Rockin' the Rails started with one Palmer Lake family. Residents John and Christie Ramshur pitched the idea to the Awake Palmer Lake board after their daughter took up disc golf — proposing a course as part of the broader plan to rejuvenate the parkland around the lake and the historic Santa Fe Trailhead.
The community took it from there. Dr. Michael Schuette and the Pikes Peak Flying Disc Golf Club helped design all 18 holes, contributed $1,000 toward the basket targets, and came out to help dig them in. Funded primarily by the Palmer Lake Restaurant Group and a Great Outdoors Colorado grant, and built with Awake Palmer Lake volunteer labor, the course took shape along the same rail corridor the Santa Fe Railway once ran through town — which is exactly where its name comes from.
Rockin' the Rails opened to the public in November 2013: 18 free holes, about two miles and an hour of play, winding along the lake with cart-friendly, stroller-friendly, and pet-friendly paths. There's no fee and no reservation — just show up and play, any day of the year.
Like everything Awake Palmer Lake builds, it belongs to the whole town. What began as one family's idea is now a course played by locals and visiting disc golfers from across the Front Range.