Clear Creek Canyon Park, Jefferson County Open Space’s fourth-largest park at 3,297 acres, is getting a makeover.
The agency has built the park up over the past 30-some years through 44 acquisition transactions and is ready to polish its property to improve access at the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon in Golden.
“It really is an amazing story of land conservation right in your backyard,” Nancy York, Jeffco Open Space planning supervisor, told a crowd of more than 100 at a community meeting Jan. 18 in Golden.
The $8.4 million improvement project is focused on an approximately mile-long stretch at the mouth of the canyon, from the intersection of U.S. 6 and Colorado 93 to the mouth of Tunnel 1. Work is projected to be complete by 2019 and includes completion of a segment of , additional trails, new bridges over the creek, better creek access and improved and expanded parking areas. An additional $1 million is going toward .
“We’re really kind of treating this as the gateway or the entry to Clear Creek Canyon Park,” said Scot Grossman, the projectap manager, at the community meeting.
The project with a total of $500,000 from funding partners that include cities of Arvada, Golden, Wheat Ridge and Lakewood, as well as the Jeffco Outdoors Foundation, Apex and Prospect recreation districts and bicycle Team Evergreen. Colorado Department of Transportation contributed $850,650 in Transportation Alternatives Program funds; the rest is coming from Jeffco Open Space, York said.
It will also involve working with Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Department of Transportation for funding and other support. The project includes improving connections to the Chimney Gulch Trail and a tunnel underneath U.S. 6 that currently connects to the Colorado School of Mines Campus.
The mouth of the canyon is already home to popular climbing spots and U.S. 6, which takes drivers to gambling destinations in Blackhawk and Central City. Skiers and commuters use the roadside parking lots for carpooling.
Attendees at the meeting had questions about parking safety and a timeline for the project.
Those parking areas are currently rugged dirt and rock, as are the steep trails leading from them down to the main trail along the creek. Grossman said the project will pave the lots, improve the trails and add restrooms near the trailhead, and acceleration and deceleration lanes may be added to U.S. 6.
Clear Creek Canyon Park is also home to bighorn sheep and two endangered species, the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Ute ladies-tresses orchid, which could make it tricky to get permits approved and work done in a timely manner, Grossman said.
“We own a lot of land, a lot of historic buildings and neat features. We don’t really own anything quite like this,” Grossman said.
The agency will be under contract with a design and build team this summer and construction could begin by late 2018, depending on the time it takes to get permits through.
In the meantime, Jeffco Open Space encourages people to explore the park and look out for more tours of the historic Welch Ditch.
“Wintertime walking really is phenomenal, I highly recommend it,” York said.