A new dog park at Carroll Park.
A new paved pump track and wheel park at Cole Park.
A new playground at Boyd Park.
These are all improvements in progress to Alamosa’s public parks in 2026, which parks and recreation director Andy Rice expands upon in this episode of The Valley Pod.
And it’s just the beginning.
Cole Park and Carroll Park, in particular, will continue to transform — Cole Park with its riverfront project and the place for local festivals, and Carroll Park as the park for sports activities with pickleball, sand volleyball, basketball courts and possibly baseball/softball fields.
With Alamosa moving into a new comprehensive planning process this year, which allows for broad visioning among residents and how townspeople would like to see Alamosa progress over the next 10 years, the public parks again will be a focus of conversations.
The last time the city engaged residents through a comprehensive strategy was back in 2017 when the theme of reactivating the Rio Grande corridor emerged. Through the strategy, Alamosa has targeted its river corridor with expanding trails and outdoor recreation events that draw in visitors. Events like January’s Rio Frio.
“I’m glad that parks and rec is going to be a big part of that conversation because of all the things that are there to be discussed. That’s really looking at the future and looking ahead and how you continue to take advantage of the system that you’ve created or that the city’s created over the decades, over the years,” said Rice.
Alamosa Parks and Recreation benefits from a dedicated half-penny sales tax that goes into the city’s community recreation fund to pay for maintenance and upkeep of its recreational areas.
Rice’s hopes for the next comprehensive planning process is to identify the priorities Alamosans have for their public playgrounds, which include the Alamosa Family Recreation Center built in 2003.
“We really want to identify priorities because our job is equitable distribution, and resources they’re limited. Let’s get robust public input on what the priorities are as we embark on the future of Alamosa Parks and Rec,” he said.
On the immediate horizon is finishing the dog park at Carroll Park and re-doing the pump track at Cole Park. The new playground at Boyd Park had a ribbon cutting in January and is already drawing in neighborhood children during the warm winter season.
Dog park Carroll Park
The new dog park at Carroll Park is a half-acre that sits to the back of the park behind the basketball and tennis/pickleball courts.
The city halted work on the dog park here in the wintertime. Construction will resume in the spring, with spring planting and an opening for the summer.
“I know the neighborhood’s excited,” said Rice “Right now it’s baby steps. We’ve got to just do things right. So look for a really cool half-acre dog park over there.”
Cole Park improvements
A new wheelchair swing for the Valley’s disabled population is now in place at Cole Park. Next comes the overhaul of the park’s dirt pump track and expansion as a paved wheel park for rollerblading and learning to ride a bike.
“With the goat-head issues we have for cyclists around here, a paved little bike park to play on and learn to ride, it’s just going to be fantastic,” Rice said. “It’ll be the only one in a couple hundred miles. It’ll have some ADA elements where ADA cycles, special cycles we’re getting in partnership with the Alamosa Bicycle Coalition, can be out there.”
Cole Park has always been the gathering place for locals. In the 1960s and into the early ’70s, there was even a Cole Park Zoo that served as an attraction for townspeople and visitors.
Now Cole Park wants to become the riverfront park off the Rio Grande. The Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project is spearheading the effort, with design and engineering of the project completed.
Now it’s a matter of finding around $4 million in funding for the actual construction, which involves pulling back the levee and creating essentially a beach front on the river.
“When we get that park open to the public where you can walk down, your family floats from one end to the other, you can throw a (fishing) line in, you’re not stumbling over rocks in the winter. It’s just going to be transformational,” Rice said.