Trail
Denver Trails
www.denvergov.org
“Leave the road, take the trails.”
The trail is a sacred place. Winding throughout our city are trails that adjust our pace and perspective. Trails provide long routes of exploration without the dominant presence of automobile traffic. Trails are a sanctuary of wildlife and wildflowers, reminders of the beautiful creation around us.
The majority of Denver residents live in urban and suburban context, with busy streets and narrow sidewalks. The pace of life in the city is primarily dictated by driving cars and traffic signals. But weaving through Denver are trails that offer uninterrupted routes through neighborhoods. Most following historic urban waterways and have been used for hundreds of years by the first inhabitants and early settlers. Trails preserve a quiet space and slower pace.
One of the trails in the heart of Denver is the Cherry Creek Trail. The 42-mile trail begins just north of Castlewood Canyon State Park in Franktown. It follows Cherry Creek southeast through Cherry Creek Reservoir and Cherry Creek State Park. Along the way it passes 17 Mile House and 4 Mile House, built in the 1800’s as rest houses and named for their distance to the center of Denver. The trail ends in Downtown Denver at Confluence Park where Cherry Creek joins the South Platte River.
The Cherry Creek Trail was designed in 1972 by Fred Wolfe. Wolfe was a young city planner who was hired in 1971 with a team of city planners for Denver to host the 1976 Olympics. After a campaign to keep the Olympic games out of Colorado succeeded, he was assigned to create a bike plan for the city. The one interruption to the scenic 42-mile trail is the section near Downing Street where the creek runs through the Denver Country Club. Wolfe routed the trail around the private club and along 1st Avenue. The interruption and conversion with city traffic around the Denver County Club is a reminder of the unhurried pace a trail provides.
A walk, run, or ride on a trail is an opportunity to travel through the city at a different pace. The trail is manmade and mediated interaction with creation, but it offers an experiential reminder of the natural landscape and wildlife that have existed long before us in the place we call home. The trail is an invitation to realign our perspective and pace. The trail is a sacred place.
