MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Officials announced Wednesday that they have received funding from a state grant to finance a continued extension of the town’s Creek Walk trail that parallels Manitou Avenue and Fountain Creek.
The quarter-of-a-million-dollar award comes from the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) Revitalizing Main Streets program; it will pay for extending the current trail a third of a mile between Old Man Trail (at the east end of Memorial Park) and Mayfair Avenue (near the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce).
This extension will be the fourth of six planned trail segments; the third addition in October 2023 — between Mayfair and Schryver Park — connected to the trail’s east end, under US 24 to near the town limits at the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Columbia Road.
That extension cost around $500,000 and was partially funded by a $400,000 CDOT grant.
Eventually, officials want to extend the trail west, from the old bottling plant to the Rainbow Falls entrance; many people have asked for sidewalks and a trail connection along Serpentine Drive, the narrow and winding road leading to the falls.
The popularity of the trail has made improvements and upgrades a priority for town leaders, particularly to make it easily accessible to the disabled and meet federal standards for that.
Because the trail has paved and unpaved sections, there’s some concern among users that it will eventually become completely paved…