Five months after a rockslide closed a popular loop trail in Colorado Springs’ southwest mountains, signs continue to mark the route off limits.

Officials remain uncertain of when the signs could be removed from either end of the Palmer Trail, also known as Section 16. While the city parks department manages the trail, the rockslide occurred on U.S. Forest Service land above.

Pikes Peak District Ranger Carl Bauer said his office expects to soon issue a contract for a specialist to assess the terrain. That’s to analyze any lingering threats of more slides.

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“Once we know what we are dealing with, we will take actions to ensure public safety and work toward reopening the trail,” Bauer said. He said he wasn’t sure about timing, but said he expects “to receive a geologic report in the next two months.”

Over Memorial Day weekend, the belief is that a massive outcrop dislodged and crashed down to the trail in the middle of the night, breaking trees and wrecking a foot path at a beloved waterfall. A wide scar on the mountain can be seen from a distance in town.

The parks department’s Scott Abbott said it was the biggest slide he had seen in more than two decades on staff.

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“Rangers have not witnessed any other movement around the slide,” he wrote in an email. “Rainfall would be the biggest concern at this point, and we have had good moisture over the past few months but no intense events and a dry fall.”

The closure signs have not kept all hikers, runners and cyclists from their favorite trail. Abbott said “a few citations” have been written and warned more could be issued “as time and resources allow.”

Bauer recognized the trail’s popularity.

“We’re working as fast as we can on it really,” he said.

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