{"id":2452255,"date":"2019-12-15T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=317732"},"modified":"2019-12-15T22:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T05:30:00","slug":"pointing-to-downtown-glenwood-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pointing-to-downtown-glenwood-springs\/","title":{"rendered":"Pointing to downtown Glenwood Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"605\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/hang-GPI-121619-1024x605.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/hang-GPI-121619-1024x605.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/hang-GPI-121619-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/hang-GPI-121619-768x454.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/hang-GPI-121619-1536x907.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/hang-GPI-121619-2048x1210.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Between May 1 and Oct. 31 of this year, over 75,000 people hiked to Hanging Lake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The city of Glenwood Springs would like those same hikers to visit the historic downtown area before or after their visit to the natural national landmark in Glenwood Canyon, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThere\u2019s a fine line there,\u201d Ken Murphy, H20 Ventures co-owner, said at a recent City Council meeting. \u201cOf providing the service and not also pushing and taking an agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In the fall of 2018, the U.S. Forest Service and city of Glenwood Springs partnered to implement a reservation and shuttle service for Hanging Lake, largely, to curb overcrowding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">2019 was the inaugural year for the shuttle service, which H20 Ventures \u2014 a partnership between Glenwood Adventure Co., Adventure Office and Peak 1 Express \u2014 provided.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">During peak season (May 1 to Oct. 31), the Hanging Lake shuttle largely bypassed Glenwood Springs\u2019 downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to Murphy, the shuttle departed from the Hanging Lake Welcome Center (110 Wulfsohn Road) in the Meadows and traveled along Midland Avenue before getting on I-70 at exit 114 in West Glenwood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">From West Glenwood, the Hanging Lake Shuttle remained on I-70 eastbound until the Hanging Lake exit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Given its practicality, that route likely will not change for the 2020 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">However, next year the city may look to incorporate signage at the Hanging Lake Welcome Center that points people in the direction of the historic downtown area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to Murphy, hikers often exited the shuttle at the welcome center following their trip to Hanging Lake hungry and thirsty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Currently, little to no signage at or around the Hanging Lake Welcome Center directs visitors to myriad eating and drinking establishments and other businesses in the downtown area, just a short distance away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis would be vehicular signage that would be in the same format of what\u2019s already on Grand Avenue,\u201d said Laura Kirk, Downtown Development Authority executive director. \u201cThat points people to lodging, shopping and other things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to a presentation delivered by Murphy to City council, during the peak season nearly 50,000 hikers (66.3%) said they visited downtown Glenwood Springs either before or after their hike to Hanging Lake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A little over 25,000 (33.7%) hikers reported they did not go to the downtown area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe as a community, we can do a better job with our wayfinding,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIf that\u2019s the biggest issue we have coming out of this, you know, I think everybody should be happy where we are right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI think it\u2019s a simple fix,\u201d Murphy said to council members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">When asked Friday if the city had any plans to extend the Hanging Lake shuttle service to a year-round format, city manager Debra Figueroa said no.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhile the city is very pleased that the first year of the Hanging Lake shuttle service was successful, there are no plans to run the system through the entire year,\u201d Figueroa said. \u201cThe contract we have with the Forest Service is just from May 1 to Oct. 31.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:mabennett@postindependent.com\">mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/pointing-to-downtown-glenwood-springs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Between May 1 and Oct. 31 of this year, over 75,000 people hiked to Hanging Lake. The city of Glenwood Springs would like those same hikers to visit the historic downtown area before or after their visit to the natural national landmark in Glenwood Canyon, too. \u201cThere\u2019s a fine line there,\u201d Ken Murphy, H20 Ventures [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 02:02:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}