On a weekday morning in late summer, a small crew of volunteers hauled lumber up Sand Canyon Trail by hand. The materials had come as far as a Colorado Springs Parks senior ranger could drive them, which meant the last stretch, up toward the junction with Contemplative Trail, was on foot. The job was replacing a bench that had sat in that spot for seventeen years and had finally rotted through. It was the second bench the group had rebuilt in recent months.
The crew wasn't a city work order. It was Friends of Red Rock Canyon, the nonprofit that has quietly kept Old Colorado City's backyard open space running for years, joined that day by volunteers from Friends of Cheyenne Mountain State Park and Friends of Ute Pass Trails. If you've walked, biked, or let your dog off-leash in Red Rock Canyon Open Space this year, you've been using trails this same network of unpaid people maintains, mile by mile, board by board.
That bench isn't the interesting part, though it's a good scene to picture the next time you pass it. The interesting part happened three weeks later, and it tells you something about how this neighborhood's most-used open space actually works.
The Fee for Naming Your Own Trail
On August 13, 2026, the Colorado Springs Parks Advisory Board approved a proposal from Friends of Red Rock Canyon to rename White Acres Trail to Don Ellis Trail, honoring a man the Friends credit with almost single-handedly protecting the open space for public use. It's the kind of quiet civic honor that should be simple. It isn't.
Before the sign can change, the Friends have to wait for the city attorney to draft a formal agreement, get it signed, and pay an $850 implementation fee. The change is expected to happen sometime this fall, though the exact timeline is still working through the city's process as of this writing.
Sit with that for a second. The organization that plans the trail work, replaces the benches, and lobbies for the name in the first place is also the one writing the check to make the paperwork official. Red Rock Canyon is a City of Colorado Springs open space, but the daily texture of it, the maintenance, the advocacy, even the honorific naming, runs through a volunteer group that has to clear the same administrative hurdles as anyone else asking the city for a favor.
If you've ever wondered why Red Rock Canyon feels more cared-for than some other city parks, this is the answer. It's not a bigger parks budget. It's a nonprofit that treats the canyon like it belongs to the neighborhood, because functionally, it does.
What the Friends Are Actually Watching Over
Red Rock Canyon Open Space covers roughly 1,474 acres just outside Old Colorado City, about four miles west of downtown, with trail access off West High Street via Ridge Road. It's not a small side lot. Trailforks counts 68 named trails inside it, 64 of which are open to mountain biking, and the terrain ranges from the easy Contemplative Trail loop to steeper mileage like Palmer Trail, which climbs over 1,100 feet.
A few things worth knowing if you use the space regularly:
- There are two fenced, off-leash dog loops. Everywhere else in the canyon, dogs need to stay on a leash, including on connector trails.
- The Intemann Trail links Red Rock Canyon to Manitou Springs and the Section 16 trail system, so the loop you started here doesn't have to end here.
- E-bikes are not allowed anywhere in the canyon. That policy has been an active conversation between the Friends, the city, and Palmer Land Trust, which holds the conservation easement on the property, and it's the kind of rule that exists because a volunteer board pushed for it, not because a city ordinance drafted it in isolation.
None of this changes what the canyon looks like on a Saturday morning. What it changes is how you think about the trail markers, the benches, and the rules you're following out there. They're not default city infrastructure. They're the result of a specific group of neighbors deciding, repeatedly, that the space was worth the effort.
The Same Pattern Shows Up on the Avenue
Walk two miles east from the Ridge Road trailhead and you land on West Colorado Avenue, where the same volunteer-and-small-business logic runs the neighborhood's fall calendar.
The Old Colorado City Farmers Market has held its Saturday morning slot in Bancroft Park for more than 40 years, and this season's run closes out on October 17, 2026, with more than 80 vendors setting up between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. one last time before the market goes dark for winter. It isn't a city-run market. It's presented by Pikes Peak Farmers Markets, an independent organization that coordinates vendors, produce, and logistics every week from June through mid-October.
The week after the market wraps, the neighborhood pivots straight into its bigger fall event. Pumpkins in the Park takes over Bancroft Park on October 24, 2026, from noon to 6 p.m., with a pumpkin patch, painting, live music, fall crafts, and food built for families who've been coming for years. Alongside it, local businesses along the Avenue spend the entire month decorating their storefronts with scarecrows, a tradition that turns a walk down Colorado Avenue into something closer to a scavenger hunt than a shopping trip.
And the First Friday ArtWalk, which fills West Colorado Avenue between 23rd and 27th streets from 5 to 8 p.m. on the first Friday of every month, keeps going into the colder months. Galleries like the Michael Garman Museum and Second Floor Studios stay open late, artists set up demonstrations, and a handful of restaurants along the strip put out snacks for anyone making the rounds.
None of these events are franchise programming. They're organized by the same kind of small, dedicated groups that keep the trails in Red Rock Canyon standing. A merchant association plans the market and the ArtWalk. Individual shop owners plan their own scarecrows. The Friends of Red Rock Canyon plan the trail work. Old Colorado City runs on people who decided this particular half-square-mile was worth their unpaid time, and that's true whether you're looking at a bench on Sand Canyon Trail or a pumpkin patch in Bancroft Park.
Where to End Up When You're Done
If your Saturday starts on a trail and ends on the Avenue, OCC Brewing at 2316 West Colorado Avenue sits close enough to the canyon to make sense as the last stop. It's dog-friendly on the front patio, and the rooftop deck is the kind of spot where the Pikes Peak view does most of the work at sunset. The brewery was co-founded in 2021 by Dan and Claire Ramos, both former wildlife biologists who traded fieldwork for sixteen rotating taps and a scratch kitchen. The Korean Cheesesteak has become the dish regulars mention first.
It's a small detail, but it fits the theme. Even the brewery a few blocks from the trailhead was started by people who used to study the land for a living and decided to stick around it instead.
What This Means If You Live Here
You don't need any of this to enjoy Red Rock Canyon or a Saturday on the Avenue. The trails were already good. The market was already worth the early alarm. But knowing that a nonprofit paid an $850 fee to honor the person who saved the space you walk your dog in every week changes how you see the sign when it finally goes up this fall. It's not a city fixture. It's a thank-you note that took three months and a formal agreement to send.
If you want to be part of what keeps this neighborhood running the way it does, Friends of Red Rock Canyon takes volunteers for trail days, and the merchants along the Avenue could always use another face at First Friday. Either way, you're not just living near Old Colorado City's fall calendar. You're one of the people who makes it possible.
If you're curious about what's happening in the neighborhood beyond this fall, or you're weighing a move within it, Innovative Moves is a good place to start that conversation.
