Regional trail still under construction

QUESTION: Down at the Fountain Creek Regional Trail, near the Fountain Creek Nature Center, there is a sign with a map that identifies the main trail that runs through this El Paso County Park as part of the Colorado Front Range Trail.
It also implies that this trail runs from New Mexico to Wyoming. I do know that the trail runs uninterrupted from this Fountain Creek park to at least Monument Park. But I also know that if you head south it comes to an abrupt end before reaching the city of Fountain. The map does not indicate any uncompleted portions of this trail, but obviously there is at least one. Is this map perhaps representative of things to come rather than a reflection of reality?
- Dan Kulp

ANSWER: The Colorado Front Range Trail “is a combination of a vision and a dream, and it is also partly reality,” said Chris Lieber, the city’s Trails and Open Space program administrator. Someday it is expected to be a 900-mile trail from Wyoming to New Mexico along the Front Range.

Some segments are complete, including through Colorado Springs and north to Palmer Lake. Going south, the county has completed the portion you mentioned. Also completed are northern segments, including parts of Denver and near Fort Collins.
Lieber said Colorado State Parks is “the statewide champion of the project” but relies on counties and communities to complete their individual sections. So far, more than 270 miles of trail have been completed but there are “missing gaps to be filled in.”

The signs, provided by Colorado State Parks and the Front Range Trail Initiative, show the projected end product.