We honestly didn’t love this ride for reasons mentioned below but the Sand Creek Trail in East Denver was the hidden gem. The trail winds in between residential areas and yet we saw a beautiful coyote wandering among the trees. We look forward to discovering different gravel roads that could link to the Sand Creek Trail.
My brother was visiting from out of town and it was fun to introduce him to an easy gravel route. (Although he was able to do it on skinny road bike tires, he says he would have been a little happier doing it on wider tires.)
On Sand Creek Trail there was some construction near Havana, but we imagine it will be finished in a few months.
We saw a fair amount of glass around the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Trail. (One person in our group with tubes got a flat, and another with tubeless wheels had to add more air.)
The High Line Canal Trail crosses many roads and waiting for traffic and/or crosswalks really slowed our roll. Portions of the trail had unaware walkers and unleashed dogs (boo!).
Laura got a bee sting on her tongue- ouch!!
Do this ride if you want a fairly fast-paced ride that travels east from Denver and gets you into some wide open space with views of the mountains and airport.
We did this ride on a weekday morning and we would recommend doing it on a weekend since we did encounter some morning rush hour traffic around both Stapleton and Smith Road.
Watch the wind forecast when planning to do this route- it can often get windy out there on the eastern plains!
We anticipated much more gravel on the portion of the High Line Canal Trail we took, but, sadly, much of it is paved.
Always carry with you: extra tubes and air cartridges for flats and Benydrl for the unexpected bee sting!
We recommend starting this ride from City Park in Denver where there is both parking and public bathrooms available.
Laura & Rose
Laura Karpinski and Rose Barcklow are the creators of Gravel Bike Adventures. Click on the About page to learn more about them.
