On August eleventh, Palmer Land Conservancy closed on Pinestone Ranch — six hundred seventy-four acres of conifer and aspen forest on the north flank of Pikes Peak, just south of Woodland Park along Old Crystola Canyon Road. It was listed at five point nine million as a development site. The sale price wasn’t disclosed.
This is Palmer’s first outright purchase of this scale dedicated to future public access. They’ll hold the property temporarily while partners sort out long-term ownership and stewardship, and the land stays closed for now. Access is years out — but the protection is permanent. Rebecca Jewett, Palmer’s president and CEO said, “There are very few chances left to create public open space at this scale on the Front Range. When an opportunity like Pinestone Ranch comes along, you don’t just protect it. You protect everything it can become.”
The partners who made it happen: Great Outdoors Colorado, the H.A. and Mary K. Chapman Foundation, and Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Palmer is raising half the cost over three years.
Why it matters for the Ring
Pinestone sits against Pike National Forest and links Woodland Park to over a hundred thousand acres of public land, plus the six thousand acres of the Pikes Peak Conservation Corridor. For Ring the Peak — the roughly sixty-three-mile loop around America’s Mountain, about eighty percent complete — this parcel sits right where one of the stubborn gaps has been: the northeastern flank near Ute Pass.
Advocates have called it a potential new portal. Trails, wildlife habitat, and a direct connection from town to the forest — the kind of community connector the Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative has been mapping for years.
The bigger picture: CPW and the federal agencies
This acquisition lands inside a larger shift. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is expanding its role on Pikes Peak through a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Colorado Springs Utilities, and local governments. The first priority is completing and managing the Ring the Peak corridor — one agency, one set of rules, one point of contact instead of a patchwork of jurisdictions.
A two point five million dollar GOCO-CPW grant is already funding realignments, environmental reviews, and habitat work. Pinestone gives that effort a concrete piece of ground to work with on the Woodland Park side.
Woodland Park’s moment
The town has been building toward this. Avenger Open Space in twenty twenty-four, the Shining Mountain Golf Course purchase in twenty twenty-five, and now Pinestone — more than five times the size of Avenger. Woodland Park’s own parks master plan calls out a Woodland Park-to-Ring connection. This is that connection, at scale.
The opportunity
For hikers, bikers, and the communities that ring the Peak, this is the kind of land that turns a vision into a destination. For wildlife — sixty-three species of conservation interest live here — it’s a corridor that stays intact.
The gates aren’t open yet. But the promise is. Article from Palmer Land Conservancy.
Drafted with assistance from Grok
