In 2021, Jefferson County announced a new recreation destination with a fitting name. The Gateway Trail would serve as a gateway to Clear Creek Canyon, providing a link from downtown Golden to these rugged walls.

The Gateway Trail would also add a dramatic segment to the Peaks to Plains Trail. That’s the dream trail taking people some 65 miles off-highway from the Denver metro area to the Continental Divide.

The Peaks to Plains Trail has been years in the making and will be many more years in the making. But project leaders could celebrate with the Gateway Trail.

Our first sentence here called it a destination. We mean it, no matter how unremarkable a stretch of pavement less than 2 miles might seem.

This is a super-accessible way — the large parking lot is right off U.S. 6 — to enjoy an epic landscape. It is a way to endless possibilities, serving dog walkers, runners, cyclists, rock climbers, anglers and kayakers and tubers dropping into the creek.

From the parking lot’s west side, we took the stairs down to the path that stretches farther west to a bridge. The pavement continues above the cascading water, which drowns out the sound of traffic on the adjacent highway.

The views open up ahead, especially after the Tunnel 1 trailhead (another one of the several access points in Clear Creek Canyon Park).

We ended Gateway Trail at a fence blocking the next construction site for the Peaks to Plains Trail. The next segment will connect Tunnel 1 with Huntsman Gulch, adding two new trailheads and three more miles of trail.

Either return the way you came or consider the Welch Ditch Trail back, following the historic flume higher along the canyon walls. The upper route parallels Gateway Trail.

Trip log: 3.4 miles round trip (out and back), 221 feet elevation gain

Getting there: Gateway trailhead at 21100 U.S. 6, about a mile from downtown Golden.

FYI: Open hour before sunrise and hour after sunset. Non-motorized, multi-use trail. Map and more information at: jeffco.us/1196/clear-creek-canyon-park

SETH BOSTER, THE GAZETTE