developed a Master Plan for a new regional park overlooking the river just east of the museum, which is intended to serve as a focal point for the community and highlight the connection between the museum, river, and planned trail extension. The park will follow a public/private mixed-use concept with restaurants, kiosk shops, and a multi-use pavilion that can be used for growers’ markets and special events, to attract both local and regional participants. Other features include a large plaza with stage and terraced berm amphitheater seating, open lawns for play and memorial ceremony purposes, traditional and natural play areas, and replacing the museum’s aging asphalt parking lot with a tree-shaded permeable parking and event space. Sites developed three individual site concepts and three additional refined and expanded options before developing a final preferred master plan. Construction is underway on the multi-use pavilion, with the remainder of Phase 1 of the park construction anticipated to begin later in 2025.