Bustang is venturing out with new routes starting in August.

The Colorado Department of Transportation bus service recently announced new routes from Denver to Estes Park and Denver to more ski areas.

Starting Aug. 24, Bustang will take riders to Estes Park from Denver's Union Station and Westminster's U.S. Highway 36 station. Riders will be dropped off at the Estes Park Visitor Center near the intersection of U.S. Highway 34 and U.S. 36.

From there, riders can either spend time in the town or access the Hiker's Shuttle from the visitors center to Rocky Mountain National Park. An entrance pass is required to take the Hiker's Shuttle. The shuttle runs every 30 minutes from the visitors center to the Park & Ride on Bear Lake Road inside the park. Riders should expect wait times to board the shuttle.

There will be morning departures from Union Station (7 a.m. and 8 a.m.) and from Westminster (7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.) with return options from Estes Park in the afternoon. Cost is $10 for the round-trip ticket.

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The new route will start the weekend of Aug. 24-25 and run weekends, including Labor Day, through September. Those weekends coincide with some of Rocky Mountain National Park's busiest weekends of the year. Last year, the park drew 4.5 million visitors, making it the third-most visited park in the National Park Service system.

"One of the governor's initiatives is to expand our service to mitigate congestion,'' said Mike Timlin, Bustang operations manager. "This is a pilot program to see if there is descent ridership. We may expand it if it shows we need to.''

Timlin said Fort Collins would only be part of that expansion to Estes Park if it receives a bus maintenance center. He said it is expected one will be built in the city in the next three to four years. The maintenance center would allow buses to run between routes and be serviced at the center, eliminating the need for buses without occupants to travel to Denver to be serviced.

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New Snowstang routes

Timlin said Bustang has verbal agreements for new Snowstang routes from Denver to Arapahoe Basin and Loveland ski areas. He said officials are hoping to hear back from Copper Mountain as well as Breckenridge and Keystone in the coming weeks to see if they will be added. Bustang already has a route to Eldora Mountain ski area.

Snowstang routes will run 40 days on weekends and major holidays between the middle of December to the middle of April, Timlin said. Cost will be $25 for the round-trip rides leaving from Union Station.

"Everyone who drives up there knows it's a bear,'' he said. "The route is our way of helping people get their life back when skiing.''

Another route from Fort Collins to Denver

Ridership on Bustang's regular North Line from Fort Collins to Denver has increased so much that an additional route will be added beginning Sept. 16. It will leave Fort Collins at 7 a.m. during the week and leave Denver at 3:45 p.m. for the return trip to Fort Collins.

That ticket will be $10 one way, the same as existing regular routes.

Bustang will also offer rides from Fort Collins to Denver for Broncos games this fall. Specific times and dates have not been announced.

Miles Blumhardt looks for stories that impact your life — be it news, outdoors, sports, you name it he wants to report it. Have a story idea, send it his way. Email him at milesblumhardt@coloradoan.com or find him on Twitter at @MilesBlumhardt.