Walk the New Santa Fe Trail behind Woodmen Valley Chapel this week, the stretch where regulars grab a cold brew at 1979 Coffee before merging onto the path, and you might pass someone carrying a baton with a scroll tucked inside. Not a relay-race prop. An actual copy of the Declaration of Independence, on its way from Denver toward the Air Force Academy, on the same packed-dirt trail Monument residents already use to walk dogs and beat traffic to Home Depot.
That is not a metaphor. It is the American Discovery 250 Relay, a 6,800-mile, non-motorized relay marking both the 250th anniversary of American independence and the 35th anniversary of the American Discovery Trail. It launched at the Golden Gate Bridge on July 4, then got knocked off schedule by wildfires and heat in eastern Utah and western Colorado. The relay resumed August 29 in Leadville, and its Colorado route splits in two at Sheridan around September 3, one baton heading north toward the Nebraska border, the other heading south through Waterton Canyon, Roxborough State Park, and the town of Larkspur before continuing through Palmer Lake, past Monument on the New Santa Fe Trail, and on to the Air Force Academy. Most people who live here will never know it happened. That is the point worth sitting with.
The Trail Doesn't Know It's Local
It is easy to think of the Santa Fe Trail segment through Monument as a neighborhood amenity, the thing that connects Palmer Lake Recreation Area to downtown, the loop you take before work. This week it is functioning as one link in a chain that runs from the Colorado River to the Atlantic Ocean. The organizers behind the relay have said plainly that this isn't a race or a fundraiser. It is closer to a demonstration that trails most people think of as local actually connect to something much larger, whether anyone notices or not.
That distinction matters for how you think about the ground under your feet here. Monument's trail network was never just a subdivision perk stitched together by a homeowners association. It ties into a federally recognized long-distance route that has been quietly threading through the Palmer Divide for over three decades. The relay just happened to make that visible for a few days in early September.
The Rest of the Week Doesn't Need a National Holiday to Get Busy
The relay arrives in the middle of a Monument calendar that was already full. Sunday, September 6, is the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, which means Monu-Palooza takes over Limbach Park, a free, family-friendly music festival with food trucks that organizers call the last non-school night of summer around town. That same morning, the monthly Cars and Coffee show run by the Tri-Lakes Cruisers happens in the VCA Animal Hospital parking lot at 487 CO-105, which means the first Sunday of September gives Monument both a car show at 8 a.m. and a music festival by afternoon, without anyone having planned it that way.
Two weeks later, on Saturday, September 19, Limbach Park hosts Monument Pours in the Park, the annual libations festival formerly known as Bines and Brews. Tickets run $30 online through September 18 or $35 at the gate, the event runs rain or shine, and it brings together local breweries, distilleries, wineries, and cideries alongside live jazz and yard games. A panel of judges hands out a People's Choice Beer Award, a People's Choice Libations Award, and a Top Hop Award, and parking spreads across the Lewis-Palmer Administration Building, Limbach Park itself, and Saint Peter's Church.
The Saturday farmers market at 146 N. Jefferson Street keeps running through October, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Downtown Art Hop, where local shops turn into small galleries for an evening, continues on the third Thursday of the month through September. None of this required the relay to show up. It was already the shape of a Monument fall.
The Storefronts Filling In Around It
Downtown and the retail corridors around it have also been busy in ways that show up on a plate before they show up in a market report. Elephant Thai opened a second location at 562 W. Highway 105 in July, expanding from its original spot on North Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs. Owner Suwanna Meyer has said it is the only Thai restaurant in Monument, and the new menu adds Thai-style beef short ribs, salmon in red curry, and a Northern-style platter alongside Northern-style sausage.
A few miles away, a new Dairy Queen opened August 3 at 16577 Cinematic View. It is owned by Karlye and Russ Brooks, their second location in El Paso County after opening one in Colorado Springs in March. Karlye grew up in Monument and graduated from the local high school, and the couple has said they plan to work with local schools and community events going forward.
| Business | What's New | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Elephant Thai | New second location, expanded Northern Thai menu | 562 W. Highway 105 |
| Dairy Queen | New location, locally owned by Monument natives | 16577 Cinematic View |
| Forge Coffee Lab | House-roasted coffee, local pastries, gluten-free options | 15954 Jackson Creek Pkwy, Unit D |
| 1979 Coffee Monument | Café inside Woodmen Valley Chapel, right off the Santa Fe Trail | 1681 Wagon Bow Way |
| Papa Bear Pizza | Family-friendly pies, customizable dough, board games | Downtown Monument |
| The Bistro on 2nd | American West small plates, elk and bison entrees | Downtown Monument |
Forge Coffee Lab sits near the Home Depot and Kohl's on Jackson Creek Parkway and has built a following on house-made syrups and gluten-free pastries from Taste of Life, a Monument bakery. Down the highway, 1979 Coffee Monument operates out of the upstairs of Woodmen Valley Chapel, with an entrance that faces I-25 and puts customers a few steps from the Santa Fe Trail itself, the same trail the relay is using this week. It is run under HoldFast Coffee Co., a Colorado Springs operator, and keeps church-adjacent hours: weekdays until 3 p.m., a short evening window Saturdays, and Sunday mornings.
Papa Bear Pizza has built a local following on customizable pies with homemade dough and board games for families waiting on their order, while The Bistro on 2nd has carved out a niche with American West plates like elk and bison entrees alongside shrimp with Calabrian peppers. None of these are chains chasing a strip mall pad site. They are additions to a downtown that was already dense with independent operators before this summer.
What the Overlap Actually Says
None of this is really about a relay. It is about what happens when a small town's daily infrastructure turns out to be bigger than the town itself. The trail behind the coffee shop, the park that hosts a car show and a music festival on the same Sunday, the highway corridor filling in with a Thai kitchen and a locally owned Dairy Queen within a few weeks of each other, all of it points to the same thing: Monument is not sitting still, and most of what is changing here is legible only if you are paying attention at street level.
The relay passes through and moves on toward the Air Force Academy. The farmers market keeps running into October. The trail stays exactly where it has always been, doing quiet work that most people who use it every day never think to ask about.
If you are curious how any of this, the trail network, the new storefronts, the pace of change downtown, connects to what is actually happening with homes and property in Monument and the wider Tri-Lakes area, Susan Sedoryk has spent years watching this market from the ground up. Let's Connect.
