I will be there in a couple weeks. I looked and searched for trails, I am looking for a 6-8 miles trail run that is safe, somewhat populated (I will be alone) and close to the north part of town (but I have a car). Any suggestions? I am not adapted to altitude, so it should make it interesting…
Gardon of the Gods is always a nice option. There are also many trails throughout the city and just head west to the mountain and you will find tons more. Since you are there for a little while you can head towards pikes peak and do some out that way also. Stop by one of the local running stores and they can help you out with good directions to just about any type of run.
You’ll feel the altitude, but be ok as long as you don’t try and do your usual pace. Back off about 30 seconds per mile and you should be alright. Hills won’t kill you either.
Palmer Park has great trails and is right in the middle of town, but you’d never know it. Lots of up and down, rocky and technical in places.
The Santa Fe/Greenland trail goes along the river for about 15-20 miles either direction from downtown. Pretty flat, some parts are paved. Lots of people. Gets old after the first few times. Vanilla, but might serve your purpose.
The Greenland open space about 20 miles north of COS has good open space running. Good scenery. Some modest ups and downs, but not bad, good footig and no rocks. Exit 165 off I-25.
Garden of the Gods on the west side of town has epic running among the famous red rocks. Lots of tourists on weekends, but plenty of trails to get away from them. Good variety. Up and down a fair amount, but nothing too big or long.Falcon Trail on the Air Force Academy is great fun. 13 mile loop, mostly in trees. More or less up one way as you head toward the mountains and then down and around back where you started.The Barr Trail in Manitou goes up, up and up for 13 miles to the top of Pikes Peak. Start is about five miles west of downtown. Start is at about 7500’. Great views from up there. Barr Camp at mile 6 is a good turnaround.
There are plenty more that others can contribute, but for the ultimate challenge, I offer you ‘The Incline’. Nothing else like it anywhere.
http://www.stevegarufi.com/manitouincline.htm
Two thousand feet of vertical in one mile. Located at the base of Pikes Peak in Manitou, maybe five miles west of downtown. It’s brutal, but satisfying. Super view at the top. Starts at the cog railroad station in Manitou at essentially the same place as the Barr Trail mentioned above. Virtually impossible to run, but you can sort of jog/fast hike up it, if you’re in shape. Bail out point at the halfway. Run 4 miles down the Barr Trail to get back to your car.
Define ‘north part of town’ (Black Forest, Briargate, Rockrimmon, Old North End, etc ) 
I’d start with the Santa Fe Trail. It is over 30 miles long and parallels I-25 from Monument all the way down to some spot south of the springs. Relatively flat, wide, not technical and except for the section through the Air Force Academy, boring and not very scenic. But it will help with the acclimation. Sections on the southern part of the trail are about as flat as it gets when it comes to running in the springs. There are parking spots to access it near Baptist, Woodmen, Corporate, Uintah and a dozen other cross streets.
Then you have USAFA itself. The only kicker is that due to recent world events, they are in a bit of a lock-down mode and some of the trails (Stanley Canyon, Falcon Trail, etc) that get near the reservoir are restricted to Active Duty military only. No word yet on when the restrictions will be lifted.
In the north west part of town you have Ute Valley Park, which can be run in a figure 8 for a nice 6 miles or so. Adding in one of the billion side trails in that park can make it longer. Often technical in spots so watch for rocks. You are always going up or down in this park, but none of the climbs are more than 150 ft or so.
Palmer Park (east-central) is similar to Ute Valley Park, just bigger.
South side of town you get Section 16. Run it counter-clockwise for one of the best downhills out there (but the initial uphill is a bear).
Garden of the Gods is also good, just stay on the trails along the outer edge of the park. The tourists tend to stay confined to the center, never leaving the area bounded by the road that loops through the park. If you bring your bike, the park makes a great location to do some hill work. There is a bike lane on the main road and the speed limit is 20 (a limit that the cyclist tend to laugh at on the downhills where 40+ for short sections is not unheard of). The biggest risk is running into a tourist who sometimes stop their cars in random locations for whatever reason.
Once you head to Manitou you have Barr Trail and the Incline. The Incline is a 1 mile long stairmaster from hell that gains 2000ft. Technically closed to the public, but that has never stopped anybody. Just follow the streams of folks doing it (about 500,000 per year). Return down Barr Trail if you are sane, or right down the Incline itself if you are a bit crazy. Barr Trail starts at the top of Ruxton Ave in Manitou Springs and runs to the summit of Pikes Peak. The first section averages 13.5% for the first 3 miles. After that it settles down to a more manageable 8% for the next 3 miles till you get to Barr Camp at 10,200ft. Beyond that it just gets ugly (6 miles, 4000ft of gain, all at altitude)
Also note that there is a running club attached to just about every brew pub in town who meet just about every night of the week. Go to http://www.pprrun.org/ and select “Running Groups” from the menu on the left for a list. PPRR also maintains a rather extensive race calender of the various races in the springs.
I’m sure I left something off. PM me if you need any more info.
You’ll feel the altitude, but be ok as long as you don’t try and do your usual pace. Back off about 30 seconds per mile and you should be alright. Hills won’t kill you either.
The Barr Trail in Manitou goes up, up and up for 13 miles to the top of Pikes Peak. Start is about five miles west of downtown. Start is at about 7500’. Great views from up there. Barr Camp at mile 6 is a good turnaround.
There are plenty more that others can contribute, but for the ultimate challenge, I offer you ‘The Incline’. Nothing else like it anywhere.
http://www.stevegarufi.com/manitouincline.htm
Two thousand feet of vertical in one mile. Located at the base of Pikes Peak in Manitou, maybe five miles west of downtown. It’s brutal, but satisfying. Super view at the top. Starts at the cog railroad station in Manitou at essentially the same place as the Barr Trail mentioned above. Virtually impossible to run, but you can sort of jog/fast hike up it, if you’re in shape. Bail out point at the halfway. Run 4 miles down the Barr Trail to get back to your car.
Thanks for all this! Someone else mentioned the incline, I also want to see views so I will hike that Friday. Is it pretty safe alone? Do I need to bring pepper spray?
Define ‘north part of town’ (Black Forest, Briargate, Rockrimmon, Old North End, etc )
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I am staying at the Marriott off 25 close to airforce base. I will do incline Friday (I have ALL day Fri), perhaps a trail run close to the hotel Sat ( I am in a meeting all day). Any of those close to the hotel for Sat?
AFA is closest to your hotel. And if you run the New Santa Fe Trail starting from your hotel (I’m assuming you mean the Marriot near the AFA, not the air force base because the bases are all south of town) you can run the trail north, through the the AFA as an out and back. It will be mostly uphill on the way out. Great when you turn around and get to go downhill then. And that part of the trail is pretty. Perfectly safe for a woman to run alone.
Ute Valley (probably easiest to park in the lot on Vindicator) and Garden of the Gods would be the next closest. Those areas and the Incline are all safe for a woman to run by herself. There is also Fox Run park, but it is only a 5k loop, so it’s probably too short for your purposes.
Assuming the Marriott at the Tech Center:
Ute Valley park is the closest park, about a 3-4 minute drive from the hotel. Take Rockrimmon west to Vindicator (the first light). Turn left onto Vindicator. Turn into the small parking lot on your left about a 1/4 mile after the Middle School (The school is at the first light). While in the park it is easy to get lost among the maze of trails, so use Pikes Peak as a directional reference point. The park is bounced by Vindicator on the north and Centennial on the West, so if you get confused just go north and/or west until you hit higher ground and can see the parking lot. Note that the maps show the park as being 400 acres or so, but the usable area extends for another 600 acres into land that is owned by CS Utilities and HP. Unless you are a surveyor you will never know which part is HP property and which is the park, not that anybody at HP seems to care. Note that if you follow the park east you will end up on a small trail that runs behind the Marriott. This trail is not as heavily traveled but I’m sure with a little exploration you can link the two. A map of the park itself can be found at http://www.springsgov.com/units/parksrec/maps/pdfmaps/ute_valley.pdf but as I mentioned before, several of the trails extend east into HP’s property. http://www.springsgov.com/units/parksrec/maps/mutevall-l.htm has another view (the trails marked ‘planned’ actually exist and are heavily used, they just down own the land yet).
For the Incline, the simplest way is to take I-25 south to Highway 24. Take 24 west till you hit the first exit for Manitou Springs. This will dump you onto Manitou Ave. Take this west (toward the peak) untill you get to Ruxton (about 1/2 a mile, its a 3 way intersection that is at the only traffic circle in Manitou). Note that most of it is a 20mph zone, so watch for cops. Go up Ruxton ave and once the road splits into two (one way) parts, find whatever parking you can that is not marked as ‘no parking’ or belonging to the Cog. On busy days this could mean parking a 1/2 mile down on Ruxton. The start of the Incline is on the north side of the Cog’s east parking lot. Do not attempt to park in one of the Cog’s parking lots, they get rather pissy about it. Ask anybody who looks like they are there for a workout for directions to the start of the incline (or just follow them). If you ask one of the Cog workers for directions they will probably give you a dirty look and/or read you the riot act.
Finally, if you are going to be there this Sunday (6/12), there is a 10 mile race in the Garden of the Gods. See http://www.gardentenmile.com/ for details.
hope this helps,
–john
One other route:
For a much easier run (ute is rather technical at times) you can access the Santa Fe Trail from your hotel. Jog down Tech Center Rd to Rockrimmon and turn right toward I-25. Cross over at Pro-Rodeo/Delmontico and continue heading toward the interstate one more block east till you hit Corporate Dr. From the north-east corner of Corporate and Rockrimon, follow the sidewalk east (toward the interstate). It will follow the southbound off ramp for a short bit at which point it will merge with the trail. For best results, go north. Watch for folks on bikes wearing headphones. Note that it is more of a urban trail (concrete, so-so scenery) until you get north of Woodmen Road. It is a slight (1% or so) uphill going north.
Note that the aerial photos on google maps are about 3 years old and don’t show the recently rebuilt on and off ramps. The map view is, however, accurate and shows the trail as the thin path.
Thank you for all the info. I appreciate everyone’s help
I am not there this week-end, it’s June17-18
If you’re staying at the Marriott on Tech Center drive, which it sounds like you are, you literally back up to Ute Valley Park. One of the park trails can be accessed behind the hotel, sort of near the pool area. It’s not marked, but if you know it’s there and buzz around there a little, you can’t miss it.
You can easily get in 5-6 good miles on the park trails and feel like you’re out in the woods, but it could be challenging finding your way back via the trails, since they aren’t marked and there’s no formal trail map. If you have good directional instincts, you should be able to find your way back on the right trail. Worst case, you go back out to one of the roads around the periphery of the park and you can see your hotel from pretty much anywhere around there, since it’s located on a hilltop and is about 10 stories high.