Colorado Springs Utilities has published a draft plan reimagining recreation around scenic reservoirs on Pikes Peak ー what some see as setting the stage for a greater destination, while others worry about losing beloved trail connections. 

David Deitemeyer, the city’s Trails, Open Space and Parks senior administrator, is among locals who have long seen North Slope Recreation Area as having “an incredible amount of potential.” This is the area off the Pikes Peak Highway encompassing three reservoirs: Crystal Creek, North Catamount and South Catamount. 

As Deitemeyer said in a previous interview regarding the Utilities plan years in the making: “It’s an opportunity to create a space that is truly a gem of a property. The views are incredible there, and there’s actually water there; it provides a different perspective than we’re used to seeing on the Front Range.” 

Deitemeyer figures to be involved in trail construction, reroutes and closures proposed in the draft plan posted this month. 

Utilities is collecting feedback that can be submitted online through the end of March, ahead of presentations slated for the Utilities Board and City Council in late April. The plan and survey are posted at csu.org/current-projects/north-slope-impact-study.

The plan is replacing one developed in 1992, around the time Utilities opened North Slope’s historic drinking water sources to recreation, including fishing and non-motorized boating. The area has seen more hiking and mountain biking since then. 

“We have more people wanting to go further and hike further and connect in, and not just by car” on the Pikes Peak Highway, said Lisa Walters, resource manager with Utilities. “We wanted to bring that part into the plan, but we’re also wanting to enhance our forestry health, our watershed management and wildlife habitat as well.” 

The top goal stated in the draft plan: “enhance security and strengthen infrastructure protection” around dams and service roads. Those roads are listed as “the largest concern” regarding safety ー unpaved stretches that have been popularly hiked or biked to reach the reservoirs and roam between them.

Said Skyler Rorabaugh, manager of Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, the enterprise overseeing the highway and North Slope recreation: “There’s some blind spots on those service roads, and I’ve just always kept my fingers crossed. We want to avoid any sort of accident.” 

And beyond that, “I’ve never been a fan of calling service roads trails,” Rorabaugh said. “I think it’s gonna be a huge advantage to actually have trails, real trails.” 

Indeed, “Getting trails off roads benefits everybody,” said Cory Sutela, executive director of mountain biking group Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates. He added: “There’s never been a really designed trail network (at North Slope). There’s been some historic and informal trails, and then there’s been a lot of use on the roads. … This is the first time I’m aware there’s a real plan that does address the recreational desires.” 

But not all desires. 

Trails old and unimagined 

The draft plan lists several “unauthorized social trails that need designation, improvement or closure.” Among those are parts of the Catamount, Crystal and Mount Esther trails. 

“Calling them unauthorized, it just shows a stunning ignorance of the Ute Pass trails history,” said Rocco Blasi, president of Friends of Ute Pass Trails. 

Referring to a pioneer era predating the reservoirs in the 1930s, “Those trail alignments have been in place before Springs Utilities began managing the shared public lands on the North Slope,” he said. 

From his home in Green Mountain Falls, Blasi has been hiking those trails for the past 20 years. Locals and visitors alike have hiked Catamount Trail, which exits the local hills for a meadow known as the Garden of Eden, soon meeting a service road leading to South Catamount Reservoir. 

That stretch of road through Pike National Forest is mapped among trail portions “requiring improvements or formal designation/authorizations to remain.” Pending U.S. Forest Service approval, the draft plan calls for “an enhanced connection,” perhaps “a parallel side path.” 

Blasi said he was “encouraged” about the route’s future, based on conversations he’s heard regarding a broad, regional collaboration playing out between Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Forest Service.

“But it’s equally important that the Crystal Trail still be analyzed and looked at and a solution found to keep that,” Blasi said. 

The draft plan calls for a stretch of Crystal Trail to be decommissioned, the stretch connecting Green Mountain Falls’ network to the North Slope. The plan describes “severe erosion and hazardous conditions” around Utilities infrastructure. 

“We’re hopeful to have some better interactions and look at, I would say, better alternatives,” said Walters, with Utilities. “Creating something that’s not going to be a burden to maintenance and safety.” 

Blasi said Friends of Ute Pass Trails is more than willing to take up maintenance. The group also has an eye toward Mount Esther Trail, what the plan lists as another “primary entry point” to North Slope and similarly requiring another “enhancement” pending another environmental review. 

Along with the Forest Service, the plan recognizes a need for Bureau of Land Management coordination. Blasi and other advocates see a lack of specifics and a missed opportunity amid the federally owned patchwork.

Rorabaugh, too, sees the possibilities. 

“It just comes down to the available resources to get that done,” he said, alluding to federal constraints. “And it’s a slippery slope … I think it’s just a respectful approach to plan what you know you can plan, but don’t necessarily put land managers in a situation that perhaps they’re not ready to manage.” 

Striking a balance

In the meantime, Rorabaugh said he was “really excited to have new opportunities and create better trail experiences.” 

Walters pointed to “a ridgeline trail” envisioned to explore upper wilds between North and South Catamount reservoirs. The plan maps trails remaining along the shores of both reservoirs and loops between rerouted and extended parts of Catamount, Mackinaw and Limber Pine trails. Also mapped: connections to Teller County open space, one of which, via Vayhinger Trail and another service road, is marked as “requiring improvements or formal designation/authorizations.”

Chris Gonzales, of nonprofit Teller Trail Team, sees another “curious” link mapped between the local open space and Limber Pine Trail. That would involve Bureau of Land Management clearance.

“I would love to see that formalized and go through the (environmental review) process,” Gonzales said. “But most of all I would love to see (Utilities) involved in that process.”

Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance Executive Director Becky Leinweber sees “still a little more visioning that can take place.” She said she also sees “a good job of really trying to balance.” 

“We need safe and available drinking water, and at the same time, these are amazing amenities, having these reservoirs and these trails so close to home,” Leinweber said. “Those two values are not in opposition, and I think (Utilities) is doing their best to integrate them.” 

She was pleased as well by the plan calling for the possibility of access in the fall, winter and spring. North Slope has only been open between May and October. 

And Leinweber ー of the family who owns the Angler’s Covey fly shop that has guided clients to the reservoirs ー was pleased by the plan calling for Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain to sell commercial permits. Commercial activity had been suspended while Utilities surveyed the public and reviewed business use that had been informally allowed.

“I think it’s important to our overall economy and our region to be able to provide those opportunities but also provide them in a responsible way,” Rorabaugh said. “We know we have certain capacity, we know we only have so many places we can park vehicles. … We don’t want commercial outfitters operating on top of one another and impacting the general public out there.” 

He said this summer would be a “pilot year for understanding what that looks like.” 

And the year could see some trail work done. Leinweber’s nonprofit previously received a $2.5 million grant from Great Outdoors Colorado to distribute across regional projects, and she said $315,000 has been set aside for the North Slope plan. 

Work could be slow and “incremental,” Walters suggested. “We’re not going to immediately close a trail unless we have an alternative available.”