I am a short-ish female, recently moved downtown. Wondering how generally safe it is to run cherry creek from confluence park area in early evening (5:30-7:30pm) when it’s dark out since the end of daylight savings time is approaching. I’ve noticed Confluence Park remains fairly busy at night but not sure if this translates to the trail itself. Searched and found answers mainly about biking at night, not much about running. Would love to not be confined to the treadmill for the next 4 months but obviously safety comes first.
I've been taking bike + light rail to work because I was afraid going through the city and downtown would be difficult. Finally tried out Cherry Creek trail and I'm kicking myself for not trying it out sooner. It was super easy, and considerably faster than taking the light rail.
Videos
I've only biked as far as the beginning at REI to the Cherry Creek Reservoir. Is there a route with altitude of the entire route and back? Also, what are your thoughts of the route? Any stops you enjoy?
Hey guys, wondering if any of you who use this trail have recommendations for which parking lots are the best for an extended walk/run.
I've been looking at the one by Stroh Ranch but wasn't sure if there were some to avoid.
If it matters, I'm coming from the south where some of our trail parking lots are basically magnets for break ins while people head are away.
Folks, ACE will begin their Yearly flush of sediment from Cherry Creek Dam starting Wednesday 5/22. This means low lying areas of the Cherry Creek Bike Path WILL be flooded and potentially dangerous to ride. Don't get caught in a bad spot out there!
I have a teenager that will be doing a day long driving class in Centennial in a couple weeks. As I’ll have hours to kill and no car (kid needs it for the lesson) I thought it would be a good chance to do some riding.
This is well outside our normal stomping grounds, so I don’t know the area at all, but I see the Cherry Creek Trail runs nearby. What I’m trying to work out is how best to ride over to the trail from the school at 15659 E Hinsdale Dr.
I’d prefer to stick to wider, smoother paths - I ride a recumbent trike with all of about 5” of clearance. I can usually handle a dirt trail if it’s wide enough for a couple of bikes to pass each other, but a narrower track is a problem.
Google maps appears to be trying to route me through a locked gate and fence at the Colorado Rapids soccer fields, which seems a bad choice.
A surer public way might be to go south, riding for a short distance on Jordan road to Jamison and up Jasper. It’s not clear how busy Jordan road is, but I’m not above riding a short bit of sidewalk if I need to even though I normally avoid doing so (I’ve read Effective Cycling).
Trouble is, Google street view cuts out before I can tell what kid of trail I’m heading for. Looking at coloradobikemaps.com suggests it may be dirt, but gives no further clues.
Is anyone familiar with this area that could offer suggestions?
I’m more than happy to “learn to fish” if there are better resources I should be checking out instead. I’m an inexperienced rider trying to work my way back into better health doing something I enjoy - trikes are fun - so every bit of learning helps get me one step closer.
Jordan to Jamison as you say. Easy and short. 100% paved. Trail is literally right next to your location you might even be able to just hop on it from the school.
Jordan to Jamison is the straightforward way to do it and you have few options from there that don't involve Jordan Rd. Long ago, I used to use that route to go from Arapahoe Rd to Cottonwood Dr, but the development of the area has made Jordan a hairy ride. So: ride the sidewalk on the east side of Jordan to reach Jamison. That's a suburban autoscape, so you aren't likely to encounter many pedestrians. Once you hop off Jamison to Jasper and hit the parking/access point for the trail, I think it's still dirt there (it's been a couple of seasons since I've seen it), but smooth and rideable on a road bike.
The paths there are poorly signed and you may hop on to the Happy Canyon Trail if you aren't wary, but even if you do, you can follow that to the E-470 trail, turn left and follow that to the Cherry Creek Trail to return north to where you parked.
Hi all -- I recently changed jobs and now I work downtown around 15th and Welton. When I come in, it's easy as can be: I take the Platte River greenway until it becomes the Cherry Creek trail, then hop off around Market and get on 14th for the lovely bike lane there, and then just cross over a block on Welton.
Weirdly though, as I'm sure many of you are already aware, doing the reverse seems substantially less convenient/safe... But I figure I may just be missing something. For now, as far as I can tell from Strava & Google Maps, my way back would either involve:
-
Staying on 15th St well past the part where the bike lane ends, and things get nightmarishly chaotic in LoDo, and dipping down from there onto the Platte River Greenway near REI, or
-
Cutting through Larimer Square and then just sort of awkwardly navigating down the sidewalk on 14th Street to the same ramp to the Cherry Creek trail that I take coming in. That part mostly just feels weird because I have to ride on a sidewalk and it's also kinda busy and weird, traffic-wise.
What am I missing? Is there an actually safe bike lane or path that can get me either back on the Cherry Creek trail or Platte River Greenway from 15th & Welton...?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks, u/Homers_Harp and u/PuddinSnout -- I'll give your routes a try starting this evening! I think I had just entirely written off using Speer at all because it terrifies me on some level but I hadn't even realized it has a proper set of trails/sidewalks...
You actually do not have to go up 14th from Larimer Square. You can just go straight across 14th and take a left off of Larimer right before the bridge. This will take you right to the Cherry Creek path. Obviously it's important to be respectful of pedestrians in the square when doing this but it's really not a problem during commuting hours.
Just wanted to say - be careful on the Cherry Creek trail if you're biking / walking in there.
I was biking this morning and took a break on the side of the path (right by Speer and Lawrence on the up ramp to MSU Campus) for about 5 mins and a homeless man got right up in my face, and was screaming at me / demanding to take my phone.
He thought I was taking pictures of him I guess, and continued threatening me. I think he thought I was an undercover police or something, as he was rambling off on some 5G conspiracy diatribe. I was about one step away from dropping my bike and getting ready to defend myself after telling him to back off multiple times.
He finally backed away after he noticed I was tensing up and getting ready to place my bike down even after I had my arm up telling him to back away. He then gave me space to ride away, but I was watching him the entire time to make sure he didn't try anything as I was biking away.
If you're down there, just make sure not to stop around the path directly unless you're up on a street or in a better congregated area - as this was at like 11 am on a Sunday. If you're down there at night, make sure to keep moving or get up onto a street if you're taking a break!
I live right off the platt trail and have a road bike. I'm fairly new to biking and not super comfortable riding on busy roads or trying to navigate, use hand signals, keep track of all the distracted drivers, and stay straight, all at once. So the trails have been pretty awesome and I have done hundreds of loops around wash park.
But I'm looking to see if anyone knows any good loops around Denver that avoids traveling long distances on busy roads. I have several there and back ones but no good loops Google maps seems hit or miss and mostly miss trying to plan routes.
I can do 20-30 miles and have strava and garmin maps. Thanks in advance
Hey! I am going to be trying to run a long way along cherry creek trail tomorrow morning.
The short version of the story is that I'm supposed to run a 50k in a few weeks and I'm not sure I am fit enough to complete it. I want to try to stay on my feet for 4 hours tomorrow, which is ~18 days til race day, to see how much distance I can cover and make a go/no-go decision on the race. My plan is to start at around 7AM.
Mostly I am looking for pointers about water or bathroom access along the way. I'm going to be carrying a handheld 500ml water bottle and 600cal of gels, so I'd like to be able to stop and refill it 2-3 times along the way, and I'm sure I'll need a bathroom at least once as well. Would prefer to make detours as short as possible.
Thanks in advance for any tips!
Just an FYI: The folks with the city are awesome about getting Cherry Creek Trail plowed and as of 6:00AM this morning the trail itself is in very good condition. Most of it is dry with some icy spots. (NOTE: I ride from Downing to Stout (Convention Center), and that's what I'm reporting on. The construction going on still has the trail blocked there between Lincoln and Emerson I believe, and that section is NOT plowed. I chose to ride on the sidewalk along Speer for that stretch and the sidewalk is splattered with frozen chunks of slush from Speer. It's manageable but bumpy and a little technical. It would be a little challenging without studs but with studs it's no problem. Crossing the streets especially Lincoln where there was a pretty deep plow furrow is technical - you'll need some MTB skills and without studs I'd walk it.
Finally, I did not ride along the Denver Country Club but I expect it will be considerably more challenging due to thrown slush ice chunks from 1st ave.
Wash Park is plowed but still icy and snowpacked. Easy with studs and probably manageable for experienced riders without studs.
Buchtel/Prairie Park and the DU Sidewalks are icy, bumpy, slushy. Not too bad with studs and probably manageable for experienced riders without.
Neighborhood streets are a different story. The slush from yesterday is frozen into furrows and even the streets Denver has done their one-sweep plow on are all quite technically challenging this morning. I'm fairly seasoned at winter riding and the neighborhoods were a challenge for me -with good studded tires.
Downtown Denver bike lanes are plowed/swept but contain many ice chunks. intersections are icy and tricky. Everything downtown is not TOO bad with studs. Very good cyclists with a lucky route that isn't too chunky or furrowed at intersections might be alright without studs but the conditions can change within a few feet.
Good luck and safe travels to any other bike commuters out there today.
Looking to bike from the denver skatepark down past the cherry creek mall at night anytime from 9pm to midnight on a regular basis. Is the trail relatively safe at that time? It's about a 30 minute ride.
Hi! I’m preparing for a 5k this spring as someone who hasn’t run long distance in decades. Hoping to get an idea of where the best parks to train might be. I’ve spent a lot of time at City Park but now that I live in DTC it isn’t the most convenient area to drive to. Wash Park is nice but is so, so crowded. Any suggestions?