Skyler Rorabaugh grew up in rural Kansas, where his father worked as a postman and his mother waited tables.

“They’d scrape together some money, and we would go on vacations to Colorado,” Rorabaugh said, “and I was just awe-inspired by the mountains.” 

Those trips deepened his love for the outdoors. And with a degree in parks and recreation management, he learned he could work in that environment. 

“Really?” he remembers thinking. “I can make a living doing that?” 

For about 25 years, Rorabaugh has been doing just that — most recently along the Pikes Peak Highway, one place of those boyhood vacations. 

Next stop: director of Colorado Springs’ Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department. 

Pending the City Council’s confirmation, Rorabaugh is set to replace the retired Britt Haley and head the department overseeing the area’s premier outdoor destinations. That includes Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, the department-linked enterprise that Rorabaugh has managed for four years. Previously, he was director of campus recreation at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, a job that saw him expand trails beyond the city-owned Pulpit Rock. 

Other city-owned properties lent to the appeal of the next job, Rorabaugh said. 

“The natural landscapes that we manage as a city I just feel like are unparalleled throughout the entire U.S. I don’t know many parks and rec departments that manage a Pikes Peak, a Garden of the Gods, a North Cheyenne Cañon, a Corral Bluffs,” he said. “Just the overall depth and breadth of our park system is something that I think anybody that works in our industry would be proud to represent and lead.” 

Along with 18,000 acres of parkland and more than 130 playgrounds, the Parks Department scope includes youth sports programming as well as museum programming; athletic fields and courts; nature centers and community centers; golf courses and cemeteries; swimming pools and ice rinks. 

Since his selection was announced, Rorabaugh said he’s heard from friends “who didn’t realize how expansive” the department is. “It truly is,” he said. “Which puts a lot of responsibility on all of our shoulders.” 

Could some of the weight be lifted? Rorabaugh has asked himself that question.

“A lot of parks and recreation professionals try to be something for everyone, and it might be a situation where we’ve gotta take a step back and look long and hard and ask what are our key services, our key deliverables, our key products?” he said. 

He continued: “Maybe we’re really good at certain things and have good resources for those, and maybe there’s some other areas we don’t. It’s always difficult for any parks and rec professional to let go of something, but maybe that’s part of the process we have to do.” 

Maybe there are opportunities for other enterprises like Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, Rorabaugh suggested, while recognizing many more questions to be asked. But “I do feel that we can activate some of our areas differently than we have in the past to help generate revenue, without having to be in competition with our business sector,” he said. 

The ultimate goal, he said: “to establish that long-term legacy for sustainable funding.”

Rorabaugh is set to lead a Parks Department facing citywide budget cuts amid a maintenance backlog that’s been calculated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s been a common refrain at Parks Board meetings over the years: Department resources have not kept up with the demands of a growing population and an expanded park and open space portfolio.

Maybe help could come from enterprises, “or maybe it’s in the form of a special district-type relationship with our partners,” Rorabaugh said. 

He alluded to years of talks led by Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, which convened local, state and federal land managers along with industry professionals and advocates to create a regional “vision plan” released last year. Around the start of this year, Great Outdoors Colorado granted $2.5 million to move forward the vision that sees more collaboration across jurisdictions.

“When times are tough, I feel like that’s when people come together,” Rorabaugh said. “I think the time is probably prime for us to put a really good, solid plan together and see what the public thinks about that.” 

In creating a park system master plan — set to be published this year — surveying found broad interest to “take care of what we have.”

In terms of growing open space, “there’s got to be a balance based on what we want to acquire and set aside for future generations to enjoy,” Rorabaugh said. “But what it comes down to at the end of the day is, how can we sustainably maintain it?”