Trail, park repairs continue as holiday approaches

As the Independence Day weekend nears, several local parks and trails remain closed after being damaged by flooding before Memorial Day weekend.

In Colorado Springs, the following are closed: Red Rock Canyon Open Space; part of the Foothills Trail near Garden of the Gods; and part of the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail System south of the Circle Drive bridge.

Kurt Schroeder, the city’s parks operations manager, said workers hope to finish repairs before the July Fourth weekend.

“Red Rock Canyon has a dam breached and a lot of washed-out trails,” Schroeder said. “On some of the other trails, we lost large sections of concrete and had to rebuild the banks where the trails go along Fountain Creek.”

Schroeder said he’s aware that some hikers continue to ignore closure signs and enter Red Rock Canyon. He asks people to stay out of the area until the city considers it safe.

El Paso County still has sections of four trails closed: Hanson Trailhead and a bridge over Fountain Creek; Fishers Canyon next to Maxwell Street; Willow Springs Pond Trail; and the trail south of the Carson Street Bridge and west of Ceresa Park.

Also closed is a small section of the north parking lot in the Section 16 recreation area.

The city and county each have applied for $3 million in federal disaster funds to pay for repairing the damage.

“That limits our ability to do our own repairs,” said Joel Quevillion, a county spokesman. “It could disqualify us from that money.”

Quevillion said federal officials will inspect damaged areas next week.

In a related matter, the county announced late Thursday that two flood-damaged roads, Falcon Highway and McKay Road, have reopened. That leaves only Jones Road closed. The county doesn’t expect that road to reopen until late July.