Friends who have driven to Castle Rock and hiked Lost Canyon Ranch Open Space are sharing glowing reports. It’s on my ”to-do” list. So is a lovely piece of new Clear Creek Trail west of Golden along U.S. Highway 6 in Clear Creek Canyon. Towering rock formations and foamy whitewater create a quintessential Colorado trail experience.

Both projects required land purchases, extensive planning and are now open to the public. Here in Colorado Springs projects can languish for years.

Fishers Canyon open space was purchased by Colorado Springs Parks in 2021. Five years later there are no trails, trailheads or public access. Coleman Community Park east of Powers has been on the “wish-list” for years. Coleman would serve a growing population in a park desert. There was a public planning process but we still have no completed plan and no community park on the city’s east side. The Legacy Loop, a concept championed by our Founder General William Palmer more than 100 years ago is still not complete.

Then there is Corral Bluffs. The initial 522 acres was bought with TOPS program funds (Trails, Open Space and Parks) in 2008 for $1,000,000.

Except for a handful of annual guided hikes, there is no public access.

Despite its name, Jimmy Camp Creek Regional Park is not a park yet and is not open to the public. This 693-acre, potential jewel on the east side was donated to the city in 1988. Thirty-eight years later, there are still no public trails or trailhead.

There are reasons these projects are not moving forward, and funding is a major one. Castle Rock and Douglas County share a .17% TOPS-like tax that funds timely purchases and adequate staff to turn plans into public access.

Jefferson County, with its whopping .5% sales tax (five times our TOPS tax), has the ability to protect land and build great trails. It was actually the first county in the nation to create a sales tax to protect open space. A portion of those dollars is building Clear Creek Trail. When completed, the 65-mile trail will connect South Platte Trail in Denver to the headwaters of Clear Creek at Loveland Pass.

Clear Creek Trail was one of former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s 16 highest priority trail projects. So was the project surrounding Ring the Peak Trail. Clear Creek Trail is making good progress with three new miles and five new bridges. Ring the Peak Trail is stuck in neutral.

Colorado Springs and El Paso County parks departments do all they can do with limited resources. Who can fault staff for alleged reluctance to shoulder more miles of trail without an increase in manpower?

I love exploring new parks and trails, and I don’t mind driving to enjoy them. But what of families living on the east side, who wonder if they will ever be able to walk or bike to Coleman Community Park? Will the public ever get the chance to see how its TOPS dollars were spent in Fishers Canyon or Corral Bluffs?

Jefferson and Douglas County residents tend to be fiscally conservative, but they do consistently invest in their quality of life.

Davies is the former executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition.