With the official arrival of spring next week, a new section of trail in Clear Creek Canyon featuring soaring rock walls and cascading rapids is beckoning Front Range runners, cyclists, walkers and families with baby strollers.
The trail in Clear Creek Canyon Park, located just west of Golden, is part of the Jefferson County Open Space system. The trail now extends 3.25 miles up the canyon, following the opening of a 1.5-mile extension in November that includes four new bridges, 1,200 feet of trail on a viaduct similar to the elevated highway decks in Glenwood Canyon, multiple creek access points and a new trailhead with a 42-space parking lot and restrooms accessed by U.S. 6.
The first 1.75-mile segment, which opened in 2021, begins at the Gateway Trailhead, located at the entrance to the canyon at the foot of Mount Zion. A third segment, adding another 1.5 miles upstream from where the trail now ends, is expected to open in late summer. That will bring the length of the trail in the canyon to 4.75 miles, with still more extensions coming in future years.
The trail also connects with the long-established Clear Creek Trail east of the Gateway Trailhead, which passes through downtown Golden and extends all the way to the South Platte River in Adams County.
The section that opened in November is called the CCR segment, a nod to the narrow-gauge Colorado Central Railroad, which operated in the canyon from 1872 to 1941 to serve the needs of mining operations in Central City and Blackhawk. After the rails were removed, the railroad grade was raised for flood mitigation and construction of U.S. 6. The highway opened in 1952.
The trail surface, composed of rust-tinted concrete to harmonize with its surroundings, is 10 feet wide and ADA compliant, meaning the maximum grade is 5%. Bridges on the trail include porches so visitors can pause and admire views without impeding others passing through.
Last Friday, 4 to 6 inches of fresh snow blanketed the trail. Jeffco Open Space was quick to plow the trail Saturday morning in time for weekend crowds, “as it will do every time it snows,” according to spokesman Matt Robbins.
Fed by runoff from that snowstorm, the creek ran heavy, creating rushing rapids beneath rock walls that soar 1,000 feet. Where the trail now ends, a sign describes what is coming this summer: The Huntsman’s Rancho segment will include four bridges, creek access points and a parking area with more than 70 spaces. Like the segment that opened in November, the trail’s next segment will include a viaduct set on concrete pillars.
Because of those engineering challenges, the segment that opened in November and the one coming later this year cost $80 million to build. Primary funding came from Jeffco Open Space, along with support from Great Outdoors Colorado and the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
The Clear Creek Trail as a whole also is known as the Peaks to Plains Trail, capturing its entirety from Adams County through Jefferson County. The ultimate vision for P2P, as it is nicknamed, is for a 65-mile trail that follows Clear Creek from the South Platte through Denver, Wheat Ridge, Golden, Idaho Springs and Georgetown, terminating at the headwaters on Loveland Pass.
