Colorado Springs secures $250,000 state grant for new trail to Pulpit Rock
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The City of Colorado Springs announced Wednesday it secured a $250,000 grant for trail work at the Austin Bluffs Open Space.
The construction will include a new, more direct hiking trail to the top of Pulpit Rock.
"It's the best place on Earth, Pulpit Rock," said Pulpit Rock hiking regular Mike Takerer.
“It just really shows that the project that we have to offer in partnership with the state is truly an amenity the community desires," said Trails, Open Space and Parks senior program admin David Deitemeyer.
Deitemeyer said it will be a half mile trail starting at the existing Summit trail head parking lot, providing a direct path straight up the hill to the top. The trail will have 200 feet of gain and 400 stone steps along the steepest parts.
The new construction is part of the city's master plan for the Austin Bluffs Open Space first established in 2018. The first official Summit Trail opened less than three years ago and circles around the base of the the rock before climbing to the top. The new trail will provide a shorter and more direct route.
"Pulpit Rock was a regional park that did not have a plan associated with it," Deitemeyer said. "What that meant was users who were up there experiencing the open space, kind of went wherever they wanted, and they created a lot of illegal trails."
“It was a little bit rough. "Definitely, you had to go on a much different terrain," Mike Maloney, who has been hiking Pulpit Rock for over 20 years, said. “The amount of people that can go up this trail now is amazing, and could you imagine what is going to go on with another path?"
The city will also use the money to close off the illegal trails and begin work restoring the paths to their natural state.
The new Pulpit Rock Summit Trail is part of a greater plan for the grant to build around 2.5 miles of trails in the open space. The city will also use the money to improve the two main parking lots at the base of Pulpit Rock and plant signs with trail and direction information.
