Hank Scarangella recently dug up a Gazette article from 1994 that detailed the Colorado Springs City Council reviewing a master plan for Garden of the Gods Park.

Councilmembers rejected the proposal at the time. Among other requests, they wanted planners to look into “a permit system to limit summertime traffic,” the newspaper reported.

“I don’t know what the number of visitors were in 1994, but certainly nothing like what we’re seeing now,” said Scarangella, a longtime volunteer at the park and past president of Friends of Garden of the Gods.

Now the city’s most-heralded destination sees an estimated 4.5 million visitors a year. That’s on par with Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon and Zion national parks, which spread much more than the Garden’s 2 square miles.

The master plan from nearly 30 years ago has not been updated. Scarangella is among advocates who say it’s beyond time — time for a modern guide to management in this age of unceasing popularity.

“There are no priorities — that’s the thing that absolutely floors me,” said Peggy Dolinich, vice president of the friends group who worked 41 years with the National Park Service. “How are you going to manage people? How are you going to manage the resource?”

Those are timely questions for Garden of the Gods’ new manager.

The city parks department recently announced the appointment of Anna Cordova, who spent the past seven years as the department’s archaeologist. She sees her past work translating well.

“Archaeology is all about preservation and consultation, and making sure we’re involving all the stakeholders,” she said.

That’s what the Garden needs more than ever, advocates say: a focus on preservation and a hard talk about addressing all-too familiar scenes at the park during the summer.

Traffic backed up along 30th Street. Traffic backed up in the park.

Parking lots full, including the large “overflow” lot beside the park’s entrance. Lines of people waiting there for a shuttle ride down into the Central Garden.

Sidewalks in the Central Garden clogged with walkers and dogs. People climbing across the signature rock formations, as seen in pictures on Dolinich’s phone.

“The resource cannot hold this amount of abuse,” she said.

From counters at the park’s entrances, Scarangella said volunteers are tracking a 15% year-to-year growth. He sees that as problematic.

“I think we’re about as many people as you could possibly squeeze in there,” he said. “I think we’re basically at what (the park) can carry.”

It’s such observations that have led the likes of Rocky Mountain and Arches national parks to institute timed-entry reservations during the summer, capping crowds. The city of Colorado Springs runs a reservation system for the Manitou Incline.

“It’s not a new idea for any park to think at some point about something like timed entry,” Cordova said. “But that, of course, costs resources and people to help run that kind of thing.”

That is the case as well for a shuttle system that would take visitors around the park, beyond just the front entrance, as it runs now. Experts hired by the city proposed that broader system in a 2018 study.

More stops would take more cars off the road through the Garden, Scarangella said, noting one problem: “You still gotta park those people somewhere.”

And it begs the same question, Cordova said: Where would the money come from to run an expanded shuttle? (The cost for the one, short route currently is shared by the city and the Garden of the Gods Foundation, which collects revenues from visitor center sales.)

While noble, “the requirement that (the park) always needs to be free and open to the public — that’s a challenge for us,” Cordova said, referring to the park’s historic deed. “A lot of properties don’t necessarily have that particular challenge, but it’s a big one for the Garden.”

It’s another part of the hard conversation that would come about with an updated master plan. Just as the conversation in 1994 was controversial, so it would be today, Scarangella said.

As an economic driver, the Garden has always existed along “tension between attracting visitors and protecting the resource,” Scarangella said. 

An archaeologist seems the right fit, he said. “She’ll bring that conservation perspective.”