COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — For over a month, North Cheyenne Cañon Road stood quiet and inaccessible, its pavement torn apart by a powerful storm that washed out an entire lane.
But as of Friday afternoon, the gates are open again and within hours, the Cañon was alive with the sounds of cyclists, hikers and families rediscovering their favorite spot in nature.
“I’m really excited,” said mountain biker Maxwell Mirk. “Now we're going to get back out to my three days a week minimum, so I don't go crazy.”
Mirk and fellow riders had been navigating the trails during the closure, enjoying a rare stretch of solitude without vehicle traffic.
“It was kind of wonderful,” he said. “There was a lot more wildlife up here. It was calmer, more nature sounds, too… You could just tool up the road and be locked in your own brain.”
For Mirk and others, this road isn’t just another trail route, it’s part of their weekly ritual.
Mountain biker Alex Cheshmedjiev, was among the first to return.
“I actually got here around like 3:30 p.m., and I was down at the gates, and there was, like, three or four park ranger trucks just parked there," said Cheshmedjiev. "The gates were closed, I was debating turning back around.”
And just as he almost lost hope, “I just decided to be patient," said Cheshmedjiev. "Luckily, they opened right in front of me, and I was the first car up here. It was super peaceful, super quiet… but it did fill up really fast.”
At Helen Hunt Falls, the reopening aligned perfectly with one family’s birthday plans.
“We have checked more than once,” said visitor Glenn Walls. “Actually drove here to see if it was open. We missed it. I knew about it before they did, and I’m like, 'I’m gonna surprise her [his daughter] tonight for her birthday.'”
Some visitors had no idea they had picked such a fortunate day to visit Colorado Springs for the first time.
“We would have come here this morning…maybe on our way to Garden of the Gods, and it would have been closed,” said first-time visitor Anne Marie Keohane. “So, we just feel very lucky, very fortunate, to get to see it.”
While some repair work remains, including the installation of a permanent guardrail, the gates are officially open. With that, North Cheyenne Cañon is once again a hub for weekend rituals, spontaneous hikes and moments of joy in nature.
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