Pikes Peak Highway changes underscore tensions in managing for tourists, locals

Heading into the summer, Colorado Springs locals are bracing for changes to the way they access adventure off the Pikes Peak Highway.

They were alarmed by an initial announcement laying out new day-to-day operations starting in May through September: Those wishing to drive themselves past mile 7 on the mountain would have to secure a timed-entry permit, or otherwise catch a shuttle going from that post to the summit — with no other stops for backcountry hikers, climbers and mountain bikers who cherish several launch points along the way into Pike National Forest.

The announcement posed “a really big change,” said Phil Wortmann, a regular, longtime rock climber on the peak.

The no-stop shuttle would be of no use in reaching favorite spots, from Glen Cove to Elk Park to Devils Playground and above. Wortmann foresaw timed-entry slots being booked before he and other regulars got to them — explorers who might make plans a night before based on the weather forecast, and know to embark early ahead of afternoon storms.

“You have to be the first car to the gate in order for the rest of the timeline to work for safety reasons,” said another mountaineering regular, Jared Reene.

Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, the city enterprise collecting revenues to staff, manage and maintain the highway, responded to those worries.

While the timed-entry permits and shuttle system will remain in place, season passholders can drive and park where they wish as long as they get to the gate between opening time at 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.

“We just ask they don’t take up any summit parking,” said Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain Manager Skyler Rorabaugh. “That’s really the rhyme and reason behind that timed-entry permit that we have in place.”

The aim is for drivers to find parking at the top. Rangers have noted that as a problem in recent years of about 500,000 highway visitors being counted.

Mountain bikers like to be dropped off at the top for the “Pikes Peak Plunge” down Barr Trail. Locals otherwise popularly opt for parking areas below, including Wortmann and Reene.

They both described the early option for season passholders as a “win-win.” Those passes — punch cards for a certain number of entries or unlimited access — range between $115 and $225.

The enterprise “has a lot going on up there,” Wortmann sympathized. “We’re supporting them while they’re hearing us out.”

That’s not exactly how Steve Bremner sees it.

He’s the president of Friends of the Peak, the trail stewarding nonprofit. As a resident over the past two decades, he said he might drive the highway three or four times a summer for hiking the backcountry.

Bremner noted a season pass would not be cost-efficient for him, nor would it be for other occasional visitors whose national forest freedoms he saw limited. “Including mine, because I’m not going to buy a season pass,” he said.

He wondered about more shuttle stops from mile 7 to the summit; an adult ticket to ride that shuttle will be $23. Bremner wondered about the highway gate’s regular cost of admission ($15 for adults), rather than a season pass, feeling like less of a “cash grab.”

Rorabaugh said between 200 and 300 people have bought season passes in recent years. Asked if he expected more to be enticed by the new rule, “That’s not our intent behind it by any means,” he said. “It’s really just to serve our local community.”

The move underscores what onlookers see as a balance or imbalance in managing the mountain for tourists as well as locals amid increased demands and strains.

As a passholder over the years since 1998, “I’ve always seen like 99% of the traffic being out of state or tourists,” Wortmann said. “So that dictates the rules.”

Rorabaugh is anticipating a new strain this summer: Parking will not be allowed at North and South Catamount reservoirs while Colorado Springs Utilities works to repair South Catamount’s dam. The agency has said it expects those motorist closures this year and next.

With limited parking at North Slope Recreation Area’s third reservoir, Crystal Creek, a separate timed-entry permit will be required there.

Recent years have seen upwards of 25,000 sightseers and anglers buying specific passes for North Slope Recreation Area. Without parking at the larger reservoirs, that number is sure to drop, Rorabaugh said, adding: “We know it’s probably going to impact our bottom line.”

He said the enterprise pushed back planned construction along the highway “in hopes of better understanding how the South Catamount dam reconstruction process is going and moving along.”

In the meantime, the timed-entry system could limit wear on the road by limiting vehicles. Rorabaugh said 170 permits would be sold for $2 (plus per-person admission) every two hours. That’s in hopes of maintaining parking at the summit and also cutting back lines at the tollgate — lines Colorado Department of Transportation fears stretching to U.S. 24, Rorabaugh said.

The highway’s annual visitation around 500,000 — up more than 40% from numbers of the previous decade — could be “comfortable” visitation, Rorabaugh said.

“But it’s about trying to disperse that on the highway,” he said. “It’s also alternative transportation. So if we’re able to shuttle people, then we can manage it in a much more practical manner rather than essentially just running every single personal vehicle up there.”

He said he recognized the desire for more shuttle stops. He said he’s identified five stops for an off-site “circulator shuttle” that would pick up and drop off beyond the tollgate.

“From downtown (Colorado Springs) or Manitou or Woodland Park area and on to the mountain,” Rorabaugh said. He said he was “optimistic” about an off-site option next summer.

Regarding this summer’s system, “We hope this is just perhaps a one-year solution for us,” he said.

Whatever the next solution, Reene said he hoped fellow local enthusiasts would be consulted.

He’s made Colorado Springs home largely for the Pikes Peak Highway access. “Because it is magical,” he said, before trailing off. “The thought of losing that ...”