Walk down Ridge Road to Red Rock Canyon this month, or down the hill onto Colorado Avenue, and it would be easy to think nothing changed. The rock formations still hold the same red against the sky. The storefronts still run the same stretch of brick and awning they've held for decades. But look closer at what happened over the past few months, and a pattern shows up that's easy to miss if you're only checking for what's new: almost none of it is new construction. It's the same buildings and the same trail corridor, wearing different names.
That distinction matters if you live in Pleasant Valley and treat this corridor as an extension of your own block. The character of the place hasn't shifted. What's shifted is who's behind the counter, what's printed on the trail sign, and which storefront gets the scarecrow this October.
The Trail Didn't Move, Only the Sign Will
Out at Red Rock Canyon Open Space, the 789-acre park off Ridge Road that most Pleasant Valley residents already treat as a backyard trailhead, the Colorado Springs Parks Advisory Board approved a name change on August 13, 2026. The trail long known as White Acres will become the Don Ellis Trail. The route itself isn't changing. No new tread, no rerouted switchbacks. Just a new name on a trail corridor that's been there all along.
The renaming didn't happen quickly. Friends of Red Rock Canyon had been pushing the city to bring the issue before the Parks Advisory Board for almost five years before it finally got a hearing. Even now, the paperwork isn't finished. The group still has to wait for the city attorney to draft the formal agreement, sign it, and pay an $850 fee before the new name is official, with implementation forecast for this fall.
It's a small bureaucratic footnote, but it says something about how this landscape actually gets maintained. The same volunteer network that pushed the renaming through also builds the benches and hauls the materials. When the Friends group needed a bench installed deep in the park earlier this year, a senior ranger drove the materials up Sand Canyon Trail as far as a vehicle could go, and volunteers carried the rest by hand. That's the maintenance model out here. Nobody's repaving the trail system. They're stewarding what's already there, one small negotiated change at a time.
The Bar That Used To Be a Taproom Now Runs a Rancher's Menu
According to The Gazette, the space at 2925 W. Colorado Ave used to be Trail's End Taproom. On May 29, 2026, it reopened as Stage Stop OCC Bar & Smokehouse. Same four walls, different name on the door, and a menu that didn't come from nowhere.
The new owners, Mark Childers and his wife Eve Trabandt Childers, already run Stage Stop Cantina, Rentals & Stables out at 6620 Old Stage Road, a working ranch-adjacent spot that's been a going concern for a while. Eve serves as chef, and the barbecue-focused menu at the new Colorado Avenue location closely mirrors what's been working at the original: smoked Gouda and white cheddar mac and cheese, brisket flatbread topped with pickled onions and chipotle mayo, and a barbecue brisket sandwich served with chips. Four house sauces round out the table, Red Mild, Red Hot, Carolina Gold, and Alabama White. The full bar is still filling in, with a limited wine list on opening night, and current hours run Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The Childers family isn't new to feeding this stretch of the westside either. They already operate food trucks at Mash Mechanix Brewing Co. and Urban Animal Beer Co., so the Avenue location is less a leap into unfamiliar territory than a fixed address for a business that's already been circulating through the neighborhood in other forms.
The Corner Spice Shop Is Leaving, Not Failing
Not every handoff on the Avenue this year involves someone new moving in. According to The Gazette, Gather Food Studio & Spice Shop at 2011 W. Colorado Ave has built a loyal following since it opened in 2019. Owners Cortney Smith and David Cook are closing that location and relocating the business to Minnesota. It's a family decision, not a business failure.
"This move is about choosing a different path for our family"
That's how the owners put it in an email to customers, framing the move as a next chapter rather than a retreat. They're encouraging anyone holding gift cards or store credit to redeem them soon, since the Colorado Avenue storefront won't be around much longer to honor them. The building will presumably find another tenant, as buildings on this Avenue tend to. The spice shop's name is the part that's leaving. The corner itself isn't going anywhere.
The One Thing On The Avenue That Repeats Every Year
Not everything on Colorado Avenue is mid-transition. Scarecrow Days runs October 1 through 31 this year, the same window it runs every fall, with participating storefronts decorating their entries with handmade scarecrows up and down the block. Public voting for favorites opens October 12 and closes October 21. Among this year's entries, Dejong Art at 2616 W. Colorado Ave and The Stache Spot at 505 W. Colorado Ave are both hosting displays, joining a lineup that spans the more than 100 businesses that line the Avenue in a given season.
Scarecrow Days is the one constant in this whole stretch of fall news. The event itself doesn't rename or relocate. What changes, year to year, is simply which storefronts choose to participate and what they build. It's a small, recurring reminder that the corridor's identity isn't really about any single business. It's about the sidewalk, the annual rhythm, and however many shopkeepers decide to hang something out front this particular October.
What Actually Changed, And What Didn't
None of this is really about a burst of new development along the westside. The trail behind Red Rock Canyon is the same trail it's always been, just headed for a new name once the paperwork clears this fall. The building at 2925 W. Colorado Ave still has the same footprint it had as Trail's End, just filled now by a barbecue menu with roots six miles down Old Stage Road. The corner spice shop is leaving town, but the corner itself will still be there for whoever comes next. And Scarecrow Days will keep showing up every October on the same block, no matter which specific storefronts decide to participate that year.
For anyone who walks this stretch regularly, that's the real shape of the season: the geography holds steady while the names on top of it rotate. It's a version of stability that doesn't look like stillness from a distance, but reads that way once you notice how much of what changed this fall was really just a name.
If you're curious about how this stretch of the westside fits into the broader picture of Pleasant Valley, including the mid-century homes and walkable streets that put residents within a short walk of all of this, Eric Scott knows the corridor well enough to walk you through it in person.
