$80 million Clear Creek Canyon Park trail project to open in 2025 and 2026

Clear Creek Canyon is one of Jefferson County’s most dramatic geologic landscapes, with towering rock walls and whitewater rapids arranged along 13 miles of winding two-lane highway leading west from Golden to Clear Creek County.

What it lacks is adequate access to the stream for visitors to stop and enjoy its beauty or hike along its banks. The highway, US 6, is off-limits to runners and bicyclists because its five dark tunnels are so narrow, and pull-outs are rare — some posing hazards to traffic. Drivers only occasionally see the canyon walls above, as the curving highway commands their full attention.

That will change in the next two years, thanks to an ambitious construction project that will dramatically improve recreational access to the canyon. The Jefferson County Open Space Division is spending $80 million to extend the Clear Creek Canyon Trail three miles upstream from its current terminus at Tunnel 1, which is located two miles west of Golden. About 1.25 miles of new trail is scheduled to open just west of Tunnel 1 next year, with another 1.75 miles to follow in 2026. Eventually, the trail will connect with trails in Clear Creek County through Idaho Springs and beyond.

If $80 million seems like a lot for three miles of concrete trail, it is. But the complexity of the project, with a narrow creek and a freeway surrounded by steep slopes, presents major engineering hurdles. In some sections, the trail is built on elevated concrete viaducts that resemble the sweeping bridges of Interstate 70 as it passes through Glenwood Canyon.

The project includes seven new bridges over Clear Creek, one new bridge over the highway, a new underpass under the highway, and two new crossings with restrooms and parking for 170 cars. A park at one of the high points will have a one-mile loop for hikers and creek access.

“It’s pretty wild,” said project manager Scot Grossman, giving a guided tour of the area in mid-August. “What we are doing is a generational project.

“This has statewide and national significance,” he continued. “We create safe access to the creek, as well as all the recreational facilities – climbing, slack-lining, tubing, rafting, fishing, gold panning. I love the idea of ​​little kids growing up in Golden 15 years from now, gathering their little bikes on Saturdays and riding the trail to go fishing, rock climbing, or a ride to Centennial Cone (park) and back. down.”

“We’ve been building this for 100 years”

Great Outdoors Colorado — which distributes Colorado Lottery proceeds — provided a $7 million grant for the current construction project. The Denver Regional Council of Governments invested another $10.25 million. GOCO previously awarded the Clear Creek Canyon trail effort $10.5 million for segments that have already been completed.

But the rest of the $80 million comes from the Jeffco Open Space budget, which is funded by a dedicated 0.5 percent sales tax that voters approved in 1972. That tax is not subject to the restrictions of the approved TABOR amendment by Colorado voters. in 1992, which limits the amount of revenue that state governments can retain and spend.

“Most open space programs in the Front Range have a similar sales tax,” Grossman explained. “Ours predates Tabor by about 20 years, so there’s no sunset (disposition) on it, which is really lucky for us. Other agencies have a 10- or 15-year term and have to go back to the voters to renew their funding.”

CDOT is also working on the project in an effort to create safer access for drivers to the creek attractions than has been the case in the past. “They’re the other owner here,” Grossman said. “Their mission is to get people through the canyon safely and efficiently. Our visitors, when they stop, pop into every nook and cranny. Doors open, dogs, strollers, bicycles come out. It’s just not a safe environment to recreate in.”

In 1871, a narrow gauge railroad began service in the canyon from Golden to the mining towns of Clear Creek County. The current construction project takes advantage of some of its grades. Before Interstate 70 was built in the 1960s and 70s, Clear Creek Canyon was the primary route into the mountains for Denver drivers. .

Now Jeffco’s Clear Creek Canyon Park is in the process of extending the canyon along the creek from Golden to Clear Creek County. The first segment opened in 2021 with the debut of the $19 million Gateway Trail just west of the intersection of US 6, Colorado 93 and Colorado 58. From there, the existing trail extends 1.75 miles to at Tunnel 1.

The Clear Creek Canyon Trail will be the middle segment of the Peaks to Plains Trail, which will eventually extend 65 miles from the foot of Loveland Pass through Georgetown, Idaho Springs, and Clear Creek Canyon to Clear Creek’s confluence with the South Platte River . in Adams County. It is already completed from the Clear Creek Gateway trailhead to the Platte near 74th Avenue and York Street, through Golden, Wheat Ridge and Denver.

“We’ve been building this for 100 years,” Grossman said. “We really want to make sure this is here for three or four generations. That takes time. The geological, ecological and hydrological challenges are immense. We have world-class whitewater here that really picks up in the spring. And, you can see the geological constraints. We are in a deep canyon with rock everywhere.”

A floating trail, like a mini-Glenwood Canyon

Construction manager Jeff Hoge, a cyclist, is already looking forward to trading in his hard hat for a cycling helmet.

“I can’t wait for that,” Hoge said. “I’m a bicyclist, I grew up here and I’ve never been able to ride a bike legally on US 6. It’s interesting. On the construction side, this is a dream job for a construction manager.”

The three-mile section now under construction will climb 300 feet from Tunnel 1 to Huntsman Gulch. All of these will be wheelchair accessible and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which means maximum grades of 5%. The canyon walls rise 1,000 feet above the stream, which is often very narrow, which is why structural engineers opted to build a viaduct through those sections. It also has less impact on streamside vegetation, they say.

“This is a heavy civil construction project, but we really pride ourselves on having a really light touch, a really surgical approach, because at the end of the day we’re an open space organization,” Grossman said. “We are a balance between recreation and conservation.

“I think this viaduct perfectly sums up ‘hard civil’ with a light touch. This is a difficult thing to design and build, but the impact on the land is much less and easier than cutting (a stream bank slope) and backfilling,” he added.

To create the viaduct supports, workers drill 30 to 40 feet through bedrock and soil until they reach bedrock. Then they drill another 12 feet into the bedrock to anchor concrete columns that will support the deck on which more concrete will be poured for the trail.