COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Bret Tennis started working around Garden of the Gods 17 years ago.
“We used to say 1.2 million visitors a year when I started here,” said the park operations administrator. “Now we say over 4.5 million.”
The annual numbers are reportedly similar at Rocky Mountain National Park, where people can spread out across 265,807 acres.
In Garden of the Gods, they pack into 1,367 acres.
The vast majority come in the summer — tourists on vacation between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It’s been that way for as long as Stewart Green has been going to the red rock wonderland, since his 1960s childhood in Colorado Springs.
“But it wasn’t as bad as now,” he said. “The traffic is just terrible this time of year. ... It kind of feels like a carnival ride.”
It doesn’t have to feel that way.
That was the realization of Green, the prolific guidebook writer, from a recent work: “Hiking Garden of the Gods: 20 Loop Hikes.”
“I found that there really is a lot of places where you can go, when you leave the main paved trail, that Perkins Central Trail, and you can get away from people,” Green said.
Yes, come summer, our common role as locals in Garden of the Gods is “playing tour guide,” Tennis recognized. “Locals still come, especially when the family comes and visits.”
Yes, the crowds are bigger than ever in the park of global fame. “And for good reason,” Tennis said.
Are the crowds reason for us to turn away from our grandest, natural treasure? Amid the bustle, can we fall in love with the Garden all over again?
We asked for tips:
Starting out
In the summer, parking lots inside the Garden fill up well before 9 a.m., Tennis said.
This leads to the obvious advice: “Go early,” said Scott Hente, president of Friends of Garden of the Gods. Also, if you can, go Tuesday or Wednesday, which seem to be the slower days of the week.
But even as a regular arriving not long after dawn, “I tend not to drive into the park,” Hente said. “I park on the periphery and walk in.”
That’s where the “overflow lot” comes in. That’s how Tennis and rangers refer to the large parking lot established five years ago at the corner of the main entrance along 30th Street and Gateway Road.
This summer at that intersection, a traffic circle has been established for cars coming in and out of the park. “It has done wonders to help with the flow of traffic,” Tennis said.
Translation: Maybe the main entrance is not as daunting as you’ve known it to be this time of year. The “overflow lot” is the way to go, Tennis said.
“’Overflow’ makes it sound misleading, because it’s a great parking lot,” he said. “And it’s just a half-mile (walk) on the Gateway Trail to get to the Central Garden.”
Or rather than proceed to the dramatic, busy core, consider going right or left on trails that can grant you longer loops around the perimeter of the park.
Green also likes to enter from Beckers Lane, a less-trafficked entry on the opposite end of the park between Manitou Avenue and the Trading Post. He takes his chances with the parking lot just up the road from the gift shop, the one numbered 16.
It’s not nearly as big as the “overflow lot.” But it’s bigger than most pull-offs in the park and starts Green on some of his favorite loops.
Trails
It’s not just the congestion inside the park that keeps Hente from recommending the drive in, however spectacular.
“The best way to see the Garden is on foot,” he said.
From the northeast corner of the overflow lot, one option is to take the paved Foothills Trail paralleling 30th Street to the left turn for Dakota Trail, over the retention dam. The path quickly hops a ridge and drops to trail options on your right or left. The bonus of Dakota: as good a chance as any to spot the bighorn sheep that prefer this uncrowded swath.
The more popular Gateway Trail takes you to the same right or left split for dirt trails. Right takes you to Palmer Trail, which skirts the hills overlooking the central formations and boasts gorgeous views of Pikes Peak.
You could continue on Palmer and loop back around on the Scotsman Trail or venture farther to another signature formation, Siamese Twins. Both routes won’t take you away from crowds exactly, but at least you’re not on the road.
At the end of Gateway or Dakota trails, left takes you on Chambers Trail, trending away from the Central Garden. That’s how you dodge crowds — away from the Central Garden.
Chambers Trail leads to the network making up the South Garden, the only area where mountain bikes are allowed. Short and longer loops, all gorgeous, can be made using Ute Trail.
Just north of the South Garden parking lot (No. 10) and across the road is a slim path that gets overlooked: Ridge Trail, a short loop with amazing views. On the southern-most end of the South Garden connecting with Ute Trail is Niobrara Trail. Tennis calls Niobrara “beautiful and underrepresented.”
Green’s go-to parking lot No. 16 is on the opposite, southwest side of the park. He suggests taking Strausenback Trail to Cabin Canyon Trail. Cabin Canyon is a short loop around woods and overlooks often missed in favor of the loop trail adjacent to it; the trek can be made into a figure-eight with the Siamese Twins Trail.
Grab a park map from the visitor and nature center or from the Friends of Garden of the Gods website: https://tinyurl.com/2p9beh9x.
Other ideas
“Motorless mornings” are Hente’s favorite times at the park.
The next installment of the Early Bird Hike and Bike series, when cars are barred from 5 a.m.-8 a.m., is set for July 26. Vehicle-free Wednesday mornings are also set for Aug. 30 and Sept. 27. Longer motorless mornings are typically set aside for Saturdays later in the year.
OK, so you want to drive in. Do it with something that aims to take your mind off traffic.
The park last year launched an audio tour created by TravelStorysGPS, a free phone app “presenting place-based, authentic content to orient, inform and inspire people in real time as they travel.” Tennis likes to think even the most knowledgeable local can learn something new while driving the loop road set to a narration of the Garden’s natural and cultural history.
Speaking of history, it lives in the summer next door at Rock Ledge Ranch. Staff reenact the pioneer life that shaped the historic site, which is free to enter.
It's another option to spread out, Tennis said. “It’s really a step back in time. I feel like people don’t realize how cool that place is.”
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