Lifestyle

Published October 23, 2026 6:00am

Ute Indian Trail

The masses head up the Manitou Incline while few notice the trail starting right next to it. A sign marks Ute Indian Trail, “a hike through history.”

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It’s a history long predating the former Manitou Scenic Incline Railway that closed in 1990, ahead of the wooden tracks becoming stepped up by fitness fanatics near and far. Ute Indian Trail recalls the route taken by Native people bound for higher hunting grounds before wagons bound for gold.

Now the trail is used mostly by local runners who know it to be an alternate challenge to the Incline. Our recommendation: If you can do the Incline, do not miss the quieter, more scenic Ute Indian Trail.

View from Ute Indian Trail above Manitou Springs. (Seth Boster, The Gazette)

It starts steeply up a wide path before the marked right turn for a thin trail that climbs the hillside.…