Not many ash pits around for me to compare the photo to so is this a huge assumption by me. The old town of Husted West disappeared in the 1950s when the US Air Force Academy was built. The articles I find state there was a station, roundhouse and siding but I can't find pictures. The only pics I've located are from the 1920s train crash that happened nearby after passing through the station. So my ask is were ash pits about ten yards apart?
No idea what is in your photos. Does not look quite like any ash pit I can recall actually seeing. Typically an ash pit would have existed where an engine facility stood. Where they would have watered and reloaded coal. Usually at a terminal site.
Dead Man's creek and Monument creek are about 100yds north and east respectively of the pics. There is a parallel, in use set of BNSF tracks about 50yds away that use to be the old Sante Fe rails back in the 1920s. The dirt road in the pics is now a road bed but was the old D&RG rail bed at one time. The placement is about right for steam era equipment as its about 7 miles north of Colo Sprgs, and just before the uphill to Palmer Park station and the climb up and over the Palmer Divide