AUGUST 2008 DOWN CLEAR CREEK UP SAND CREEK

This is a fun ride, Down Clear Creek then up Sand Creek.

Clear Creek from Federal Avenue, not Golden. It's about 5 miles from Federal to the confluence at the Platte River.

Once you reach the Platte you turn right and go one mile to the Sand Creek Trail.

Then it's @ 13 miles along Sand Creek until you get to Colfax Avenue where you can catch a bus back to Denver.

It's a great route with a lot of sights to see.

To get to Clear Creek at Federal you take an RTD 31 from the transit center on Colfax & Federal or downtown.

Get off at W 60th & Federal Avenue. Clear creek is right there. See the bridge rail on the right? That's Clear Creek. See the rocks on the left? Go between them and there's a path to the trail.

You can plan your bus route at http://www.rtd-denver.com/

Click the "Trip Planner" button and you can plan a trip from anywhere.

Here's a shot looking West towards Federal on Clear Creek Trail.

We're headed East so it's a parting shot..

I took this Ride on Sunday August 17 about 10 hours after the region had received heavy rain for two days.

The Clear Creek Drainage got 4" of rain in 48 hours.

It was running high, but nothing like Sand Creek as we will soon see.

This is the Clear Creek Trail / Little Dry Creek Trail junction.

All that mud indicates a flood situation. Little Dry Creek came up through that tunnel.

It was a really big storm.

The dam at the Lower Clear Creek Canal diversion is overflowing big time.

Here's how it usually looks.







This is from March 2008. No water in winter.

This is Twin Lakes Park, you can see the Lower Clear Creek Canal in the foreground.

There is some single track here & there along Clear Creek.

Here we are at the confluence. See Clear Creek empty into the Platte.

Confluence Park is a great place for a picnic.

Here's another shot of Clear Creek meeting the Platte. This is from the other side of the Platte River.

In the mile between Clear Creek and Sand Creek we pass the construction zone. Here's how it looked in April 2008:

Here it is now, all patched up. Denver Water was putting in plumbing to two new reservoirs along the Platte.

OK, here we are at the Sand Creek confluence. Take the bridge over the Platte..

Sand Creek looking mighty turbid today. I've never seen Sand Creek running so high.

A lot of the Sand Creek Trail is dirt. I find it keeps the spandex speedsters away.

Here's a bridge over the Burlington Ditch. The bridge is for cars, not part of the bike path but I thought it looked quaint.

This is the bike bridge over the Burlington Ditch.

This is where Burlington Ditch goes underneath Sand Creek. You can see the far side before it goes underground and then it's bubbling up in the foreground.

Sand Creek flows in between.

Yes, actual white water rapids on Sand Creek.

Here's what Sand Creek usually looks like. Those rocks in the distance are the cause of the white water above.

Normal Sand Creek runoff.

Sand Creek runoff August 17 2008.

The concrete portions of the Sand Creek Trail are very nice. Although you're riding through an industrial zone now, the trail also passes through some of the most natural scenery in the metro area further along.

US Highway 6 bridge. Kinda spooky.

Now we're getting back to nature.

Sand Creek swollen.

Now we come to a Wetland Park. This is really nice and features picnic shelters.

Sweet.

A stop sign before you re-enter the Sand Creek Trail. This far out in the country I think a Yield sign would be more appropriate.

This is a new section of trail. Thank you Adams County!

There's the Sapp Brothers truck stop near I-270 & I-70.

Then you enter Denver.

Low flow

8/17/08 flow.

This is the under Quebec Street Bridge over Sand Creek. The city paints over the graffitti regularly. I hope they save this one. I used my zoom, that painting is 15 feet high.

Once on a night ride I came across three artists painting a mural that said "check the skillz that don't pay the billz" and featured caricatures of the artists holding spray paint cans.

I thought it was awesome and I watched them work for a while. I saw the completed work a week later when I rode that trail again. The next week it was gone, painted over. I was sad it was gone.

This bridge always has cool stuff on it, I should start documenting more.

The same bridge from the other side. Usually Sand Creek flows only in the center.

OK this is where I saw two white tail deer. A young Buck and a Doe. The Buck saw me as soon as I saw him. He was in front of the tree just left of center. I had to get my camera out of my pocket, out of the case, turn it on and aim and snap.

Because I require reading glasses to see the lcd screen on the camera on a quick shot like this there's no time to take off sunglasses and put on reading glasses so I wasn't sure if I caught 'em. I missed 'em.

I had better luck 2 minutes later when a coyote crossed my path and stopped at the top of a hill to pose for a picture. I took two, this is the best.

So in 3 minutes I saw a pair of deer and a coyote on the Sand Creek Trail. Then I saw a snake.

And a bunny. Lots of Bunnies.

I also saw a prarie dog. Well, I saw a bunch of 'em but took a picture of this one.

This one's a baby and I took a couple shots before an adult scurried over giving the alarm chirp, causing him to run into his burrow in the bottom right in this photo.

I also came across this plastic action figure.

I left it in the middle of the path just as it was.

Eventually you leave Sand Creek for a while and climb a dirt trail next to Havana Way.

Then you follow the path to Colfax and take an RTD #15 or #15 ltd to downtown Denver.

It's a great 20 mile ride, I give this one 4 stars out of 4.