One more month of reports has yet to be received, but with 11 months of state and local reports compiled, it is fairly clear that overall business in Estes Park has been on par with 2024 — neither significantly up nor down by an extraordinary amount.
As Bank of Estes Park President Scott Applegate said during the Estes Valley Voice’s Business Resilience Summit in November, some businesses experienced wonderful success during the busy summer season, while others maintained steady operations with past years, and still others found their financial fortunes quite dismal.
“We’ve had a handful of years with disruption to our downtown businesses, and some thrived and some suffered, and some were normal in their operation. It didn’t impact everybody in the same way,” Christina Kraft, market president of the Bank of Colorado Estes Park, said recently.
The comments from Applegate and Kraft are supported by the latest economic dashboard released by the Town of Estes Park this week. While the report shows that sales taxes received by the town through October increased by 4.31 percent over the same period in 2024, other indicators were on par with details from previous years.
The monthly Economic Dashboard, prepared by the town, provides a snapshot of key indicators that reflect the overall health and vibrancy of the Estes Valley economy. The report includes the town’s own data as well as data from other agencies to assist local businesses and other entities with their strategic planning.
Traffic counts on both U.S. 34 and 36 showed no significant gains or losses during the first 11 months of the year. Combined, the two routes showed the year-to-date traffic count increased 0.35 percent over 2024. That included 21 days missing from the US 34 report, during which the route was undergoing repaving operations.
Some utility-based services that also may reflect the town’s economy are included in the monthly economic dashboard report.
Landfill volumes reported in November 2025 decreased by 3.25 percent from November 2024. Year-to-date landfill totals have decreased by 5.64 percent from 2024.
Water usage, measured in gallons, has decreased year-to-date by 5.85 percent. Sewer flow, also measured in gallons, is down nearly the same amount at -5.96 percent. Electric use, measured in KWH, is down by 0.43 percent year-to-date.