The paved trail up Clear Creek Canyon has grown one segment at a time. The Gateway segment opened in 2021, and the CCR segment followed last November. Tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 6, Jefferson County Parks & Open Space opens the Huntsman's Rancho segment. After that, the county's own project manager expects the trail to stay at its new length for several years.
That makes tomorrow's opening more than a ribbon on another mile and a half of concrete. The canyon trail Golden gets this week is close to the one it will have for the rest of the decade. Jeffco also plows it after snowstorms, so for anyone living near the creek this is now a year-round route.
What Opens Tomorrow
The Golden Transcript reports that the Huntsman's Rancho segment adds 1.5 miles of ADA-compliant trail in Clear Creek Canyon Park above Golden. It also brings two bridges, several creek access points and a new trailhead parking lot with 70 spaces.
The new segment picks up where last November's CCR segment ends. The CCR Trailhead sits at 23801 U.S. 6, and The Gazette describes westbound drivers reaching its lot shortly after the tunnel. The 70-space Huntsman's lot is a big jump from the CCR lot's 42 spaces, which the Denver Post reported in March. On busy weekends, the canyon's parking just got a lot more room.
Earlier plans for this segment were bigger and arrived sooner. In March, the Denver Post described a sign at the trail's end promising four bridges and a summer opening. The finished segment has two bridges and opens in November.
How the Canyon Got to 4.75 Miles
The canyon trail has grown in pieces. Each piece has been short, and each has needed serious engineering.
| Segment | Opened | Length | What it added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gateway | 2021 | 1.75 miles | Gateway Trailhead at the canyon mouth, at the foot of Mount Zion |
| CCR | November 2025 | 1.5 miles | Four bridges, a 1,200-foot viaduct, creek access, a 42-space lot with restrooms off U.S. 6 |
| Huntsman's Rancho | Nov. 6, 2026 | 1.5 miles | Two bridges, creek access points, a 70-space lot |
Add the three segments together and the trail runs 4.75 miles up the canyon. That's the total the Denver Post projected once Huntsman's Rancho opened. The CCR name honors the narrow-gauge Colorado Central Railroad, which ran through the canyon from 1872 to 1941 to serve the mines in Central City and Black Hawk. After the rails came out, the old grade was raised for flood mitigation and for U.S. 6, which opened in 1952.
The surface is part of why the trail is so easy to use. According to the Denver Post, it is rust-tinted concrete, 10 feet wide, and never steeper than a 5% grade. The bridges have small porches where people can stop for the view without blocking anyone. Bikes aren't allowed on U.S. 6 in the canyon, so the trail is also the only way to ride up it.
Downstream, the canyon trail connects to the established Clear Creek Trail east of the Gateway Trailhead. That trail runs through downtown Golden and continues to the South Platte River in Adams County.
Why the Next Mile Is Years Away
The canyon trail stops growing after this week because of money and rock.
Scot Grossman, Jeffco Open Space's project manager, laid it out at the Oct. 20 Golden Beer Talks at the Buffalo Rose, where Westbound & Down poured the featured beers. The Golden Transcript reported that the county still needs 5.75 miles of trail and about $100 million to finish Clear Creek Canyon Park. Grossman said the remaining segments are mostly designed and that Jeffco is "chasing a lot of federal dollars" to build them.
He also said that even if the money arrived today, construction would take four and a half years. When an attendee asked how soon the trail would be finished, Grossman answered, according to the Transcript:
"Give me another three or four years, and we'll have the first mile for you."
He pointed to the terrain around Tunnel 2 as the hardest part. It has a sheer rock wall that he called one of the canyon's most beautiful and iconic spots, and that same wall makes design and construction harder. The cost of the two most recent segments shows why. The Denver Post put the CCR and Huntsman's Rancho segments together at $80 million, funded mainly by Jeffco Open Space with help from Great Outdoors Colorado and the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
The larger plan reaches far beyond Golden. Grossman described a finished Clear Creek Trail, formerly called the Peaks to Plains Trail, that crosses four counties and runs 65 miles from the South Platte to the creek's headwaters on Loveland Pass. For Golden, though, the trail that matters for the next few years is the 4.75 miles opening tomorrow.
A Canyon Trail That Gets Plowed
Since the trail's length will hold steady for a while, how it handles winter matters more. In March, the Denver Post reported that 4 to 6 inches of snow had covered the trail, and Jeffco Open Space plowed it the next morning in time for weekend crowds. Spokesman Matt Robbins said the county will do that "every time it snows."
Opening in November means the new segment's first season is winter. Snowmelt and storm runoff push the creek higher between the canyon walls, which the Denver Post describes as rising 1,000 feet over the trail. On Jan. 4 of this year, Golden Transcript photos showed visitors walking dogs across the CCR Trailhead bridge and an angler near the new trailhead. The canyon has had winter visitors since the CCR segment opened.
The creek in town had a rough summer. According to a City of Golden announcement, Colorado Parks and Wildlife asked anglers to voluntarily skip fishing from noon to midnight every day on the stretch from Vanover Park upstream to the Tunnel 1 Trailhead. Flows there were running about 80 cubic feet per second, against a historical average of 240, and daily water temperatures were topping 73 degrees. Colorado Parks and Wildlife's 2026 closure table lists that closure from July 29 to Oct. 7, so it ended before the new segment opens.
Follow the Creek Downtown for the Holiday Season
The same water runs through Golden's holiday season. Visit Golden's Olde Golden Holidays schedule puts lights on the trees along Clear Creek, on Billy Drew Bridge and in History Park and Parfet Park. Those come down at the end of January. Downtown's white lights, the multicolored lights along the north fence from the Golden Welcome Center to about the library, and the big tree outside the Welcome Center stay up through Feb. 15.
Here's the season by date:
- Nov. 6 to Dec. 23: The Colorado Railroad Museum's Polar Express opens the same night as the trail segment. Performances run daily after Thanksgiving, and there's a new First Class–Preferred Viewing ticket this year.
- Nov. 13: Applications close for the 2026 Holiday Parade, themed Western Winter Wonderland.
- Nov. 17: Golden Beer Talks returns with CU Anschutz's Dr. Janani Ravi on antibiotic resistance.
- Dec. 4: The Candlelight Walk runs 6 to 9 p.m., from 15th Street and Washington Avenue to Parfet Park. The procession starts at 6:30, and the Olde Golden Holiday Committee organizes it.
- Dec. 12: The Holiday Parade steps off at 10:30 a.m. on Washington Avenue between 10th and 13th streets, with carriage rides afterward.
- Dec. 19: Jingle on the Avenue brings holiday characters, Santa, music and crafts to Washington Avenue from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Washington Avenue also has a new shop for holiday errands. Stay Golden Mercantile moved from Morrison to 1106 Washington Ave., Suite 102, over the summer. The Golden Chamber held its ribbon cutting on Oct. 8, and the grand opening followed on Oct. 10.
Starting this weekend, the paved trail runs from Huntsman's Rancho down the canyon to the Gateway Trailhead, then follows the creek into town past the lit trees on Billy Drew Bridge, through Parfet Park and onto the stretch of Washington Avenue where the parade starts on Dec. 12.
At Living at Altitude, we're thinking about how close your street sits to that route, whether it's the Gateway Trailhead, the creek path through downtown or the new lot up the canyon. If you own a home near Clear Creek and wonder what that access adds to its value, Get Your Instant Home Valuation and we'll walk you through the numbers.
