A vision for a short trail in the hills of Manitou Springs has garnered long conversations at City Hall, underscoring a broader debate over recreation and conservation. 

So went a recent conversation at a City Council meeting, which ended with leadership voting in favor of an environmental study to help inform a potential trail through Bill Bauers Open Space. The open space is a narrow, rugged swath descending from the neighborhood park of the same name, roughly paralleling Crystal Hills Boulevard down to Manitou Springs’ main street. 

The City Council’s 5-2 vote to further analyze the trail came amid continued pushback from residents in the open space’s surrounding Crystal Hills neighborhood. And residents beyond the immediate vicinity spoke against the trail, joining calls to protect wildlife. 

“Why do we have to intrude on them?” Becky Elder asked. 

If a trail were built, she raised concerns of mountain bikers carving more trails off it. “People make trails, but that doesn’t mean we have to help them do it,” Elder said. 

A top mountain biking advocate, Cory Sutela of Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates, said a trail through Bill Bauers posed “not a giant recreation amenity, but it’s a great connection.” A connection to Red Rock Canyon Open Space, but more importantly to town, he explained, speaking as a local and chair of Manitou’s Mobility and Parking Board. 

A trail could get people on foot and bike off Crystal Hills Boulevard ー “a super sketchy road,” Sutela said ー and drop them to Manitou Avenue, where they could follow sidewalks or the Creek Walk Trail into town. 

The Bill Bauers trail “would provide easy access for residents of Crystal Hills to get down into Manitou Springs without having to get in their car and do so safely,” Sutela said. “And yeah, it’s this neat little canyon. It’s a nice little natural space.” 

The upper part of the open space closer to Bill Bauers Park was acquired in 2023, eight years after the city purchased the lower acreage. That initial purchase came ahead of Manitou’s 2016 Parks, Trails and Open Space Master Plan. 

In a letter to council, Crystal Hills resident Jess Wilson pointed to a master plan excerpt summarizing input prioritizing “management and maintenance” and “perhaps most importantly … efforts to go toward stewardship and preserving the natural and undeveloped character of open space properties.” Wilson wrote: “This feedback is clear ー our community prioritizes stewardship and preservation over additional development.” 

A more recent survey specifically sought opinions on trail development through Bill Bauers Open Space. Data presented to the City Council showed 63.1% of Manitou residents who took the survey supported a trail. 

That support for trails and neighborhood connections matched surveying going back to 2016 and a master plan before that in 1997, representatives of Manitou’s Open Space Advisory Committee told council. 

Said Sean McKeown, a Crystal Hills resident: “You have asked us repeatedly what we want. It’s well past time to believe us.” 

The open space should not be “like a private resort for us,” said another neighbor, Aaron Stunkard: “If we don’t have a trail in there, we have a piece of land that was purchased using taxpayer dollars that a very minor group of people have access to.”

Along with the open space committee, the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Mobility and Parking Board have voiced support for the trail. Meanwhile, Manitou’s Climate Action Working Group has advised against it. 

Climate change “is reducing the wild’s ability to provide the services it historically has provided for wildlife,” Elder said. “We need to be very careful and leave more space for them, not less.” 

Trail proponents say animals have long been co-existing with people in the neighborhood. Fire risk has also always been present ー but it could be elevated with a trail, the Fire Department’s Mike Willie suggested in a letter. 

Bill Bauers Open Space is “very steep and rugged,” he wrote, and “increased access generally leads to increased human activity. This in turn raises the likelihood of unintended consequences, such as accidental fire starts.” 

Was the steep and rugged terrain suited for a trail alignment? It’s another question being asked. 

An environmental review “will be extremely telling,” Parks Director Gillian Rossi said at the council meeting. “It will also help guide a future trail alignment.”