Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative · Article 17 of 24
The recreation value asks for a broad spectrum of opportunities that are accessible, inclusive, enjoyable, and responsibly used. The benefits named are health, wellness, and the economy, plus a hope that use itself builds stewardship. That is a higher bar than a new trailhead.
The spectrum is already wide
The industry assessment and the visitor numbers describe a region where the outdoors is the main reason people come, and where local businesses depend on public land being both open and cared for. Sixty-five percent of industry respondents said they would benefit from increased protection of public lands. Fifty-eight percent thought most users already act responsibly. Only 11 percent thought enforcement was ample, and only a third thought infrastructure was well maintained. El Paso listening-session comments asked for education that reduces overuse and misuse. June 2024 comments framed recreation as a question of how to manage people outdoors.
What “more recreation” means on the project list
It is not one product. A camping management plan would assess what exists and where more camping should go, so demand has somewhere legal to land. A downhill mountain-bike course would look for the right piece of undevelopable public land and a design that uses the terrain without wasting it. Waldo Canyon continues the 2020 Re-Imagine Waldo Canyon master plan. A second play wave at Centennial Park in Cañon City would take pressure off the Ice House wave as river surfing grows. The Royal Loop would finish the last stretch of a 40-mile singletrack from Cañon City to the Royal Gorge. The Black Hills property, the historic W.N. Clark power plant site, is a possible handoff to the city for camping, boating access, trailheads, and a park. An OHV training facility is on the list because motorized use is growing and the plan treats skill and enforcement education as resource protection.
Responsible use shows up as its own projects: a regional e-bike policy and education effort, a regional recreation ranger program built from volunteers and non-armed rangers supporting official rangers, and the messaging plan. The recreation chapter of the plan is not a menu of attractions. It is a bet that more opportunities, well placed, will disperse use — and that education and staffing have to arrive with the trail.
Source: Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative Vision Plan 2025, prepared through the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance as the local Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnership, with support from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Great Outdoors Colorado. Project team: PPORA, Trails and Open Space Coalition, N.E.S. Inc., Bachman PR, and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Geography Department. The plan was written across a four-year process and released in 2025; some statistics reflect a point in time before publication. Recreation value, page 96; industry assessment, pages 54–55; project descriptions, pages 474–478.
