The bottom of the Manitou Incline is close to Ruxton Avenue in Manitou Springs. When hiking the Manitou Incline, the important thing is to not park in the Pikes Peak Cog Railway’s parking lots or their spaces on Ruxton. Either park in the Barr Trail parking at the end of Hydro Street or down Ruxton past the Iron Springs Chateau Melodrama. The Barr parking lot is full a lot of the time. In the summer you generally have to be there before 6 AM to find a parking spot.
You can either start up the Incline on a trail out of the Barr parking lot that is at the opposite end from Barr Trail or the bottom of the Incline by cutting through one of the Pikes Peak Cog Railway parking lots. Pikes Peak Cog Railway employees will tell you to leave if they see you’re headed for the Incline.
At a 40 minute pace, the point the trail from the Barr parking lot joins the Incline is about 4 minutes from the bottom of the Incline. I think it takes about 3 minutes to get there from the Barr Parking lot so it doesn’t make much of difference where your start. The middle part of the Manitou Incline is owned by the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and you are trespassing if you go up it.