Aspen Park-to-Meyer Ranch trail to be built

The Conifer Area Council’s next trailblazing endeavor will aim to connect the King Soopers shopping center with Meyer Parkway on the south side of U.S. 285.
“It (will allow) people to get to the other side of the highway,” said Punky Kiefer, trails team and council board member.
The concrete path will start at Conifer Road and South Davis Road, joining an existing sidewalk that runs alongside South Davis Road, Kiefer said. After a crosswalk, the path will go south under the overpass, then join up with the dirt road that leads to the adjacent Meyer Ranch Open Space Park just to the east.
Council board member Peter Barkmann said construction should start this summer.
Since the road is “lightly used” and dirt, the trails team doesn’t think it’s necessary to put in more sidewalk there, said Barkmann, who is also on the trails team.
A new “neighborhood” entrance into Meyer Ranch will allow people to access the park from the west side, although there isn’t any parking, Kiefer said.
“If you wanted to ride a bike from King Soopers and go up there, you could get into the park,” she said.
A $41,384 Jefferson County Open Space grant will help fund the trail segment. The total construction cost is estimated to be about $72,384, not including $7,500 that was paid to engineers last year.
The rest of the money came from fund-raisers and donations from organizations and individuals, Kiefer said.
The trails team was formed after the council surveyed community members in 2006 and again in 2010.
“The majority of the respondents to both surveys said that the thing they wanted to see the most of in Conifer as an amenity was trails,” Kiefer said. “It was something the community said they wanted.”
The trails team’s goal is to “allow people to walk safely around the community or ride a bike,” Kiefer said.
Parts of future trails may even be for equestrians.
The first section of trail the team worked on alongside Sutton Road opened in 2010. It stretches from Wolff Avenue to Davis Avenue, connecting West Jefferson Middle and West Jefferson Elementary schools with both ends of the road.
Connecting the shopping center with Meyer Ranch was anticipated as the next step.
When that segment is done, Kiefer said the council will most likely try to connect Conifer High School to Flying J Ranch Park. The path from the school will join with trails made on property belonging to Journey Church.
The trail will be especially helpful to the school’s cross-country and track teams, Kiefer said.
“That allows a safe route for the high school kids to get to Flying J,” she said. “It gets them off Highway 73. It’s dangerous there.”
While the paths around Aspen Park are concrete, as per Jefferson County’s recommendations, the trails through the woods will be dirt, Kiefer said.
That trail’s timeline is unclear, Kiefer said.
“Realistically, I would say five to 10 years. Maybe three to seven,” she said. “We’ve gotten a little bit of it done, and there’s more to do than we’ve done so far. And it’s been five years. (But) there’s a lot of enthusiasm about it. People want to be able to get from here to there.”