Biking Denver's Cherry Creek Trail

In August of 2008, after driving 600 miles, much of it in rain, we checked into our extended stay room in Aurora, Colorado (abutting Denver.) An hour or so later, the rain stopped so we drove around looking for the trailhead for the Cherry Creek Trail. We found the Wheel Park/Olympic Park complex near our motel and biked 19 miles on both the Cherry Creek Spillway Trail and then the Cherry Creek Trail segment within the Cherry Creek State Park. The photo below shows some of Denver’s tall buildings in the distance as seen from the Spillway Trail…

… and the prairie dog community along the Spillway Trail seen below.

We had been told that the paved bike trail circled the entire reservoir, but that was incorrect. The state park and reservoir are quite large, but the trail only nears the lake for a short time as seen here…

… but most of the time the reservoir is not even in sight. Due to our rain-delayed start, we knew sunset was drawing near, and when we realized the trail didn’t circle the lake, we worried about getting lost and getting caught by darkness while still away from the van. Fortunately, the combined Google Maps/GPS feature on my new iPhone saved the day, showing us the route to take through a subdivision and then on unmarked dirt trails through the dog exercise area to get us back to the Spillway Trail and then back to the van. What an adventure!

A tasty seafood supper at Joe’s Crab Shack then topped off the evening.