I am moving to Denver, CO and will be living 2 blocks north of Wash Park.
I know there is a bike path that partially follows Speer/1st and leads all the way to Cherry Creek State Park. I have never ridden on bike paths while training because higher speeds seem dangerous on narrow bike paths. Are there a lot of experienced bikers on this path or does anyone know a good road route (not bike path) that heads out of town from Wash Park? Maybe to Cherry Creek State Park? I am also looking for good rides out of the city.
If you are bored at home or even at work I would appreciate some links to good riding resources or some routes mapped out. Thanks!
Don’t expect to do a lot of training on the bike paths. You’ll be frustrated… and it can be dangerous. You can get some decent easy riding in on the paths, but don’t even think about interval training or anything like that. Too many pedestrians and leisure riders. That said, the paths can get you to some decent training.
From Wash Park, there won’t be a lot of good street-based training routes because of the stop lights and traffic. It’s pretty much central Denver. You CAN take the Cherry Creek Trail east to Cherry Creek State Park where you can ride fairly hassle free on a 11 mile “loop” but it’s a good 10 miles or more just to get there. Similarly, you could head west on Cherry Creek Trail to S. Platte River Trail, which is then about 20 miles south to Chatfield Reservoir. There’s some great riding around Chatfield. It’s right by the foothills. Deer Creek Canyon Rd is a local favorite. Tons of cyclists every weekend… ride it while you can… there’s a movement to allow counties to ban cyclists on certain county roads. That’s one of the roads most often mentioned.
The best riding is in the foothills west of the city… probably a drive unless you want to ride 20+ miles of streets and/or paths to get there and in the North Denver/Boulder area, which is definitely a drive. Lookout Mountain in Golden is a staple, as is Mount Evans in Idaho Springs. East of the city is mostly flat with some rolling hills. I have a route I often ride from east Aurora to Bennett/Keensburg on the eastern plains. Flat fast, and I can do 112 miles or more with little interruption. Link here to mapmyride.com
I live on the south side of Wash Park. My best suggesting is to take Louisiana/Iowa over to the Platte River Trail and head south to Chatfield. From there you can hit Deer Creek/High Grade and other routes that direction. Alternatively you can take the Cherry Creek Trail up to REI and then head west to Lookout Mountain, but it entails more city streets than some would prefer. If you pop your bike onto your car and drive into the mountains or up to Boulder you can ride just about any hilly terrain you want.
The bike paths are fine early morning, but can get crowded and dangerous once the crowds hit and then its not so much fun but its a route out of town.
PM me when you get here and I’ll try to help more if I can.
you are right, the bike paths are fine for cruising but no use for training, except maybe a sort of constrained interval workout. You can always ride the loop in Washington Park itself until dizzy, but there is a notional 15mph speed limit.
Denver bike trail maps found here, http://www.denvergov.org/BikeMaps
Note a lot of the downtown routes shown on the map don’t in fact have bike paths or lanes, they are just routes along slightly less busy streets.
Ride on the Cherry Creek path to the Mile High Stadium and head west by Sloans Lake, through Edgewater and keep going west to Lookout Mtn. Those streets aren’t bad and you rarely have to stop due to lights. You have to weave north/south a bit but you’ll figure out a preffered route.
I’ll second the trip south along the Platte to the mtns but it does take a bit longer.
You could warm up on the trail to Cherry Creek State Park and then get in a good workout there. You could also go out the south end of the park and ride the roads down by Centennial Airport. On the weekends they aren’t crowded and some have striped bike lanes.
If you want to get to Golden and want to avoid the streets you can take the Cherry Creek Trail to the Platte Trail north then Clear Creek Trail west to Golden. The Platte Trail north and Clear Creek west are usually empty.
This is a pretty good site for information about the trails around Denver.