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.

The nighttime closures this week, scheduled from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., are planned around the I-70/U.S. 6 interchange at exit 244 and include on- and off-ramps.

Drivers also should expect to wait at 20-minute stops multiple times per day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on I-70 starting Monday, and continuing through Thursday, according to .

But officials said there would be no planned traffic disruptions during the holidays from Dec. 20 to Jan. 5.

CDOT contractors will be blasting rock in the canyon above eastbound and westbound I-70 between the Veterans Memorial Tunnels and the Homestead Road interchange near Idaho Springs. And drivers may face intermittent traffic stops along the Central City Parkway, County Road 314, U.S. 6, and U.S. 40, CDOT officials said.

CDOT contractors are building a temporary framework to support their upcoming construction of a concrete bridge on I-70. When it¶¶Òõap done, the bridge will carry westbound drivers through a new route that CDOT officials say will be safer and improve traffic flows through the canyon, which long has loomed as a bottleneck.

The rebuilt highway, with an added westbound express toll lane, eventually will carry drivers through a widened canyon on viaducts 115 feet above Clear Creek. This safer route, designed to improve visibility for drivers, is expected to allow speeds of 55 miles per hour in areas now marked 45 mph.

Depending on the weather this week, disruptive construction work may shift to Wednesday and Thursday, CDOT officials said.

The I-70 Floyd Hill Project involves about eight miles of I-70 in the mountainous area between Evergreen and the eastern edge of Idaho Springs. CDOT officials have promised that, as part of the project, they’ll improve the Clear Creek Greenway trail and ensure safer routes for wildlife.

Construction began in July 2023. The project is expected to conclude in 2029.

Drivers learn more by calling CDOT at 720-994-2368 or by texting floydhill to 21000 and signing up for text alerts. CDOT officials also said information about weather, road conditions, and travel impacts is available at .

Drivers could see delays of up to an hour on days when the sun glare creates dangerous conditions between sunrise and 8:30 a.m., the Colorado Department of Transportation said in a news release. The daily closures are possible between November and February.

CDOT and the State Patrol will decide on safety closures based on the severity of the eastward glare.

Several factors can make the sun glare worse or more dangerous, including leftover moisture from storms or road treatments, steep hills and sharp turns, and obstacles such as wildlife crossing the highway, CDOT said.

During sun glare closures, eastbound traffic will be detoured at exit 244 for U.S. 6 at the bottom of Floyd Hill. From there, drivers can take U.S. 6 through Clear Creek Canyon or U.S. 40, also known as the eastbound I-70 frontage road, until exit 248 for Beaver Brook.

Drivers can prepare for the glare by traveling later in the morning, making sure windshields are clean inside and out and having a good pair of sunglasses handy, state officials said.

The highway will be closed in both directions between Colorado 119 and Interstate 70 from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday and from 8 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday, according to the .

More overnight closures are scheduled for U.S. 6 between Colorado 58 in Golden and Colorado 119 on from July 21-23.

Drivers can detour on Interstate 70.

Updated at 12:45 p.m. July 10, 2025: This article was updated to clarify the boundaries of the U.S. 6 closure.

With the heat comes a burst of desire to head to a river, creek or lake to seek relief. But waterways across the state — flush with recently melted snowpack — are often still a bone-chilling 45 degrees or so.

Fall in, jump in or get tossed in, and things can turn deadly serious in a flash, said Todd Miner, a retired senior instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

“You get in that cold water, and it’s really tough to stay in control,” he said. “People don’t recognize how debilitating that can be.”

Add to the cold a formidable current, and chances for serious accidents — even fatal ones — only multiply. Stand up in the creek, and expect to get your foot wedged and pinned in between rocks on the creek bed, said Capt. Harold Osborn with .

“A lot of times, (people) don’t understand the flow dynamics of the river,” he said.

Osborn was one of 15 members of the practicing water rescues on a roaring Clear Creek last week west of Golden. The 150-member organization, now in its 30th year and made up of emergency officials from nine local fire departments, performs specialized rescues in Denver’s northern suburbs, including rope rescues, confined space rescues, trench rescues and collapse rescues.

On Wednesday, the focus was water rescue training in Clear Creek Canyon. A rescuer was tethered to the shore or was free swimming across a raging current, then grabbing hold of a free-floating “victim” and pulling them back to land. Lt. Jacob Charney, with North Metro Fire Rescue, was in charge.

“Because the water’s so high, we do the training in the spring,” he said, wearing a dry suit and helmet as a bloated Clear Creek rushed past. “It’s the most difficult conditions because of the velocity of the water.”

Less than two weeks ago, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office closed the creek through downtown Golden to belly boats, inner tubes and single-chambered rafts — as well as body surfing and swimming — until water levels subside. People on kayaks, river boards, whitewater canoes and multi-chambered, professionally guided rafts can still ride the creek.

The closure comes after three years of particularly deadly water activity in Colorado. More than 30 people died on the state’s waterways and water bodies last year. There were 32 deaths in 2023 and a record 42 fatalities in 2022, according to an unofficial tally kept by .

This year, so far, has been a departure from that deadly record. As of Friday, the state had seen eight deaths recorded in 2025, according to news releases from CPW.

In comparison, by the first few days of June last year, there had already been a dozen deaths on Colorado waters.

“We are not on the same pace as last year, and that is fantastic news,” CPW spokeswoman Kara Van Hoose said.

She credits the drop in water deaths to a cooler and wetter May, with Memorial Day weekend almost a total washout.

“When it rains, people are less likely to be out on the water,” Van Hoose said.

This year’s deaths in Colorado waters have largely been on lakes, rather than rivers. The incidents began in late February with the discovery of the body of a 65-year-old fisherman who had fallen through the ice at Cherry Creek Reservoir. In mid-April, the body of a man who fell from a canoe was .

Last month, a fisherman using a bellyboat — a small, inflatable tube — got caught in strong wind gusts at Steamboat Lake State Park and drowned, authorities said. He was not wearing a life jacket. In the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, a popular rafting and kayaking spot near Buena Vista, a .

Another four deaths have occurred at Lake Pueblo State Park, including . In most of the Lake Pueblo deaths, the victim did not wear a life jacket.

“Any water can be deadly if you’re not wearing a life jacket,” Van Hoose said.

Employees at Golden River Sports hand out life jackets and helmets to all customers who rent their tubes. But Jon Baskin, who has worked seasonally at the tube and kayak rental store in downtown Golden for five years and was a raft guide for a decade, sees many on Clear Creek not wearing protective gear.

“I see people without PFDs,” he said, referring to personal flotation devices. “Clear Creek on a weekend day is like a carnival — there are hundreds and hundreds of tubes. But it’s still a wild river, it’s not like the lazy river at Elitch’s.”

Golden has taken measures in recent years to control, and even restrict, the crowds that mob the waterway near downtown Vanover Park on warm, sunny days. The city places daily limits on the number of tubes the two concessionaires in town can rent to the public. It also embeds radio frequency identification tags in tubes to track their usage.

Last year, Golden discussed the introduction of a reservation system, like the timed-entry system used at Rocky Mountain National Park. It has not yet put in place such a system to control access to the creek.

Whether 2025’s less-deadly trend on Colorado’s waters continues into July and beyond, CPW’s Van Hoose said, will ultimately come down to individual behavior and precautions taken.

“We hope we continue to see good numbers — but it’s up to the people,” she said.

Project planners say they expect to open the next 1.25 miles of trail by December, and they are hoping to open it much sooner.

“Chances are, we will,” construction manager Jeffrey Hoge said last week while providing a construction tour. “If things align, Labor Day would be great.”

Since August 2021, the trail has ended just past Tunnel 1 on U.S. 6, a mile and a half west of that highway’s intersection with Colorado Highway 93 and Colorado 58. The Peaks to Plains trail features rock walls towering 1,000 feet over rushing creek rapids, and it attracts hundreds of visitors on weekends. Often, they pause at a chain link fence marking the current terminus, openly wondering when the next section will open.

That segment is part of an $80-million project — funded primarily by Jefferson County Open Space with help from Great Outdoors Colorado and the Denver Regional Council of Governments —  to extend the trail three miles from its current terminus.

Another 1.75-mile section — much of which is already in an advanced stage of construction — is and preliminary plans have begun to extend the trail yet another six miles up the canyon by 2033.

Weekday motorists in the canyon are currently encountering alternating single-lane closures to accommodate construction activity. The primary focus of construction work last week was just past Tunnel 1, where workers poured adobe-colored concrete from a truck-mounted concrete pump parked in the eastbound lane of U.S. 6. The pump sent wet concrete through boom arms about 100 feet, up and over the creek, so it could be poured on the path of the trail.

“That’s a long reach for a concrete pump,” Hoge said.

Meanwhile, an excavator on crawling treads used a massive bucket to move boulders, restoring the creek and its banks to the way they appeared before trail construction. At one point, the excavator was chained to a front-end loader providing an anchor from above so it wouldn’t fall down the 45-degree slope where it was working.

Workers are also removing dangerous obstacles in that section of the creek, which has rapids that attract kayakers. Some of them were things that predated the trail construction, including hunks of rebar, a concrete road barrier that apparently had been in the creek for many years, and an assortment of shopping carts.

“As we put it back to its natural state, we’re also cleaning it up, making it safer,” Hoge said. “It will be like we weren’t even here. That¶¶Òõap the idea. Part of the aesthetics is that it¶¶Òõap supposed to look like this trail has been here for a long time.”

Just upstream, two 200-foot bridges have been installed, which will take the trail across the creek to the north bank. The segment opening this year will terminate at a new trailhead, which still needs to be finished.

“We need to build some walls and do some concrete work,” Jeffco Open Space project management supervisor Scot Grossman said of the new, as-yet-unnamed trailhead. “A big wall needs to go in between the road and the trailhead. We need to pave it, build a restroom and a kiosk.”

In the three miles of trail upstream from Tunnel 1, there are five elevated sections similar to the viaducts in Glenwood Canyon but smaller, since they will only accommodate foot traffic and bicycles. The section of viaduct just upstream from Tunnel 1, the last of the five to be built, is awaiting concrete pouring and pedestrian railings.

The other four viaducts, including those in the section of trail that will open in 2026, are finished except for the installation of pedestrian railings.

“We have a couple of bridges to put in and a bunch of other stuff,” Hoge said, “but we should be good for 2026.”

More than 100,000 motorists pass through Wheat Ridge, Denver and southwestern Adams County every day on Interstates 70 and 76, often in maddening traffic snarls. I wonder how many of them realize there is a lovely urban oasis hidden in the shadow of those noisy highways that serves as a peaceful refuge for cyclists, runners and walkers.

The 21-mile Clear Creek Trail runs from Clear Creek Canyon near Golden to the South Platte Trail near Commerce City. Most of it is beautiful, and some of it is downright spectacular. It generally runs along or near the creek, roughly paralleling Colorado Highway 58, I-70 and I-76.

Since 2021, the western terminus has been 1 1/2 miles west of Golden at Tunnel 1 in Clear Creek Canyon, a dramatic setting where rock walls hundreds of feet tall tower over rushing rapids. A westward extension of 1 1/2 miles or so is expected to open in December, with another 1 1/2 miles to follow in 2026. Some day it will be possible to run, walk or bike all the way to Idaho Springs, which is why this section of the Clear Creek Trail is also known as the Peaks to Plains Trail.

New segment of Clear Creek Canyon trail could open by Labor Day

As stunning as the canyon section is, there are many more beautiful areas along the trail as it makes its way to the plains. It passes through a popular tubing area in downtown Golden, where the weekly Golden Farmer's Market (always worth a stop on a Saturday morning) will be back in operation beginning May 31. It diverts away from the creek for a short section east of downtown Golden on the north side of Highway 58, where there are wonderful views of Golden's twin mesas, known as North Table Mountain and South Table Mountain..

Then it drops back along the creek and soon enters the Wheat Ridge Greenbelt at Youngfield Street, where there is a trailhead with a large parking lot, two porta-potties and a bike pump. The Wheat Ridge Greenbelt is lovely, with a succession of four lakes and four parks over 5 miles or so. Much of it is heavily wooded with plenty of shade.

Crossing Kipling Street can be scary because traffic there usually is heavy, especially during the afternoon rush hour, but a map there shows a way around that problem -- a half-mile diversion off the trail to the south via the Wheat Ridge Rec Center that leads to an underpass under Kipling before returning northward to the creek.

There are more heavily wooded areas east of Kipling. Two miles past Kipling, there is an elevated foot bridge, a nice place to pause with nice views up and down the creek. About half a mile east of there, the trail crosses under Wadsworth Boulevard near the Interstate 70/76 split. CDOT says 135,000 vehicles travel through this area daily on 70 and 76.

From there, the trail generally follows along or near Interstate 76 the rest of the way. There are industrial areas in this section that detract from the trail's scenic value, but it's still relaxing and enjoyable. The trail crosses under Sheridan Boulevard, and there are crossings at Tennyson Street and Lowell Boulevard where traffic is light. There are parking areas for creek access on both sides of Lowell at 55th Place, with a porta-potty on the east side. A mile past Lowell, the trail crosses under Federal Boulevard at 60th Avenue near RTD's Clear Creek-Federal Gold Line station.

Be careful a mile east of Federal, where the trail turns away from the creek to the north at a reservoir and crosses under 64th Avenue. Do not take a path to the right that appears just past 64th. Continue north about 0.3 of a mile, watching for a short tunnel underneath RTD's B rail line. After emerging from the tunnel, watch for a sign on your right that will lead you back to the Clear Creek Trail.

At that point, you're about 4 miles from the South Platte. Here the creek corridor is wide and largely barren, even bleak, but it's still a nice ride if you're on a bike as I was last week. I parked at the Tunnel 1 trailhead in Clear Creek Canyon and rode from the west end of the trail (just above the trailhead) to the Platte. According to my GPS, it was 21.1 miles with an elevation drop of 740 feet, most of which comes in the first 7 miles before you get to Wheat Ridge.

If you want to do the whole thing but aren't up for another 21 miles back to Clear Creek Canyon, do what I did: Cross the Platte and ride another 0.9 of a mile to RTD's Commerce City-72nd Avenue Station, then take the N train to Union Station and the W light rail to the Jefferson County Justice Center in Golden. From there it's only 4 miles back to the Tunnel 1 trailhead in the canyon.

Whether you do that or split it up into sections using parking areas for access along the way, the Clear Creek Trail is a gem, showcasing a beautiful refuge in the metro area that is well worth your time to explore -- all 21 miles of it.

The man was climbing near the popular at approximately 9:39 a.m. when he fell, spokesperson Jacki Kelley said.

Clear Creek Canyon was closed for several hours as , who died at the scene. No foul play is suspected in the incident, Kelley said.

Closures to protect nesting raptors will be imposed at Clear Creek Canyon Park, North Table Mountain Park, and South Table Mountain Park. Parts of Centennial Cone Park will be closed for elk calving season. These closures occur annually in the spring.

The Rim Rock Trail on North Table Mountain and areas on the north portion of South Table Mountaiin will be closed to protect nesting raptors and ground-nesting bird habitat.

Portions of Clear Creek Canyon Park will be closed above US 6 to protect nesting eagles, including several rock-climbing sites: Bumbling Stock, Stumbling Block, Skinny Legs, Blonde Formation, Ghost Crag, Highlander, Evil Area and Tetanus Garden.

All of Cathedral Spires Park will be closed from March 1 through July 31 to protect nesting birds of prey, and the Black Bear Trail which connects Deer Creek Canyon Park to Hildebrand Ranch Park will be closed Saturday through July 31.

The Crown Hill Bird Sanctuary will be closed from March 1 through June 30 to protect waterfowl and other wildlife.

Around 6:09 p.m. Sunday, fire crews from and the responded to a call from the injured man inside the canyon, according to Golden’s Deputy Chief of Operations Sean Jones.

is similar to skydiving and involves people jumping from high buildings, bridges and cliffs with parachutes. While skydivers take off between 9,000 and 14,000 feet, BASE jumpers usually start less than 500 feet from the ground.

Jones said the man told fire officials that he had jumped from a cliff in the canyon but it’s not clear where he was aiming to land.

The man said he had difficulties during the descent, presumably with wind, and was thrown into the cliffside and injured, Jones said.

“Luckily he had cell service and was able to call for help,” Jones said. “That’s not common in that area.”

Golden fire crews led the technical rescue and climbed up to where the man was stranded, about 60 to 80 feet up the canyon wall that borders U.S. 6 near Golden and across the creek from the highway. Arvada Fire, Stadium Medical and Colorado State Patrol .

Rescue crews scaled the wall, loaded the man into a basket and used a rope system to get him across the creek to medical personnel, according to Arvada Fire.

Jones said the rescue took roughly two and a half hours. He said the man was getting medical care on the highway by 8:30 p.m. and on his way to the hospital by 9:30 p.m.

The man’s injuries were not life-threatening, Jones said.

The Golden Fire Department, which handles all calls in the canyon corridor, strongly discourages BASE jumping and similar activities, Jones said.

Jones said the canyon’s terrain isn’t suitable and the area can be dangerous due to its spotty cell service. If you’re going to go, he said, don’t go alone and make sure your phone is charged.