Tuesday morning in Woodland Park, before embarking on a bike ride, Jerry Smith stopped to imagine the future of the hills rolling on the southern edge of town, beyond the Walmart. 

“I can picture a lot of trails up there,” he said. “There’s gotta be a lot of wildlife and some really great views.” 

All to hopefully be experienced one day.

Smith, a local outdoor advocate, was looking out to Pinestone Ranch, which Palmer Land Conservancy had just announced acquiring at an undisclosed price. The 674 acres would “create the Woodland Park area’s largest public outdoor recreation destination,” the Colorado Springs-based organization said in a news release. 

It is uncertain as to when it might become that destination. Palmer Land Conservancy intends to hold the property and keep it closed “while working with partners to determine its long-term ownership and stewardship, ensuring Pinestone Ranch is thoughtfully managed as public open space for future generations.”

The nearly 50-year-old conservancy called the 674 acres its “first acquisition project of this scale dedicated to future public access.” The organization is more so in the business of conservation easements rather than outright purchases.

Said Palmer Land Conservancy President and CEO Rebecca Jewett: “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.” 

Woodland Park resident Jeff Webb is indeed thinking about that — everything Pinestone Ranch can become. 

“The potential of this is insane,” said the chair of the town’s Parks Board. 

Pinestone Ranch is more than five times the size of 120-acre Avenger Open Space, which Woodland Park celebrated as its largest open-space purchase ever in 2024. The next year, the city moved to purchase Shining Mountain Golf Course — 355 acres where advocates foresee trails and reimagined recreation. 

Palmer Land Conservancy’s purchase of Pinestone Ranch comes amid growing interest in town for more quick escapes to the outdoors. 

Woodland Park is surrounded by Pike National Forest.

“It’s natural; it’s beautiful,” Jewett said, “but the actual access to get on trails is limited. You have to drive pretty far in some cases. So the proximity of this property is something that makes it incredibly appealing from a public recreation perspective.” 

Appealing, too, is management outside “some of the bureaucracy with the Forest Service,” Webb said, alluding to the costly, time-intensive struggle to develop trails on federal land. More local control has been an aim of nonprofit Teller Trail Team. 

When it comes to Pinestone Ranch, “the long-term ownership is of course the big question mark,” said the nonprofit’s founder, Chris Gonzales. 

Without a sales tax fund dedicated to open space like the city of Colorado Springs has along with Douglas County, Jefferson County and several other Front Range municipalities, advocates sounded doubtful ownership could shift to Woodland Park or Teller County. 

They sounded intrigued by an initiative that has been touted by Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Parks and Wildlife alongside land managers and outdoor industry leaders representing Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance: for CPW to increase its presence across the region and work toward establishing a sort of “Pikes Peak Recreation Area.” Great Outdoors Colorado has pledged major support in lottery funds and was essential in Pinestone Ranch’s acquisition, Jewett said.  

“We are going to have a lot of conversations to see where the best fit is,” she said of future ownership, adding: “We see how it fits into regional goals already underway, and there has been incredible momentum in the Pikes Peak region around elevating the entire region as just an incredible natural area and world-class recreation destination. This project absolutely fits into that vision and that effort.” 

And, Gonzales said, it fits into the decades-old vision of a trail circumnavigating Pikes Peak. 

“This is an amazing opportunity to fulfill the original plan for Ring the Peak, which was to have multiple different city portals into Ring the Peak,” he said. “To see a big step forward like this is really encouraging, because otherwise Woodland Park isn’t a logical connection point for Ring the Peak.”

It would be a most scenic connection point, Gonzales said. 

Having toured the property, he described a mosaic of pine, aspen and granite outcrops “that you can easily scramble up for amazing views of Pikes Peak and 360 degrees.” Pinestone Ranch boasts “an amazing collection of different types of topography all wrapped up into one, because of the sheer size of it,” he said. 

Added Jewett: “You feel like you’re in the backcountry, yet you’re not that far from the Highway 24 corridor. You’re not far away at all from Woodland Park.” 

And to think: “It could have been purchased by somebody who wanted to develop it,” she said. 

Fortunately, she said, Mirr Ranch Group reached out about the property on the market. The real estate broker credits itself with “helping clients to be true custodians of their land, preserving its legacy and ecological integrity, while maintaining the cultural heritage of the West.” 

Along with Great Outdoors Colorado, Palmer Land Conservancy gained fast financial backing from Lyda Hill Philanthropies and the H.A. & Mary K. Chapman Foundation. The conservancy also contacted advocates and officials in Woodland Park to gauge interest. 

“And all of us were of course like, ‘Yeah, this is an incredible, huge property,’” Webb said. 

That included Woodland Park City Council following a presentation and endorsement that Webb saw as underscoring broad political support for recent outdoor developments. First came Avenger Open Space, then the golf course, now Pinestone Ranch, bigger than those other two combined. 

“Think about it, sleepy little Woodland Park, now all these things are happening in such a big way,” Webb said. “But, you know, it’s an ironic thing where success is outstripping the resources we have. Now we’re in this position to say, OK, now we have to figure out how to take care of all this.” 

He sees Colorado Springs’ Trails, Open Space and Parks fund as a nearby model — collecting portions of sales tax revenue similar to programs across the Front Range that have been responsible for creating and maintaining top outdoor destinations. 

Maybe Pinestone Ranch inspires “a change of thinking” among his fellow people in Woodland Park, Webb said. More and more over the years, he said he has heard talk along these lines: 

“’I grew up here, and the community is changing, it’s growing with more homes, and I don’t want to lose that. … I want my children and my grandchildren to have the same experiences I had growing up.’ And this is how to achieve that.”