Buena Vista's Drive-In Christmas Tree Season Is Shorter Than Your Permit Says

Across the River Park bridge from Main Street, the 100,000 acres of the Fourmile Travel Management Area start almost at the edge of town. This is Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management ground used for everything from ATV riding to hiking, biking and horseback riding. From Buena Vista you can get in by County Road 371/375 or from that bridge. Some of its roads follow their own calendar. Fourmile's seasonal gates close on December 1 and open again April 30.

Your Christmas tree permit has a different calendar. Salida Ranger District permits go on sale Monday, November 16, and cutting is allowed through December 31. Put the two side by side and you get about two weeks to drive the gated roads in search of a tree. That stretch includes Thanksgiving weekend.

The fifteen days that matter east of town

Here's the 2026 calendar for a Buena Vista household:

1. Monday, Nov. 16. Salida Ranger District permits go on sale on Recreation.gov. The district has no quota, so permits won't sell out.
2. Weekend of Nov. 21–22. The first full weekend you can use a permit.
3. Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 26–29. The last long weekend before the gates close.
4. Monday, Nov. 30. Last day to drive past the seasonal gates.
5. Tuesday, Dec. 1. Fourmile's seasonal gates close. Recreation.gov names the Four Mile travel management area near Buena Vista among the annual road closures that take effect on this date.
6. Thursday, Dec. 31. Last day to cut anywhere on the Salida Ranger District.

Your permit stays good for all of December, but the gated roads close to trucks partway through. If your family usually waits for a mid-December weekend and has a favorite stand up one of those roads, you'll either be walking in from the gate or cutting somewhere else.

Why the gates close when they do

The December closure is there to protect wildlife. When the winter gates first went into use, The Mountain Mail reported that biologists and state wildlife officials worried motorized use could hurt animals during critical winter feeding. The paper named elk in Chubb Park and along Aspen Ridge and mountain sheep south of Buffalo Peaks. The same story noted that spring vehicle traffic on muddy roads leaves ruts that last all summer. The current Forest Service schedule keeps the gates closed from December 1 to April 30.

That reason defines the reach of the closure. The Mountain Mail reported that the area got 12 gates, that most of Fourmile stays open all winter, and that the gates don't apply to people on foot, skis, horseback or bicycles. What changes on December 1 is how far a vehicle can carry you. A tree behind a gate is still a tree you can cut. It just means a longer walk and a longer drag back to the truck. The Forest Service's permit page says certain roads close every year on December 1 and asks permit holders not to violate those closures.

To see where the gates are, check the Fourmile map from Friends of Fourmile. The Forest Service links to both from its Fourmile page. According to the Chaffee County Times, the group revised the area's guide and recreation map and installed updated information kiosks at Fourmile.

The other ways into Fourmile

Buena Vista's own entrance is one of many. The Forest Service lists access off Highways 285/24 by County Roads 304, 305, 307, 308, 311 and 315. The southern end of the area is reached by County Roads 301 and 300, plus County Road 185 at Aspen Ridge north of Salida. Which of those routes reach the country you want in December depends on where the gates sit, and the Fourmile map shows that.

Aspen Ridge is a good example of why it's worth looking. It's a southern way into Fourmile, and it's also one of the places The Mountain Mail named as elk winter range, which was a core reason for the gates. If your tree spot is up that way, November is the easier month.

What the $10 permit actually lets you take

A Salida Ranger District permit costs $10 per tree, with a limit of two per family. You can buy it online or in person and pay by cash, check or credit card. It's good only on the district where you bought it, and it doesn't carry over from one year to the next. The cutting rules are short enough to keep in the truck:

The permit terms also ask you to pick from a dense stand so the remaining trees get more room to grow. Thinning a thicket and taking a lone tree in a meadow are not the same thing to the forest.

Where the answer is always no

"Most of the district is open for cutting" leaves a lot of exceptions in Chaffee County. The Salida Ranger District's north-side cutting map marks Wilderness Areas, Browns Canyon, Monarch Ski Area and developed recreation sites as no-cut areas. The permit terms on Recreation.gov add private land, designated campgrounds, existing tree plantations and timber sale areas. They also prohibit cutting any tree marked with paint, flagging or signs.

Those same terms set distance buffers. You need to stay 100 feet from any waterway, forest road or trail, and 200 feet from developed areas such as campgrounds, picnic areas, trailheads, scenic overlooks and administrative sites. The Forest Service's own Christmas tree permit page also calls for 200 feet from main roads. In practice, the tree you spot from the truck window is usually too close to the road. Plan to walk a little.

Buying it, and who to call

Permits sell through Recreation.gov, which requires an account. The Forest Service says money from permits bought there goes back to the participating forest. Print the permit and bring it with you. If your family has a fourth grader with an Every Kid Outdoors pass, they can apply on Recreation.gov for a free tree permit by entering the pass or voucher number.

The Salida Ranger District office is at 5575 Cleora Road in Salida, 719-539-3591. It's open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and closed on federal holidays. Thanksgiving is a federal holiday, so call earlier that week if you have questions about roads or buffers before the long weekend. The Forest Service also recommends checking its alerts page for road closures and fire activity before you go. This post is general information about permit terms. The district office has the final word on any rule or closure.

A BLM permit for later in the season

Some of the public land around Buena Vista and Salida is BLM ground managed by the Royal Gorge Field Office. BLM Colorado's Christmas tree page lists Royal Gorge permits at $10 and offers them online. The field office is at 3028 E. Main St. in Cañon City, 719-269-8500. BLM tags expire December 31. Cutting is allowed only in designated open areas on the agency's Christmas tree map, where closed areas appear in dark purple. BLM also requires you to tag the tree before moving it, prohibits topping, limits stumps to six inches, and asks you to follow travel designations and seasonal restrictions. BLM land inside Fourmile is behind the same seasonal gates, so a BLM tag doesn't change how far you can drive there after December 1.

The simplest plan for 2026 is to buy your Salida Ranger District permit the week of November 16 and drive Fourmile's gated roads before Thanksgiving weekend ends on November 29. If you know a stand of firs out past County Road 375, or want to talk through which corners of the valley are easiest to reach in December, Julie Kersting with 8z Real Estate grew up in this valley and is glad to share what she knows. Work With Julie.