If you live in Peregrine, the open space at the end of Woodmen Road has been the same shared trail network for a decade. That is about to change. The entire Blodgett Master Plan will be completed by summer of 2026, and the finished version is not a bigger copy of what you already know. It is two purpose-built halves stitched together, with a new southern entrance that will pull much of the parking pressure off the trailhead you use now.
The thesis is simple. Blodgett is being deliberately separated by use. The north end near the peak becomes hike-first. The south end under the old quarry becomes bike-first. If you have been reading the neighborhood the way you always have, that shift changes where you park, which trails your dog can share, and which routes you should send visiting family on.
North and South Are No Longer the Same Park
Here is the split, drawn from city planning documents and the local trail advocates who sat on the stakeholder committee.
| Section | Primary use after 2026 | Anchor access |
|---|---|---|
| North (Blodgett Peak side) | Hiking-only and multi-use | North Blodgett Trailhead, 3786 Woodmen Road |
| South (Pikeview Quarry side) | Mountain bike-focused, "Blodgett Bike Hill" | New south parking lot below the quarry |
| Connector | Multi-use trails linking north to south | Red Squirrel and future regional segments |
The plan brings new opportunities for separated use trails, with MTB-only trails in the southern section adjacent to the quarry and hiking-only trails in the north closer to Blodgett Peak itself, plus multi-use trail connections from north to south. That is the design intent stated by the mountain biking stakeholders themselves, and it lines up with what the city's parks administrator described publicly. The city heard vocal interest from the community for single-use trails, so hiking-only trails were incorporated on the northern portion of the open space, and bike-only trails were created for more of the southern portion.
For a Peregrine resident, the practical translation: the loop you take after work from the main lot will feel quieter on bike days, and the drive to ride flowy singletrack will get shorter than heading down to Palmer Park or up to Falcon Trail.
The South Trailhead Is the Real News
The trail everyone talks about is the peak. The change that will actually shift your weekends is a parking lot. In the coming weeks, expect to hear more about trails opening around the south end of Blodgett Open Space, from a new parking lot below Pikeview Quarry. That entrance sits well south of the Woodmen Road trailhead, closer to Allegheny Road, on land the city acquired in 2021.
Two things follow from this.
First, the North Blodgett lot stops being the only front door. If you have been arriving at 8:15 on a Saturday to fight for a spot, the south entrance gives you a second option that funnels straight into the bike-oriented network. Trails are expected to debut near Blodgett Open Space's southernmost boundary, beneath Pikeview Quarry.
Second, the character of each lot will diverge. North stays the family-and-dog side, with the classic North Blodgett Loop starting from the wide gravel path, taking the thinner trail to the right, entering a tunnel of oak and switchbacking up the hillside for views of Blodgett and neighboring promontories, dropping into creek-fed woods, and climbing to a municipal water tank and castle-like rock formations before finishing through a wavy meadow. South becomes the destination lot for riders and trail runners doing longer efforts.
Fenceline Is Gone. Fenceline 2.0 Is What Replaces It
If you have ridden or run Fenceline, know that the version you remember is being retired on the city side of the property line. The master plan shows removal of Fenceline on city property, replaced with new MTB trails including a flow trail and two options for tech trail. The new Fenceline 2.0 on city property has been professionally constructed by contractors to include multiple options for different skill levels, continues to take advantage of the long uphill and downhill terrain, and includes crossings that will reduce user conflicts. Riding options include fast, steep and tech sections as well as flow trail with air features.
The upper portion of old Fenceline stays intact because it sits on U.S. Forest Service land, which the city cannot touch. That is why the map looks stitched together up there. It is not a design flaw. It is a jurisdictional line.
What Red Squirrel and North Blodgett Loop Look Like Right Now
The connective tissue is already in the ground. The Gazette's trails writer walked it in April.
From the upper meadow, South Blodgett Loop narrows and flows through knolls burned by the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire. The loop continues right at a marker, which points straight for Red Squirrel Trail. Red Squirrel continues to wind up and over the hills. Blodgett Peak looms closer as the trail makes its way north to a charming, green forest spared by the fire. Our tracker was close to 1 1/2 miles at a marker where we stayed straight for Red Squirrel, which swoops down between tall pines.
That is a 2.6-mile loop with roughly 600 feet of gain that stitches the two halves of the open space together on foot. For Peregrine residents this is the shoulder-season answer: too muddy for the peak, not enough time for a full ride, still enough for a real workout that ends at your car.
The Chamberlain Trail Is the Long Game
The other item that changes how you should think about Blodgett is a regional connection most residents have not heard about. Eventually, the new trail called Chamberlain will stretch 16 miles from Cheyenne Mountain State Park to Blodgett Open Space in the northwest corner of Colorado Springs and El Paso County. Chamberlain makes its way across Fenceline.
The full corridor is years out, but the northern terminus is already inside the open space at your doorstep. When it lands, Peregrine sits at one end of a continuous 16-mile trail spine that reaches the south side of the city without a car. That is the kind of amenity that shows up in property descriptions once it is real. It is not real yet. The alignment through the finished Blodgett is.
The Pikeview Quarry Piece
The quarry itself is not part of the current master plan, but it is the next chapter. The Blodgett planning process does not include Pikeview Quarry, which is still under reclamation and is still planned to be donated to the city of Colorado Springs now that reclamation is completed. The transfer is expected in 2026. After that donation, an additional planning process would begin, to plan for the community's world class bike park on the Pikeview site.
Read that carefully. The transfer is expected this year. Planning for what the quarry becomes starts after. If you own in Peregrine and you assumed the scarred hillside south of the ridge would sit unused for another decade, the timeline is faster than that.
The Sheep Question
One more detail worth having in your pocket, because it will come up in HOA conversations and neighborhood forums. Bighorn sheep lambing areas north of Blodgett Open Space toward Blodgett Peak are not part of the city's planning process. It is possible that seasonal lambing closures on National Forest could be required in the future, after additional analysis by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. It is not envisioned that seasonal closures will be required on the city's Blodgett Open Space property.
Translation: seasonal closures, if they happen, would sit on the Forest Service portion above the city boundary. The trails you actually use from Peregrine are not currently slated for spring shutdowns.
What Actually Changes for a Peregrine Resident This Summer
- Your default trailhead has a sibling. Try the south lot once it opens and you will have two entry points to rotate between.
- Dog-walking stays cleanest on the north side, where hiking-only alignments reduce bike encounters. North Blodgett Trailhead is at 3786 Woodmen Road, open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. May through October and until 9 p.m. November through April, with multi-use trails and dogs on leash.
- Route-finding to the summit is still a Forest Service problem, not a city problem, and the warnings on it have not softened. Route finding to the summit of Blodgett Peak can be difficult and treacherous. Serious injuries and fatalities have occurred. The exercise of extreme caution is recommended.
- Construction is not finished. Trail users will see flags marking trail alignments as well as flags for mitigation work through the Colorado Springs Fire Department, and construction equipment may cause temporary, isolated closures.
The Neighborhood Read
Blodgett was always Peregrine's back-door asset. The 2026 completion changes what that asset is. It is not a single 384-acre trail system anymore. It is a purpose-built pair, with a new southern gateway, a regional trail terminus, and a quarry-to-bike-park conversion queued behind it. Residents who understand the split will use the space better than residents who keep parking at the same lot out of habit.
If you are thinking about how the finished Blodgett Master Plan affects the long-term value of your Peregrine home, or if you are looking at a purchase up here and want a broker who reads local infrastructure carefully, Precision Spaces can walk the specifics with you. Contact Rob for a precision market plan.
