"Beautiful place, beautiful weather, a lot of guests, a lot of people out visiting."
Free shuttle rides at garden of the gods are getting crowds of visitors this memorial day weekend from point "A" to point "B" a lot more efficiently.
"Beautiful place, beautiful weather, a lot of guests, a lot of people out visiting," said Greg Wellens, the president of Adventures Out West, the company managing the shuttle operation.
"[Guests have] more parking options, they’re not leaving frustrated, they’re coming in, they’re finding it, they seem to be following the signs into the shuttle lot," Wellens added.
"So I think it’s all working great."
The mass transit system isn’t just boosting morale.
"Everybody loves a shuttle," said one park visitor.
It’s helping with traffic, too.
According to Adventures Out West, the shuttles are alleviating back-ups by helping transport up to 50 people in and out of the park every 15 minutes.
The shuttle service is part of a small-scale pilot program, a collaboration between the City of Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods Foundation.
The main goal is to enhance the park experience and remove the stress of parking for visitors.
"There’s no parking space," said park visitor Saksham Gupta.
"So it will be really helpful that you can just park here, grab a shuttle and go up there."
And if you hop on board, you might even get a history lesson thrown in.
"Our guides have been giving them lots of information," said Wellens.
"It’s really a fun job, I usually didn’t like history in the past, now I’m learning to like history," said shuttle driver Larry Siedschleg.
"You give them a good tour and they’re gonna remember it the rest of their lives."
The trial shuttle service is set to operate daily from June 2 to August 26, then it will pick up again Labor Day weekend in September, operating from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
