By Gail Allen
At our annual meeting, last fall, we asked the membership to prioritize potential projects according to need or perceived importance. The idea of expanded parking at the Barr Trailhead ranked very high. So, the board of FOTP decided to see what they could do about it.
We approached the City of Manitou Springs, (new owner of the trailhead), at the City Council meeting on February 10th, with a request to expand the parking lot. We cited exponential increase in the use of Barr Trail in recent years. The result? Manitou Mayor, Nancy Hankin, responded that the city already looked into expanding the lot and concluded that “no more than about 10 spaces could be added without prohibitively expensive excavation". Instead, the city will encourage use of the newly initiated circulator bus service, which will take people up Ruxton Avenue to the Cog Railway, and will be available for use by hikers as well. As of this writing, the bus schedule is not available. We would like to encourage our membership and the public to take advantage of this free service, when it becomes available. This should help reduce the mess that is “trying-to-get-a-parking-space-at-Barr-Trail-in-the-summer". Also, please do not use any parking at the Cog Railway. Their parking is for Cog customers only.
