COLORADO SPRINGS — Regular hikers say they’ve never seen the trails in Colorado Springs as crowded as they’ve been lately, especially considering the onset of winter.
On Sunday afternoon at Palmer Park you’d be hard pressed to find a parking spot close to the main trailhead.
What you will find are plenty of dogs, and plenty of hikers accompanying them.
“We’ve been coming here for ten years,” hiker Roman Robinson said.
What brings all these people here in the middle of winter?
“This trail system where you can have dogs off leash,” hiker Georgy Semenov said.
It could just be a matter of habit.
“We walk everyday,” Robinson said.
Maybe it’s the unseasonably warm temperatures we experienced Sunday.
“We grew up in Siberia, it’s much colder there,” Semenov said.
But there’s a bigger reason these trails look more like highways lately.
“Since the pandemic started, it’s really... we’re surprised at the people that’s here everyday,” Robinson said.
This winter, COVID-19 has brought a double dose of cabin fever.
“I would say the traffic here has increased twice fold, or, even more,” Robinson said.
With the pandemic still in full swing, it also calls for a double dose of caution.
“People seem to be very reasonable in our experience,” Semenov said.
These die hard hikers are working to maintain their safe distance.
“There’s been no issue with that,” Robinson said.
Even though distance is a little harder to come by.
“We always be wishing for less people, but it doesn’t always go that way,” he said.
