Question for Non-Colorado Spring Natives (Colorado Springs: house, neighborhood, area code)

[herecomesunshine]

Can you please recommend some natural beauty around, in, near or within biking distance of my remotely-new neighborhood in Colorado Springs/CS area code 80903? i am not from around this state at all and are having constantly a difficult time finding directions or accurate addresses to certain hiking parks, reservoirs, trails and open-spaces. Since i don't know where i am going most of the time in CS i got On-Star in my car (which is like a GPS system though less popular if you have no idea what 'On-Star' is:O ) and it has been ok in getting me to exact locations as long as i provide an address of some sort. Annoyingly, my car’s On-Star device has not worked at all when i have tried to drive to various nature places/trails/hiking grounds since mostly all (other than the Garden of the Gods Park)i have been searching for all over the web either don't have precise and/or entirely accurate addresses of the actual location where i should park my car or the nearby nature trails/parks do not have any address to their definite locale at all, usually it’s just a very vague description such as for the Manitou Incline: "across from Cog railway." (Which by the way, took me about 45 min to actually find!) Thus i am often told by my On-Star gadget that apparently the place i am looking for does not even exist!. Despite my having a new & very detailed map of the CS area i am still very lost as to how to find places with no addresses easily. So, if you know of a particular helpful website, book, map, tourism office or the like that you found very helpful for getting around when you first moved to CS could you please recommend it to me in your response? In advance: Thank You!!

P.S. I forgot to mention one other bit that i originally intended on writing in the above post: could you please keep the recommended places for me to check out within 5 minuet distance of my home(80903 area code) or at the maxium destinations that are within one hour driving distance both ways please. it is sad to my heart to read about all these great and stunning natural destinations within colorado on the web only to find out that my house is 3-5 (and some, even more!) hours both ways from the majority of the parks that my online server has recommended to me. Gas is expensive and i would really like to find some destinations that aren't entirely across the entre state, thank you again, very much for your help. i look forward to your responce!

[Mike from back east]

When I arrived here 5+ years ago, I bought a book of maps at the supermarket which covers the whole city and suburbs in about 200 very detailed pages.

[Maynerd]

If you've already visited Garden of the Gods, my first recommendations would be Cheyenne Canon Park and Palmer Park, both right here in town. For Cheyenne Canyon, go South on Nevada, West on Cheyenne, to North Cheyenne Canyon Road. For Palmer Park, go East to Academy, then North to Maizeland.

Another good option could be Red Rocks. Go West on 24 and you'll see the parking lot on the South side of the road. No GPS necessary to find any of those.

Good luck.

[beezle1]

I agree with Mike about the map book. I have one and used it for years (made by MACVAN), though now mostly use my GPS.

[Marcy1210]

Have you tried downloading maps or pictures from Google Earth? That would show you streets, and with all the little cameras they have along most roads, you can click on the camera, set it for full screen, and see the part of the road, noting any landmarks, etc. Using the aerial views, you can "pre" drive to anyplace you find interesting, starting at your house and following Google's directions to your location.

[otowi]

MacVan makes the best trail and local maps, by far. Many of their maps are available at grocery stores or they also have a store on Colorado Blvd. on the West side of town.

[lalahartma]

http://www.springsgov.com/units/park...palmer-pg1.pdf
http://www.springsgov.com/units/park...palmer-pg2.pdf

and

Ute Valley Park Map