Explore the best rated trails in Black Forest, CO. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Big Dry Creek Trail (Littleton) and Toll Gate Creek Trail. With more than 73 trails covering 510 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
No reviews or pictures since 2021??
Rode the northern end of this trail from the 17th and Laredo area. Such a disappointment. Lots of broken glass as well as many homeless camps. Also quite a few stops to cross busy streets.
The greenway is beautiful and a wonderful ride! However, south of America the Beautiful Park there are multiple homeless encampments, especially under the bridges.
This is a fine trail for hiking, but not for biking. Trail surface is mostly loose gravel, there is usually one track on the side that is firm enough to ride on. This trail is not suitable for kids and occasional riders because of the loose material and steep grade. I have ridden rail trails in 42 states and this one is the steepest I have encountered, probably because it was a narrow gauge railway. The steep grade, high altitude and loose material make the trail challenging for casual riders. I was constantly in the lower two gears of my mountain bike, and uphill averaged 4 mph with breaks.
The portage around the collapsed tunnel is an unimproved hiking trail and will be difficult for kids and older adults. It would require a stout person to handle the portage with an electric bike.
A better bike ride is the gold camp road. Although there is some car traffic the surface is much better. Start at pullout No. 1 near the Bear Creek Nature Center (245 Bear Creek Road) and ride up hill 5 miles to the parking lot near Hellen Hunt Falls. That is 3 miles of asphalt and 2.3 miles gravel with one tunnel, turn around and coast back to your car.
If you go to the park at the beginning of the trail to the west the map takes you to an open field! Far from the actual trail spent two wasted hours!
Nice ride around a small lake and through some suburban areas. Some gravel/dirt and some concrete plus a little street crossings. Mixed use with walking, bikes and dogs on leash. Gentle slope.
Holy moly! Harder than I thought. Did it then ran back down to my motel we stayed at in Manitou Springs! Very cool area.
It was my first time on a trail in the area and I loved it, paved all the way through, no crossing roads or being close to the road, quiet and beautiful sights. Highly recommend it!
It would be nice to have more clear signage at some of the areas (around the preschool). I really had to watch the map on my phone which requires me to stop. Otherwise it was a an easy ride with a few moderate slopes. Took me 45 minutes from Red tail hawk park to Cherry Creek.
Starting in downtown Denver and heading 40 miles southeast to Franktown, the Cherry Creek Trail is a true gift to the bikers, runners, and walkers of the city. For the first five miles from downtown, from the scenic falls where the creek meets the Platte River, we rode nearly on the edge of the rock-strewn creek. The trail runs below street level, hence there are many overhead bridges and on/off ramps from nearby neighborhoods. Riding at 9am, most of the trail in the downtown area was shaded by the high-rise apartment and office buildings on the east side, but the trail is otherwise short on leafy canopies and is likely to be brutally hot mid-day. There was no shade whatsoever further along the trail. The creek’s path became less managed by rocky revetments after about seven miles, instead, alternately diverging and converging among beds of brown grass and scruffy plants.
Except for occasional neighborhoods and the four golf courses we passed, it definitely felt like we were riding in the Wild West!
Prior to hitting the suburbs, we passed numerous homeless people lying under blankets aside the creek or tucked up under the eaves of bridges - more than we’ve come across in other cities. There were also retaining walls along both sides of the trail that featured both true works of art and plain old graffiti. We had to stop at only one intersection where construction forced a slight detour; otherwise, we flew along the concrete path as it climbed almost imperceptibly out of town.
The Cherry Creek trail is more like a network of paths, several of which we took accidentally because there is very little signage on the trail. A yellow painted line along the center of the trail helps at some of the Y’s and intersections, but it’s conspicuously missing at many of them. We really enjoyed this trail and would have loved to have completed the 80-mile roundtrip, but we were limited by both time constraints and lack of ambition.
There is no shortage of great breweries in Denver, including a fantastic one with a crazy variety of beers right off the trail in the Glendale area.
Good connecting trail in the southern suburbs of Denver. Some little gems along the way (Holly Dam/Open Space and a beautifully paved path along a creek). Have to cross some semi-major roads but not too difficult to do. For a neighborhood walk/run, definitely check it out.
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