Most of the year, Black Forest reads as a quiet mesh of five-acre lots, ponderosa stands, and gravel driveways set back far enough that you rarely see your neighbors. Then the first weekend of August arrives, and the same community that seemed dispersed suddenly has an address: the corner of Black Forest Road and Shoup Road.
If you already live here, this is the weekend that tells you where the community actually gathers the rest of the year. The calendar is doing the work of a town square.
The gathering point isn't a downtown, it's a log building
There is no Main Street in Black Forest. There is a log building. The Black Forest Community Club occupies a community-built log building at the corner of Black Forest and Shoup Roads that turns 100 years old in 2027, and the club itself was chartered in 1929 as a social organization for families living in the Black Forest north of Colorado Springs.
That is the physical answer to the question of where the neighborhood lives when it isn't at home. Nearly every event on the first weekend of August happens either inside that building, on its grounds, or a short drive up Black Forest Road.
For 2026 the volunteer group We Are Black Forest picked a theme worth naming out loud:
Stars, Stripes & Tall Pines
That is the frame for the Saturday festival, and it tells you something about the crowd this weekend draws. Veteran families, multi-generation locals, and the folks who show up in cowboy hats to the parade all recognize themselves in it.
Friday night: the Biergarten is the soft opening
The 8th Annual Black Forest Biergarten Fundraiser runs Friday, August 7, 2026 from 5:00 PM at the Black Forest Community Center, with WireWood Station playing. If you have been to the Biergarten before, you know the lineup of pours is the tell for how deep the local brewing bench actually is.
Past years have pulled in a rotation that reads like a Front Range brewery guide: Pikes Peak Brewing Company, Black Forest Meadery, JAKs Brewing Company, Lost Friend Brewing Company, Storybook Brewing, Black Forest Brewing Co, Goat Patch Brewing, and Evergood Elixirs, with support from the Black Forest Chew-Chew Gastrotruck and Styria Bakery II on the food side.
The practical read for a resident: Friday is the low-key night. Parade crews are still setting up, out-of-town relatives haven't arrived yet, and you can actually talk to your neighbors without shouting over a PA.
Saturday morning: the 57-year-old festival
The Black Forest Festival itself runs Saturday, August 8, 2026 starting at 6:30 AM at the Black Forest Community Center at 12530 Black Forest Rd. If that start time surprises you, it shouldn't. The pancake breakfast is the anchor.
The festival has been a tradition for 57 years and draws thousands each year, with live music, community artisans, food from local vendors, rural demonstrations like wool-spinning, a petting zoo, pony rides, and the Black Forest Festival Parade. For 2026, the schedule brings back the Outhouse Races and the outdoor Pancake Picnic Breakfast on Saturday morning, plus an Artisan and Business Booth Fair, children's games and crafts, a petting zoo, and tractor rides.
Two logistics notes that matter if you actually live nearby:
- The festival is service-animal only; the organizers don't carry insurance to have dogs on site. That is worth knowing before you leash up the family lab and walk over from a nearby subdivision.
- The event runs rain or shine. August thunderstorms on the Palmer Divide are a real thing. Plan the day accordingly.
Saturday evening: the derby at the brewery
The festival crowd doesn't just disperse. It walks a mile down the road.
Black Forest Brewing Company hosts its 2026 Pinewood Derby on Saturday, August 8, with racing starting shortly after the festival wraps. Derby kits opened to the public on July 17 for $10, with car registration and official weigh-in running July 24 through August 5. If you have a kid, a garage, and a weekend, you have a project.
For anyone who hasn't been in, the brewery lives at 11590 Black Forest Rd, Ste 50, at the cross street of Burgess Road. It is open since March 22, 2018, and it is a veteran story worth knowing: owner Donovan Routsis and his wife Tara retired with a combined 45+ years of Air Force service before opening the brewery, and they chose Colorado because it was the state where they met and married. That biography is not incidental to how the place feels. There are Stammtisch Stein Club members with mugs on the wall, Wednesday trivia, and a Thursday run club, per the brewery's ongoing weekly lineup. One physical detail regulars point out: the bar shelves are handcrafted from reclaimed wood from the Black Forest Fire. The 2013 fire is still in living memory here, and the brewery built it into the room on purpose.
If you want the same weekend without the crowds
Not every resident wants a parade. Two quieter options fall into the same window.
The week before, on Saturday, July 25, 2026 starting at 7:00 AM, the 12th Annual Ranch Horse Roundup runs at the Kit Carson Riding Club in Black Forest. Bring a folding chair.
The other reliable answer is Fox Run Regional Park. It sits approximately three miles east of Interstate 25, and if your mental picture of it is a small neighborhood park, adjust upward. Here is the scale, set against what most El Paso County residents assume it to be:
| Fox Run at a glance | Detail |
|---|---|
| Acreage | 417 acres |
| Multi-use trails | Four miles |
| Lakes | Two, named Aspen and Spruce |
| Dog parks | Two fenced |
| Summer hours | April–October, 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM |
| Address | 2110 Stella Drive, Colorado Springs 80921 |
| Weddings per year | Over 100 |
That last row is the surprise. A neighborhood park that hosts triple-digit weddings a year is not a neighborhood park. It is a regional destination that happens to be four minutes from a lot of Black Forest driveways.
If you go to hike rather than to a wedding, the AllTrails data is worth checking against your fitness plan: Fox Run Loop Trail carries the most elevation gain at 442 feet of total ascent, and the runner-up Fallen Timbers Trail comes in at 209 feet. Both count as easy walks by Front Range standards, which is what makes them appropriate for guests who flew in yesterday and aren't acclimated yet.
For the true quiet route, the 4.2-mile loop paralleling the perimeter of the 640-acre Black Forest Section 16 Open Space is a mostly level hike through ponderosa pine forest. The Black Forest Trails Association keeps that one on their maps.
Why any of this matters if you already live here
Two things are quietly true about Black Forest that this weekend surfaces.
First, the community is volunteer-run in a way most Front Range suburbs are not. We Are Black Forest is a volunteer effort, sponsored and supported by the Black Forest Community Club, to promote community in the Black Forest through activities and events. The festival, the biergarten, and the newsletter you see in mailboxes all come from the same group of neighbors. Community Club membership runs $15 a year and includes a monthly newsletter, which is the cheapest way to stay in the loop on things that don't get posted to social media.
Second, this is a place that still explains itself through its history rather than through new development. American pioneers began settling the region in the late 1850s as a source of scarce timber, the first of several dozen sawmills went up in 1860, and General Palmer became the first major landowner in 1870 when he purchased 43,000 acres for the Colorado Pinery Trust. The Black Forest Preservation Plan was developed in 1974, and while newer subdivisions like Flying Horse Ranch exist within the community's boundaries, Black Forest still retains a rural image and legacy.
The first weekend of August is when that rural image and legacy do their annual public performance. The pancake line, the parade route down Black Forest Road, the outhouse racers, the pinewood cars rolling down a track at a veteran-owned brewery. None of it is staged for tourists. It is staged for the people who live here, by the people who live here.
If you moved in during the past year and haven't been yet, this is the weekend to walk over. If you have been here for decades, you already know which lawn chair is yours.
When you are ready to talk about a home here or anywhere on the north end of El Paso County, the team at Colorado's Choice Homes lives and works in these neighborhoods. Reach out for a free home valuation or a relocation plan, and we will meet you at the pace your calendar allows.
