Hiking the Difficult Manitou Incline in Manitou Springs, Colorado - Solo Girl Road Trip 2022
The Manitou Incline wasn't even a hiking trail on my to-do list until my friend Abigail
suggested we do it on our girl's trip to Colorado a couple years ago. Unfortunately COVID
and renovations had it all shut down and we chose to hike Pikes Peak instead like crazy
women. (You can read about us taking on that 14er with zero training here.) Since that girl's
trip I have been seeing the Manitou Incline pop up on my phone more and more and after
learning it was on my way home from Montana on my last road trip I decided to finally try it for myself. Scroll
on down to read more about my hiking experience and also be sure to check out the YouTube
video linked here or at the end of the article. Enjoy!
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On Friday July 22nd at 5am I woke up to the most annoying and unwelcome sound; My phone
alarm. After getting to bed late the night before the last thing I wanted to do was get up, but
past Amy apparently hates future Amy and made a reservation to hike the Manitou Incline
at 6:30am so I drug my tired booty out of bed, got dressed, and loaded up the truck.
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After re-reading the email sent to me by the incline people I decided, out of the two
parking options listed, to park at the Hiawatha Gardens Parking Lot. I drove about 20
minutes and arrived in the parking lot about 6am and paid for 5 hours of parking
time (I wasn’t sure exactly how long I was going to need to hike so I made sure to say I
wanted to receive text updates if my time was about to expire) which came out to $8.50.
Once my parking ticket shot out of the machine I snagged it and made my way onto the
Manitou Incline shuttle bus. (There is another shuttle that stops at this parking lot so be sure
if you choose to ride the bus to the base of the incline that you are getting on
the one that says "Manitou Incline" on the front light board.)
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The shuttle was FULL of people which I was pretty happy about because I had
absolutely no idea where to go once I got off the shuttle and after hearing them mention
the incline I figured I could just follow them and get there no problem. When the shuttle
arrived outside of the Pikes Peak Cog Railway station we all unloaded and I followed my
shuttle group to the right and up a hill to the start of the…Barr Trail. I remember thinking
that that didn’t seem quite right, but I ignored the little voice in my head and stuck with
the group heading out on the trail.
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After about a half mile of hiking on the trail I still had yet to see any signs for the incline
or a place to check in and that little voice inside my head was no longer just a whisper, but
was yelling “THIS ISN’T RIGHT” so I stopped and asked a nice couple if this was the way
to the incline. Clearly they were from the area because they immediately told me I was
heading the wrong way. The Barr Trail takes you to the top of the incline, but if I wanted
to actually go on the incline I had to go all the way back to where the shuttle dropped us
off. Yay. I thanked them for their help and then started jogging back down the Barr Trail
and down the hill past the Cog Railway Station until I came to a street on my left
which had a very helpful sign:
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I mean it doesn’t get more obvious than that. *face palm* I followed the arrow and
journeyed up the road seeing more signs telling me I was finally heading in the right direction.
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If the signs weren’t indication enough that I was on the right track, what I saw next
was a dead giveaway. Looming before me complete with large wooden stairs held
together with railroad spikes was the Manitou Incline itself in all its intimidating glory.
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I checked in at a little white folding table and even though I was about 15 minutes past
my reservation time they gave me the go ahead to start my incline journey with
no hesitation. 2,744 steps with about 2000ft elevation gain. It was go time.
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After jogging about a mile to get to the base of the incline I was already huffing and puffing
as I took the first official steps, which wasn't exactly an ideal start. The incline starts out
pretty easy with not much in the way of elevation, but this nice little section doesn’t last
and before too long you find yourself on a very noticeable incline. In fact there were some
places, especially closer to the top, where the steps were just straight vertical as if you were
walking up a ladder. I took multiple breaks along the way completely unashamed since everyone
else around me on the incline (aside from two crazy ladies I saw running it) was struggling too and I
even remember crawling on all fours across some of the steps. I just knew that if I stood up
straight I was going to fall backwards down the incline and well, I have yet to go to the hospital
on vacation and I wasn’t about to start now. I’m too broke for that. Lol
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Eventually after all the pain, huffing and puffing harder than the big bad wolf trying
to blow the piggies’ house down, and over 2000 steps, I made it to the top of the incline.
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I FREAKIN’ DID IT!
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I chilled at the top on a rock with some adorable chipmunks taking a much needed
rest and ate a protein bar and drank some water.
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It had taken me about an hour to reach
the top, but man did it feel like a heck of a lot longer. I swear it felt like the top was just
getting farther and farther away! Lol But I made it and I didn’t die and after about 20 minutes
of resting I headed back down the incline. (I found out later that you are actually not supposed
to go down the incline, but are supposed to instead use the Barr Trail for your descent so do
that. Going down is actually quite dangerous and I cannot tell you how many times I almost
rolled an ankle.) The entire way down felt almost as difficult as the way up, having to take
each step one at a time to avoid injury and my legs were shaking so badly I don’t
know how I didn’t just fall over.
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I made it down in about 30 minutes, stopped at the incline base camp to buy an ornament
for my travel tree, and then rode the shuttle back to the truck. I made it back to the parking
lot about 9:30am so I really didn’t need to have paid for 5 hours of parking, but hey better safe
than sorry. After that it was 7 hours on the road back home to Kansas!
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Manitou Incline Tips
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GO EARLY There really isn’t any shade on the incline so I suggest you go early
in order to avoid the heat and crowded parking lots.
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LEAVE THE HIKING BAG All I needed for my hike on the incline was a couple
bottles of water and a protein bar to eat at the top. Be smarter than me and
ditch the extra weight a big hiking bag would add and take a fanny pack instead or no bag at all.
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TAKE AS MANY BREAKS AS YOU NEED The Manitou Incline is a serious workout so
don’t be afraid to stop and take a breather any time and as many times as you need to.
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WEAR GOOD SHOES While my running tennis shoes are nice and light I wish I would have
worn my hiking shoes instead to provide my ankles with more support and
my feet with better traction.
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ACCLIMATE Again this is a serious workout with a pretty big elevation gain. You are going
to want to give yourself at least a couple days beforehand to acclimate to the
elevation before attempting this.
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TREKKING POLES MIGHT HELP I saw a few people using trekking poles on their hike
and they said that they found them to be pretty useful especially for helping
to take the pressure off of their joints.
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PARKING In the email I received from the incline they listed two parking options, Hiawatha
Gardens and Iron Springs Chateau. As I mentioned I ended up parking at Hiawatha Gardens
and I think this was the best deal. It was less than $10 to park there, there were plenty of parking
spaces available when I arrived, and I could ride the free shuttle (which runs every 20 minutes) to the base
of the incline. This is where I would suggest to park if you are wanting to do the incline.
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