As you may know, the Chamberlain Trail – which is mountain bike and hiking friendly – connects to Red Rock Canyon and the Intemann Trail from Old Stage Road. The Intemann Trail connects through Ruxton to the Barr Trail up to Pikes Peak and the Ute Trail.
Here’s where the Chamberlain Trail goes today: from Old Stage Road into the Broadmoor-owned Strawberry Hills (the trail has complete public access), across Cheyenne Canon (crossing two minor roads) into the top part of Stratton Open Space, through Stratton Forest, through Upper Skyway and then into Red Rock Canyon Open Space.
The City of Colorado Springs is working on getting the Broadmoor Resort Community to allow the trail to go through their gated community down to the new Fischer Canyon Open Space and into Cheyenne Mountain State Park. It could continue west of 115 through Little Turkey Creek Canyon to a new nature center that El Pomar and the Nature Conservancy are putting together on the Almandinger property where the Castle Concrete Gravel Quarry was nixed by the State Mine Board. Then it is rumored that the Nature Conservancy wants to possibly give up Aiken Canyon because it is too much for them to manage. So, it could be a new regional park that isn’t so restrictive where bicycles and dogs could go. And as you may know, Turkey Creek Canyon, on the other side of 115, connects to Fort Carson. Maybe Fort Carson or the DOD will fund a pedestrian bike overpass of 115 to connect the Fort with Chamberlain Trail. A big goal of Fort Carson’s Sustainability Plan is to get their rank and file out of their cars and onto trails instead.
The other piece to all this is the Midland Trail. Lyda Hill’s Creek COS and the Pikes Peak Greenway Foundation have significant plans for the Monument Creek Trail from Woodman Road to the Confluence with Fountain Creek. There are amphitheaters planned, lots of trail improvements and areas for swimming, fishing, rafting and kayaking. There are also significant plans to connect the Monument Creek Greenway to the Legacy Loop, Shook’s Run, The Lowell Neighborhood, Hillside, Concrete Couch, the Leon Young Park and Memorial, The Union Printers Home and the array of new apartments being built on the southeast side of downtown. Creek COS, The Pikes Peak Greenway Foundation and the City’s Storm Water Enterprise have gotten a priority ranking from the Army Corp of Engineers for a significant investment in that corridor in the future. It’s now waiting for Congressional approval.
As you may know, the Monument Valley Trail or the Sante Fe Trail goes all the way up to the Air Force Academy and into Greenland Ranch. Because of the new AFA Visitors Center, trail visitation will not be restricted as it has in the past during high alert times for the military. And the Fountain Creek Watershed District master planned the completion of the Front Range Trail from downtown to Fountain and onto Pueblo at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek. It will also connect to Pueblo’s River Walk and Trails. It has been a hope of many that when the conduit is built along going east along the Arkansas to Southeast Colorado to provide drinking water there may also be space to build a trail.
Also, the Sante Fe/Monument Creek Trail has east/west connections in Colorado Springs to the Rock Island Trail, the Cottonwood Creek Trail, University Park Open Space and hopefully in the future, the Sand Creek Trail. All of this will connect to the Midland Trail, go to Manitou, and connect to the Intemann and Barr Trails, the Ute Trail and Ring the Peak. On the other side of the Highway 24, the hope is now that the City of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs Open Space have invested in Brown’s Canyon up by Cedar Heights, that parking and trail access will be available to access Williams Canyon and eventually Waldo Canyon once it has been opened for hiking and biking.
The hope and dream of many of us will be that citizens and tourists in our region can ride their regular and electric bikes from Castle Rock to Pueblo, Calhan to Woodland Park and all around downtown, the Westside and Manitou without ever having to cross traffic. Then we will really be the Best Place to Live in the U.S.
Richard Skorman is a former four-term Colorado Springs City Council Member, Vice Mayor and Council President. He was one of the authors and co-directors of the City’s Trails, Open Space and Parks Initiatives that was successfully approved by voters three times. He and his wife Patricia co-own and operate Poor Richards/Little Richards and Rico’s, and he is the founder of Richad’s Rubbish Roundup.