Colorado awarded a $2.5 million grant Tuesday to the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, marking the nonprofit’s largest single funding award in its history and signaling a major shift from years of planning to tangible trail construction and conservation work across the region. Governor Jared Polis announced the funding alongside Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials and PPORA representatives, with the grant coming from Great Outdoors Colorado through the Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative to advance outdoor recreation and conservation efforts spanning El Paso, Teller, and Fremont counties.
“We’ve taken that planning, and now we’re moving to action,” Becky Leinweber, PPORA executive director, said Tuesday at the grant announcement event beside Gov. Jared Polis and other federal, state, and local officials. The funding follows PPORA’s release of a 491-page vision plan titled the Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative, developed over four years of meeting with stakeholders, identifying priorities, and convening land managers, advocates, and business leaders throughout the three-county region.
A primary focus of the funding centers on the Ring the Peak Trail, a decades-long project mapped as a 63-mile loop around Pikes Peak that has persisted with unfilled gaps and unsolved logistics. The grant will fund a 1.5-mile paved segment of the Ute Pass Regional Trail between Cascade and Green Mountain Falls, including a new trailhead. This segment will nearly complete the trail paralleling Ute Pass and U.S. 24 between Manitou Springs and the Teller County line. Additional trail building in the North Slope Recreation Area will align with planning under Colorado Springs Utilities, which manages the Catamount reservoirs off the Pikes Peak Highway.
The grant also allocates resources for analysis of potential camping infrastructure along the Ring the Peak corridor. Leinweber described plans “to look at where we have an opportunity to build camping infrastructure.” Officials characterized this analysis as essential for enabling CPW to manage recreation effectively while securing a revenue-generating fee income source to support partner land managers. National Environmental Policy Act analysis is needed for other Ring the Peak segments, with Leinweber noting, “We need to make sure those are authorized and official.”
Trail network expansions consistently drive increased visitation to surrounding areas, creating measurable demand for overnight accommodations. Properties located within reasonable driving distance of popular trailheads typically experience higher occupancy rates during peak hiking and biking seasons. The nearly complete Ute Pass Regional Trail connecting Cascade, Green Mountain Falls, and Manitou Springs will create a continuous recreation corridor likely to generate demand for overnight stays at various points along its length.
The planned camping infrastructure analysis indicates officials recognize the need for overnight options along the trail corridor. Private campground, RV park, and glamping resort operators in the region may face future competition from public camping facilities or, alternatively, potential opportunities for public-private partnerships in managing new sites.
Governor Polis has promoted the concept of a Pikes Peak Recreation Area, envisioning a model similar to Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, where CPW manages recreation along 152 miles of federal lands and waters. Referring to federal lands covering more than a third of the state, Polis said, “And we love our public lands, but (federal land managers) are very hands-off and have very little ability to work with locals dynamically and quickly to do things. Things take a long time going through Washington. So really by having this kind of collaboration, we want to be able to provide more reactive management to meet the local community needs.”
A letter of intent was signed by land managers in 2025 seeking CPW to manage recreation along the Ring the Peak corridor, with a short-term agreement potentially announced in summer 2026. The governor’s budget proposes an initial four full-time employees “to actually get out there doing management and enforcement work our partners are telling us they need help with,” according to Frank McGee, CPW’s Southeast Region Manager.
The grant funds a three-year pilot ambassador program through nonprofit Rocky Mountain Field Institute, which will hire staffers to serve in ranger-like roles for visitor education and trail maintenance. The program runs the length of the three-year grant.
Additional funded projects include forest thinning at Dome Rock State Wildlife Area to improve bighorn sheep habitat and reduce wildfire risk, along with updated infrastructure and 15 additional campsites for Red Canyon Park near Cañon City along the Gold Belt Scenic Byway. “There’s a lot of dispersed camping along Phantom Canyon, but there needs to be some upgrades there as well and some management of that dispersed camping,” Leinweber said regarding projects funded along Phantom Canyon Road between Teller and Fremont counties.
The ambassador program model reflects growing emphasis on visitor education and trail stewardship across public lands. Properties that proactively educate guests about responsible recreation typically report fewer incidents of resource damage and wildlife conflicts. Conservation organizations throughout the region have expanded volunteer opportunities and educational programming that appeal to environmentally conscious travelers.
The $2.5 million grant serves as a catalyst for a larger $6.1 million comprehensive project when combined with $3.6 million in matching funds from partner agencies including Colorado Parks and Wildlife, El Paso County, Colorado Springs Utilities, Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, the City of Cañon City, and the Bureau of Land Management. Projects are slated to develop over the next three years across these jurisdictions. The Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative was announced in 2025 and runs until 2030, with this grant potentially the first of more funding to come. Future funding relies on matching funds and communities demonstrating shared commitment.
The initiative aligns with Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy emphasizing collaborative conservation across federal, state, and local jurisdictions.
For the Pikes Peak region, this investment signals sustained growth in recreation infrastructure and visitation over the coming years. Trail stewardship organizations, tourism bureaus, and local outfitters throughout the region are positioned for cross-promotional opportunities as the trail network approaches completion. The regional conservation goals create cohesive visitor experiences while land management agencies navigate the balance between expanding recreation access and protecting natural resources.