Blodgett Opened in July. The Rest of the Palmer Park Route Is Still Being Built.

Seven miles of new trail opened at Blodgett Open Space on July 17, 2026. Most coverage treated it as a new place to ride downhill. City trail planners describe something larger. Once the remaining segments at Austin Bluffs are finished, a rider will be able to leave Palmer Park, cross Austin Bluffs and Ute Valley, and climb into Blodgett on very little pavement. The July opening is the northern anchor of that route. This fall the work is concentrated in the links between the parks, so some pieces are open and some are still fenced off.

What Opened at Blodgett on July 17

The City of Colorado Springs opened the southern part of Blodgett Open Space after more than a year of construction. This was the first major project under the Blodgett Open Space Master and Management Plan, which was finished in summer 2024. According to the city's opening release, the seven miles break down this way:

• 2.5 miles of directional, downhill bike-only trails
• Four miles of multi-use trail for hikers and mountain bikers
• One-half mile of regional trail
• A new trailhead with 50 parking spaces
• Four trail bridges, new signage, and the closure and restoration of numerous unauthorized social trails

The city's figure for bike-only mileage is 2.5 miles, and that's the number used here. Some coverage has described the hill as offering about seven miles of downhill trail, but seven miles is the total for the whole southern system.

The project was paid for by the Trails, Open Space and Parks sales tax program and a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Non-Motorized Trail Grant, and all three trailhead gates close every night. The July release listed hours as 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. The city's Blodgett Open Space page shows seasonal hours of 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. from May 1 through October 31, switching to 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on November 1.

The Bike Hill is the city's newest bike-only trail, and other parks already have some. David Deitemeyer, senior program administrator for Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, lists the Chutes and Captain Morgan's in Cheyenne Canyon, Black Sheep in Austin Bluffs, and bike-only trails in Ute Valley as examples. He says demand for single-use trails comes from both mountain bikers and hikers.

The Hiking Trail Next to the Bike Hill

Past the bridge from the new Quarry Trailhead, hikers can either take the Bike Hill's climbing trail or continue onto the North Chamberlain Trail. The Gazette's Seth Boster reported in September that the multi-use trail was getting little attention while most of the interest went to the bike hill.

The route begins beside a grassy hillside and enters oak and pine woods, with Blodgett Peak ahead. Two overlooks look back over the reclaimed Pikeview Quarry and the foothills toward Cheyenne Mountain. The first is close to a mile in, and the second is about a quarter mile farther, where the trail ends and other trails keep going up a ridge.

The Northern End of a 25-Year Project

The North Chamberlain Trail is the northernmost segment of a singletrack route the city has planned along the foothills from Blodgett Open Space to Cheyenne Mountain State Park. Deitemeyer describes the goal as a trail you can ride in pieces or all in one day, close to the city but feeling removed from it.

The plan calls for about 32 miles of Chamberlain Trail, and about 20 are built so far. That total includes trail built only for the Chamberlain, shared trails such as the Foothills Trail through Garden of the Gods, and road connections through Skyway. According to Deitemeyer, the remaining gaps are mostly where individual property owners haven't wanted to grant access or where the connection is physically harder to build.

The southern end is moving slowly. The city expects construction of the trailhead and trail system at Fishers Canyon Open Space, a 343-acre property on the northeast side of Cheyenne Mountain, to be underway in 2027.

Austin Bluffs Holds the Missing Link

The Chamberlain Trail runs north to south along the foothills. The second connection runs east and west through Austin Bluffs Open Space, and it's the one closer to being finished.

The city has been building singletrack on what it calls the Spine Trail in two segments. The first was finished last December and climbs from the lower ground near Pulpit Rock up to the Rim Trail. The second runs from the high ground around Rockhurst and the Rim Trail southeast and downhill toward the intersection of Union and Austin Bluffs. When Springs Magazine published its interview with Deitemeyer on September 8, the second segment was still under construction. He described what it will make possible:

"So now you can ride from Palmer Park through Austin Bluffs using some of our urban trail. You can get over to Ute Valley and then take that all the way up into Blodgett with some of the new trail we're doing there. You're connected with very little pavement and road use from Palmer Park to Blodgett."

The Enlightenment Trail at Pulpit Rock is also in Austin Bluffs. It's a hiking-only route with just over 400 stone steps. Deitemeyer says it is "not like the Incline." It's still fairly steep, but it winds instead of running straight up, so it fits the open space better. The planned approach starts at the parking lot off North Nevada Avenue near University Village. The city's 2026 TOPS plan aimed to finish about 2.5 miles of Spine Trail and the Enlightenment Trail this year.

Open Now, Under Construction, and Unconfirmed

This table shows the status of each piece based on the latest reports we found.

We found no report confirming that the Enlightenment Trail or the second Spine Trail segment has opened since early September. In May, KOAA reported that the Austin Bluffs project would run through summer 2026. At that point the south lot was closed, the north lot closed on and off, and the Lori Cohen Connector and Black Sheep trails were temporarily closed. Summit Trail still provided access to Pulpit Rock. We couldn't confirm whether those closures have been lifted. Check the city's Austin Bluffs Open Space page before planning a loop that uses them.

What the Rest of 2026 Adds at Blodgett

The work at Blodgett is moving north. The city expects about seven more miles of new and improved trail in the central and northern parts of the open space by the end of 2026. The master plan also calls for 1.5 miles of hiking-only trail in the northern section, which did not burn in the Waldo Canyon Fire. During planning, people asked to keep that shadier, cooler area feeling like a hiking area.

The Pikeview Quarry is not part of this project. The city accepted the reclaimed quarry as a donation in April 2026 after an independent geotechnical review found its slope stable. It's on the city's list of unfunded projects and was left out of the 2027 budget cycle. Deitemeyer said master planning could start in 2028.

Trailheads Along the Route

To use the parts of the route that are open now, these are the trailheads with confirmed addresses:

1. Quarry Trailhead, Blodgett: 7250 Allegheny Drive, 50 spaces, the starting point for the Bike Hill and North Chamberlain.
2. Blodgett north lot: off Woodmen Road, according to the city's directions for the open space.
3. North Pulpit Rock trailhead: 6411 N. Nevada Ave., the entry point for Austin Bluffs from the north.
4. Ute Valley Park: main trailhead and parking at 1705 Vindicator Drive. The city asks visitors to stay on designated trails and respect Natural Preservation Area closures.
5. Palmer Park: 3650 Maizeland Road, with parking at several trailheads, overlooks and sports fields.

Volunteer groups maintain parts of the route the city doesn't build. Guardians of Palmer Park held a workday on October 3 to close a rogue trail and install erosion-control check dams. In July, Friends of Ute Valley Park volunteers cleared trail corridors and cleaned up trailheads. The city lists Friends of Peregrine Parks & Open Spaces as the Friends group for Blodgett.

For homeowners in the northwest corridor, being close to trails is a big part of what a property is worth, and the parks between Palmer Park and Blodgett are changing that every season. If you'd like to know how access to these trailheads factors into pricing near Ute Valley, Austin Bluffs or Blodgett, Strategic Property Advisors can walk you through the local data. Request a Market Consultation.