Happy Trails: Scenic tour expands with new Colorado Springs trail
Bear Creek Regional Trail
Dan Allen is a trail project specialist with the Colorado Springs parks department who recently finished building a new segment in Bear Creek Cañon Park. We were walking with him along that path, in the hills east of the popular Section 16 trailhead along Gold Camp Road.
“I feel like there’s not as much usage on this side of Bear Creek Cañon,” Allen observed.
There’s your invitation for solitude — and for new views.
The city added 4,700-plus linear feet to Bear Creek Regional Trail, extending it from the boundaries of El Paso County’s Bear Creek Regional Park. The extension reaches up to Gold Camp Road, where a runner or cyclist might venture on. (Stephanie’s Trail, for one, provides a nice loop around Bear Creek Canon.)
We opted for an out-and-back tour of Bear Creek Regional Trail in its new entirety. We started from Bear Creek Nature Center, catching the wide trail to the west side of the building.
Our timing was good in the middle of autumn: the cottonwoods glowed over Bear Creek. A bridge crosses over the creek, and the wide trail continues left to oak we also saw changing color.
The path rises uphill to a split. Where you could continue straight into the pines, toward 21st Street, we veered right, toward distant mountain views. In the meadows clear of the adjacent neighborhood, the panorama boasts hogbacks and rock promontories defining Bear Creek Cañon and the canyons above Garden of the Gods.
Our tracker was close to 2 miles when we came to the scenic point reached by the new stretch of Bear Creek Regional Trail. Cub Trail is the thinner path going straight, down to Bear Creek Road. The wider regional trail continues left and uphill another half-mile or so to Gold Camp Road.
We went back the way we came, enjoying the land-and-sky views of the city and plains out east.
Trip log: 4.6 miles, 467 feet elevation gain
Getting there: Trailhead at Bear Creek Nature Center, 245 Bear Creek Road
FYI: Hiking, biking, horseback riding. Dogs on leash. Trails open dawn to dusk.
SETH BOSTER, THE GAZETTE
