A new trail system is nearing completion around one of Colorado Springs' most recognized landmarks.
That's Pulpit Rock, the white edifice in view along Interstate 25, across from the University Village shopping center. The rock is the centerpiece of Austin Bluffs Open Space, the nearly 600 acres incorporating the surrounding crags and forests and meadows known as University Park.
A 2020 master plan has directed a months-long job to cover and close about 3 miles of pathways deemed "unsustainable" or "redundant" while adding 4-plus miles of new trail — the introduction of a formal, professionally-designed network that has lacked under the city's watch.
"It's a collection of properties the city acquired over the last 40 years," David Deitemeyer, the parks department's senior landscape architect, said in a previous interview. "Without sustainable funding, we just haven't been able to holistically manage that and address social (trails)."
Deitemeyer said he expects work to wrap up by the end of October. Perhaps the most significant addition: a trail to the top of Pulpit Rock, meant to funnel people away from various braids formed across the rugged base.
"It's never had a truly designated route to the top," Deitemeyer said. "Out of the thousands and thousands of visitors it's received every year, a lot of them made their own guesses how to get to the top."
Reached from the two parking lots along Nevada Avenue, Deitemeyer said the new, mile-long trail is meant to "provide a well-defined corridor" and cater to people on foot, bike and horse as they wrap around the north side of the rock to an eastern ridge, where the route stems west back to the summit. Deitemeyer called it "a much improved experience and a safer experience."
Other construction regards additions and modifications to the Rim Trail, which contours the upper bluffs, and the Spine Trail, a more direct route through the open space. The idea, Deitemeyer said, is to create connections "that provide for various loops of different lengths and experiences."
One half-mile segment is bike-optimized, with rock arranged along a drainage that drops to a more open, flowy portion.
The master plan calls for a bike-only, downhill-only trail on Pulpit Rock's southern face. "I'm optimistic we'll look for an opportunity to implement that in the (next) year or less," Deitemeyer said.
Another priority is to improve the parking lots along Nevada Avenue. Deitemeyer said that's pending funds and an easement from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
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