I'm going to Colorado Springs for a Sunday evening wedding in a couple weeks. Then, I'll have Monday and up till 3:00pm Tuesday to enjoy the area. Going to Garden of the Gods with non-runner friends on Sunday before the wedding. I know there are tons of things to do, but I've never been there - looking for recommendations. Need to run both days.
Where are you staying?....There is a cash 5K on Sat morning, run at the Garden.
I won't be there till Sat night...staying downtown
There is a nice trail that goes north from downtown into the Air Force Academy grounds..
The Santa Fe trail is pretty easy to get to, you can jump on it in the vicinity of I-25. It's mostly paved in the Springs. I recommend starting just outside the air force academy north gate, it's upaved in that area north of the Springs. The trailhead is in Monument (about 15 min north of town) and goes to the south side of the Springs
If you're staying downtown and want to run from the hotel you should take Bijou street West (towards the mountains) and across Monument creek. Once there, you can either
A) hop on the trail and run North to Monument valley park (a mile or so) where there are a few nice trails, or if you want a longer run keep following it north until it turns back to dirt in about 8 miles when you have gotten to the AFA grounds
OR
B) run south on the trail, follow it underneath the interstate and past the wal-mart and into Bear Creek Regional Park where there are a shit-ton of trails (cross 21st street to the west) that could ultimately lead you up into the mountains (gold camp road, high drive, section 16, intemann trail, etc) depending on how long you want to run.
Or, if you want to drive to a run, i would suggest either waldo canyon, gold camp road, or section 16. both waldo and sect. 16 are 6-7 mile mountain loops and gold camp is a dirt road that goes on forever back up into the mountains (40ish miles to cripple creek).
if you want a sweet-ass long run drive up to rampart reservoir and run the 14-15ish mile loop around that. GORGEOUS singletrack at 9000' without much climbing to speak of.
Or, just run in the Garden. Great trails there, too.
Add Cheyenne Canyon to the above list.
Other tourist things to do: Tour the US Olympic Complex. Takes 45 minutes (give or take). Is the Air Force Academy open to the public? If so driving through is nice, love the B52 and T-38s!
http://forums.runnersworld.com/thread.jspa?threadID=272321&tstart=0
The above is mostly focused on trails near the Broadmoor--probably outside your budget.
Thanks for the suggestions and the RW link (funny - similar post). I'll probably run from the hotel Sunday and Monday, drive to a run Tues. Olympic Complex sounds good.
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