I remember back to the days before there was a Mountain Park Environmental Center. Once the calendar moved towards the end of October, visitation to the park would drop to almost nothing, and stay that way until well into the spring. Sure, there was the Yule Log Celebration in December that brought lots of folks to the park for a few hours, but that was about it, until April or May.
The dozen or so Beulah folks that used to walk our dogs in the park throughout the winter used to joke about how nice it was for the City of Pueblo to have this lovely mountain park for what seemed like just us and our pups. It may have been nice in a way, but the reality is that never would have lasted. As the budget challenges of the 2000s hit, it is highly unlikely that the City would have continued spending money on a park with such limited use.
Well, that is certainly no longer the case. Yesterday, about 60 students were in the park for outdoor education. Same goes for today, and tomorrow too. Tomorrow evening a yoga class will take place at the lodge. There are guests who are registered to stay at the lodge throughout the month. Along with the Yule Log Celebration this Sunday, there is an Open House at the lodge, including an Artists Fair, and there is a Holiday Cookie Baking event Sunday morning as well. Next week there is a full schedule of school programs, plus a Winter Solstice Drum Circle Friday night, then a Winter Break Camp for youth the last week of December and the first few days of January. Yes, Pueblo Mountain Park is bustling, and the activities described above continues very much the same every week. Sure, in the summer, camps take the place of school groups, but the park is now a vibrant center for outdoor-based education and recreation.
Now, if all of this sounds like the place is so humming with people that you can’t find quiet Nature in the park, that is very much not the case. The park’s many miles of hiking trails, the open meadows, the forests – all covered in snow these days – offer numerous opportunities for solitude, surrounded by wild Nature. I know this to be true, because whenever I want to find some of the natural solitude and wildness, which I do very often, I easily find it. Right here in Pueblo Mountain Park, even on days when 90 kids are in the park for their educational experiences, wild Nature is here and it is wonderful.