Highline Lake and the zebra mussel: why your boat gets inspected

Highline Lake State Park, near Loma in the Grand Valley, is a popular place to boat, fish, and swim. It is also at the center of Colorado’s fight against an invasive shellfish.

Zebra mussels, a tiny but destructive species, have been found here. That changes the rules for anyone bringing a boat. Colorado Parks and Wildlife runs an aquatic nuisance species program, and at a water treated as infested, boats are inspected when they launch and again when they leave. A boat may be decontaminated so it does not carry mussels to clean lakes elsewhere. Boaters are reminded to arrive clean, drained, and dry.

Why this matters: zebra mussels clog water pipes, foul boat motors, and are very hard to remove once established. The inspection is not red tape for its own sake. It protects every other reservoir on the Western Slope, including the ones you may want to fish next.

Expect inspections to take time at busy hours, and remember the same clean-drain-dry habit applies across Colorado waters.

For current boating, inspection, and decontamination rules at Highline Lake, check the official Colorado Parks and Wildlife pages before you launch.