Mayor Yemi Mobolade has picked Skyler Rorabaugh, manager of Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, to be the next director of the Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department, city officials announced Friday.

Rorabaugh, who has worked for the city since 2022, would succeed Britt Haley, who led the parks department for three years before retiring at the end of 2025.

“We have such amazing natural resources within our parks system that I feel like are unparalleled,” Rorabaugh told The Gazette Friday. “There are so many different properties that we have the opportunity to manage. We are fortunate and I take that very seriously.”

The parks department manages 18,000 acres of park land, 300 miles of trails and over 130 playgrounds, according to the city.

Pikes Peak is a city enterprise separate from the parks department. Pikes Peak officials oversee the mountain’s visitors center, Pikes Peak Highway and other operations for the highly visited summit.

“Skyler brings deep experience, a passion for public service, and a forward-thinking vision for how parks and recreation strengthen our community,” Mobolade said in a statement.

Rorabaugh was the director of campus recreation at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs for six years before joining the city. He also led public recreation districts in Estes Park and Kansas before moving to Colorado Springs, according to previous Gazette reporting.

Rorabaugh was at the shore of North Catamount Reservoir on Thursday to announce the special sunrise and sunset events at Pikes Peak this summer to commemorate the country’s 250th birthday and Colorado’s 150 years of statehood.

Over the past four years, Rorabaugh coordinated partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service and helped organize events like the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. He said he wanted to help forge partnerships and find new revenue sources to support the city’s parks.

“Those different groups take a lot of logistics around special events and planning. A lot of it is also land management, and how you manage the land as people come up for different reasons,” Rorabaugh said.

The Colorado Springs City Council needs to confirm Rorabaugh’s appointment before he takes over the department. The leadership at Pikes Peak will manage the tourist attraction until the city selects a new leader for that division.