Rainbows landing in Routt County

50th Rainbow Family Gathering to be close to Wyoming, Carbon County

by Joshua Wood

The Rainbow Family of Living Light (Rainbow Family) has settled on a location for its 50th anniversary gathering this summer, bringing the event to the doorstep of Wyoming and Carbon County.

In a June 15 press release, the United States Forest Service (USFS) announced the 50th Annual Rainbow Gathering would be held in the Adams Park area of northwest Routt County. This area of the Routt National Forest is managed by the Hahns Peak/Bears Ears Ranger District out of the Steamboat Springs, Colorado office.

The highest concentration of visitors for this gathering is anticipated to coincide with the Fourth of July holiday, though the press release noted participants had already begun to arrive. As was previously reported (see “Rainbows at the border?” on page 1 of the May 12, 2022 Saratoga Sun), the Rainbow Family had been looking at five potential locations in Colorado with Routt County among the potential locations.  Lenny Layman, Carbon County Office of Emergency Management, informed the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) on May 3 of the potential proximity of the event.

The Rainbow Family has no formal structure and is composed of individuals loosely affiliated with each other. The first gathering took place near Strawberry Lake on the Arapaho National Forest in 1972. Since then, it has taken place in a different national forest each year. The first gathering in Wyoming was in 1973 in the Shoshone National Forest. In 1994 and 2008, Rainbow Gatherings were held in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

According to the press release from the USFS, this gathering is expected to draw around 10,000 visitors.

On the unofficial Rainbow Family website, http://www.welcomehome.org, potential visitors to this year’s gathering are provided directions to Adams Park through either Craig, Colorado or Baggs, Wyoming. The website further advises visitors not to enter the forest from Hayden, Colorado due to a locked service gate for the protection of sandhill cranes.

“Show respect in local towns,” reads the website. “No spanging (asking for spare change). Be good family.”

“An incident of this size can have significant impacts on traffic, communities, local resources and visitors,” wrote the USFS in the June 15 press release. “Local businesses can expect to see large numbers of Rainbow Family participants visiting stores and buying food and supplies along routes to the gathering site. Forest and county roads in the vicinity may become congested during the incident and road closures and/or traffic detours may occur.”

Russ Bacon, Forest Supervisor for the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland said “We understand there are concerns about the impacts to nearby communities, businesses and our neighbors. We have already begun working with our partners to minimize any negative effects to local communities and the environment as much as possible.”

Typically, the USFS requires a special use permit for every public group of 75 people or more conducting a meeting or event on National Forest System lands. Due to the decentralized structure of the Rainbow Family, they refuse to comply with the permit process as they claim to have no leaders and no one person can claim to speak for the group on their behalf and sign a permit.

The Forest Service has, in the past, cited the Rainbow Family periodically for falling to obtain a permit for the gathering. For public health and safety interests, however, the USFS puts together a resource protection plan which includes specific design criteria to ensure sensitive resources are protected, environmental damage is minimized and that post-event clean-up and rehabilitation of the location is conducted by the Rainbow Family.

The USFS has mobilized a national incident management team which, according to the press release, has experience managing these types of incidents. The team will work closely with the local community, including law enforcement agencies, throughout the incident to “protect the health and safety of everyone involved, and to lessen environmental impacts to the site by providing information and enforcing laws.”

The last large National Rainbow Family Gathering on the Routt National Forest was in 2006 in the Big Red Park area north of Steamboat Springs.

More information about the 2022 Rainbow Incident can be found by visiting https://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/rainbowgathering.

 

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