The Ute Pass Trail's Missing Mile and a Half Is the Part Closest to Colorado Springs

"It's just so sketchy. There is not a safe way to bike up there." That's how Cory Sutela of Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates described riding up U.S. 24 to The Gazette in late October. On that road the shoulders are narrow or missing, and drivers can't see around the corners. The Ute Pass Regional Trail is the long-planned way around that problem. It's meant to be an 11-mile pedestrian route from Manitou Springs up the pass to the county line at Crystola, and people have wanted it for more than 20 years.

This fall it got noticeably more complete. A new curbed sidewalk along Chipita Park Road in Cascade adds about a mile and a half. But the completed sections are bunched at the top of the pass. The one gap left in the 11-mile plan is an estimated mile and a half between Cascade and the Ute Indian Trail climbing out of Manitou. That's the end nearest Colorado Springs. So if you leave from the city this winter, you get two different trails: a steep, historic out-and-back from Manitou, and a linked route connecting Cascade, Green Mountain Falls and Crystola. You drive between the two.

The new sidewalk ties the upper pass together

Before this fall, people walking through Cascade used the shoulder of Chipita Park Road. "Folks no longer have to walk or ride on the shoulder of Chipita Park Road," Jason Meyer, El Paso County's park planning division manager, told The Gazette. "They'll have a sidewalk." Meyer said the project took seven years, starting with engineering and design work before the funding and priorities came together.

The sidewalk matters because of what it connects. One end reaches the shops in Cascade near the entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway. The other heads west toward Ute Pass Elementary, just outside Green Mountain Falls. There it meets a dirt section that runs between the road and a creek lined with cottonwoods and willows. The county finished the Ute Pass Elementary to Green Mountain Falls section in 2003 and the Green Mountain Falls to Teller County line section in 2006. An on-road route through town links the two. Those two sections were separated from Cascade for two decades. The sidewalk connects them to it.

Meyer framed the trail around daily use as much as visitors: "It's the local access, connecting neighborhoods, connecting businesses."

What's walkable now, from the bottom up

The bottom section ends at the watershed

The Ute Indian Trail is the part most Springs residents can reach fastest, and it's a different kind of walk. Rocco Blasi, the Green Mountain Falls resident who leads Friends of Ute Pass Trails, told The Gazette it's the best section of all, for "the challenge, mountain views and serenity over 3 miles one way."

The history is posted along the trail. A sign beside the Manitou Incline calls it "one of the oldest migratory routes in the United States," used by the Ute people to reach hunting grounds in South Park and the springs at Manitou. Farther up, the trail climbs a ridge and drops to a marked junction with an 1860 wagon road. That road was used until 1872, when a route along Fountain Creek replaced it. That route is now U.S. 24. Near Longs Ranch you can see a 1930s pipeline built by Civilian Conservation Corps crews for a Colorado Springs water project.

The trail ends just past that pipeline. Beyond Longs Ranch Road is an off-limits watershed managed by Colorado Springs Utilities, and that's where the final gap starts. Meyer told The Gazette that filling it "is going to be very complex." It involves steep terrain and coordination with Utilities and the Colorado Department of Transportation, and he called it "a very heavy lift for El Paso County Parks." The full trail could take years more. Until then, this section is a climb up and the same climb back down.

Getting onto the Manitou end in November

The Ute Indian Trail starts at the Manitou Incline trailhead near the top of Ruxton Avenue, next to the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. It's open dawn to dusk. The City of Colorado Springs requires a free reservation and a signed waiver to climb the Incline. Starting Nov. 1, the Incline is on winter hours of 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. through April 30. The county's Ute Indian Trail page lists only the dawn-to-dusk hours and doesn't mention a reservation. Parking is the harder part. The City's Incline page lists these options:

1. Dillon Mobility Hub, 134 Manitou Ave. The City calls it the preferred option. It has 91 spaces and is open 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mountain Metro's Route 3 runs from the hub to the Duck Stop and has been fare-free as a pilot since March 2026.
2. Hiawatha Gardens lot, 10 Old Man's Trail. This lot is paid. Get a pass from the meter and leave the top half on your dash. Manitou's 2026 fee schedule puts it in a pricing zone where hourly rates rise and fall with occupancy, so check the City of Manitou Springs parking page before you go. A shuttle runs from the Duck Stop to the Incline from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. It doesn't run on Thanksgiving, which falls on Nov. 26 this year, or on Christmas or New Year's Day.
3. Iron Springs Chateau, 444 Ruxton Ave. Parking is $15 per car for four hours, cash only and first come, first served. The lot may close early when a show is scheduled.

Two places are off-limits. Barr Lot is reserved for people using Barr Trail into the National Forest. Parking on Ruxton Avenue and Winter Street requires a Manitou residential permit, and cars without one get ticketed.

Up the pass, the trail runs between places to eat

The upper section is where the Ute Pass Regional Trail works as a route between towns, the way Meyer described it. In Cascade, Wines of Colorado sits at 8045 U.S. 24 and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Its website lists those hours. The Mad Hatter Saloon at 8655 U.S. 24 opens at 11 a.m. most days and 10 a.m. on weekends. It closes at 7 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, at 9 p.m. on other open days, and all day on Wednesdays.

Green Mountain Falls is the middle of the route, and the town has made it easy to start there. Its hiking information page lists four hiker parking areas:

• Area A at Ute Pass Avenue and Oak Street, plus the Pool Park
• Area B at Ute Pass Avenue and Lake Street and nearby streets
• Area C on Mountain Road
• Area D at Joyland Church

Public restrooms are at Gazebo Park and Pool Park. The town asks you to keep dogs leashed and pack out dog waste. Bikes aren't allowed on the town's trails except the American Discovery Trail, which runs 1.25 miles one way from the Welcome Center. For lunch in town, Cantina Verde is in Green Mountain Falls.

The trail's top end has a newly revived restaurant. In July, WhatNow Denver reported that new owners had taken over the historic Crystola Roadhouse, added Southern-inspired food and planned regular entertainment. The trail reaches it after following the creek out of Green Mountain Falls and climbing through open country to the highway, just before Woodland Park. With two cars, or someone willing to drive, you can walk from Cascade up through Green Mountain Falls toward Crystola one way. The lower section doesn't allow that.

December's trailhead goes in at Cascade

The next piece of construction is also at the top of the pass. Meyer told The Gazette a Cascade trailhead is expected to be built in December. He described it as "an anchor," "announcing you're at the regional trail." Great Outdoors Colorado is paying for it as part of a $2.5 million grant to Pikes Peak Outdoors announced earlier this year.

Pikes Peak Outdoors made Ute Pass an early priority in its 2025 Vision Plan, and executive director Becky Leinweber gave the reason directly: "Honestly, it's the connection to Ring the Peak." The nonprofit's Ute Pass trailhead project page describes the Cascade trailhead as a portal into the northeastern gap of Ring the Peak. Ring the Peak is a roughly 63-mile route meant to circle Pikes Peak, and some sections are still unfinished. El Paso County also counts the Ute Pass Regional Trail as part of the American Discovery Trail and the America the Beautiful Trail.

When the trailhead is built, the main entrance to the trail will be in Cascade, a short drive up U.S. 24 from the city. Starting from Manitou will still mean the 3-mile Ute Indian Trail climb and the same 3 miles back down, until the county closes the gap below Cascade.

Harrison McWilliams lives in Castle Rock and works up and down the Front Range, and he follows projects like this one because they change how people use the places around them. If you're weighing a move to the west side of Colorado Springs and want to know what the pass is like day to day, Harrison McWilliams can walk you through it. Schedule a free consultation and let's plan your next move.