Challenge Hill and Trails at Philip S. Miller Park

Name: Challenge Hill and Trails at Philip S. Miller Park
Telephone: (720) 733-2260
Rating: 4.9

Outdoor Adventures

4.9(431 reviews)

The take

Castle Rock's answer to the Manitou Incline, 200 steps, 178 vertical feet, roughly a 45% grade, stuffed into about 400 feet of horizontal distance. It's the best free workout in DougCo, and yes, it will wreck you.

Why it's here

Challenge Hill is the centerpiece staircase inside Philip S. Miller Park, built into the bluff on the park's north side. Two hundred wooden steps, numbered every tenth step so you can track progress and/or negotiate with yourself ("just to 100"). The grade starts moderate and gets meaner, the top third is where people stop for air.

At the summit you hit an eight-mile unpaved single-track loop network (four interconnected loops) with Pikes Peak views on clear days, plus a connection via the Wolfensberger Road pedestrian bridge over to Ridgeline Open Space if you want to extend. It's free. The park is open 5am to 11pm daily.

This is the workout locals actually do, every Tuesday and Thursday morning you'll see training groups, Air Force ROTC cadets, and the same handful of retirees who've been doing it three times a week since it opened. The Denver7 piece that made it famous about eight years ago still drives out-of-towners who want a Manitou substitute without the I-25 drive. It's not a Manitou substitute, Manitou is 2,744 steps and 2,000 vertical feet, Challenge Hill is 200 and 178, but it's the closest equivalent intensity-per-step you can find on the Front Range.

Know before you go

Go for

•A genuine quad-and-lung workout in under 15 minutes
•The Blue Loop connection at the top for a 3–4 mile trail run finish
•A sunrise summit, east-facing, good light
•Bringing out-of-town visitors who think Colorado is just flat east of the mountains

Timing

Early morning (before 8am) or evening (after 5pm) in summer. Winter: the steps stay iced until mid-morning because they're shaded until the sun crests the hill.

Pro tip

The descent is harder on your knees than the ascent is on your lungs. Take the stairs down only if you have young knees and good shoes, otherwise loop back down the dirt Blue Loop trail (sign-posted at the top), which drops you back at the parking lot in about half a mile on gentler grade.

Skip / heads up

No dogs allowed on Challenge Hill itself. In winter, the upper third can be dangerously icy through at least noon and the city does not salt or clear it, bring microspikes or stay off until spring thaw.

By Mara Holloway