This calming Denver oasis knits together older neighborhoods in new ways

Editor s note This is part of The Know s series Staff Favorites Each week we give our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining shopping entertainment outdoor programs and more We ll also let you in on certain hidden gems A short section of orphan railroad tracks is among the reminders of what came before Denver built one of its more inspired flood-mitigation projects the th Avenue Greenway in the near-northeast part of town So is the auto salvage yard that still sits just over a fence from the walking path The greenway which opened five years ago this month nods to the past of Denver s Cole and Clayton neighborhoods for decades a mix of industry and working-class homes even as the area is changing rapidly As it unfurls for a mile going east from Franklin Street the -acre linear park is centered around a drainage channel that flows gently like a small stream Natural vegetation grows alongside the water while sometimes-meandering walking paths up the embankment connect a society garden pedestrian bridges a plaza with seating playgrounds and several pieces of population art as the greenway continues on to Steele Street All of it is within walking distance of century-old houses factories and the new high-rise apartment buildings that have gone up in the River North Art District to the west Anytime I visit the greenway usually looping it into one of my morning runs I marvel at the avenues it links the underappreciated history of the neighborhoods to the fast-changing face of urban Denver Others join me whether playing fetch with their dogs going for a walk pushing a stroller or watching their children play on the inventive playgrounds It s a pocket of calm near the increasing bustle of RiNo near still-working plants like a Coca-Cola bottler and the Nestle-Purina pet food factory whose proximity you can alas occasionally smell depending on the wind s direction and near schools as well as the resurging York Street Yards business center In latest weeks the greenway s still-developing vegetation and trees offered unexpected bursts of fall color too I remember how peculiar the plans for the th Avenue Greenway sounded nearly a decade ago as I covered the advent of the city s Platte to Park Hill plan as a city governing body reporter The roughly million undertaking to reduce street flooding across several neighborhoods attracted tons of heat and pushback The greater part of it was focused on higher-profile projects namely the substantial regrading of City Park Golf Program to create stormwater detention areas and the project s side benefits for the then-upcoming Interstate project to the north The greenway plan too sparked worries about chemicals and other pollutants in the soil City representatives announced they d clean up whatever they located as they ripped up abandoned railroad tracks east of York Street and disturbed other parts of the area s industrial past A cyclist makes his way down a path along the th Avenue Greenway in Denver on Wednesday Oct Photo by Andy Cross The Denver Post Now that it s built the greenway s channel usually has particular water in it but it fills up more impressively after storms The water passes through vaults that capture trash keeping it out of the South Platte River downstream and the exposure to sunlight helps remove contaminants The vegetation helps filter the stream before it disappears back underground at Franklin It s hard to understate the difference between what seemed at the time an underwhelming plan for a dressed-up drainage ditch and the actual reality on the ground It s now honest-to-goodness parkland that was well thought out in a part of the city that so desperately needed it Related Articles Denver musicians play ancient Indigenous instruments on new album Colorado s ghosts and monsters stalk Riverside Cemetery This cozy Estes Park getaway is a perfect winter retreat Mick Herron s Slow Horses series is great TV based on great writing Trinidad vegan restaurant is a must-stop spot when traveling to southern Colorado After covering the controversies around all the stormwater projects and then seeing them built I didn t come to appreciate the th Avenue Greenway until I moved to Cole a couple years ago from another part of Denver I rediscovered it in a way on an early exploratory run Now I run there preponderance often as part of an out-and-back subject taking in the trees and plants and odd features like the short stretch of disconnected train tracks that s there as a kind of monument to the past and several pieces of population art My favorite is a pair of giant orange metal sculptures resembling megaphones situated across the channel from each other and positioned to enable people to talk across that distance Called Conversation the piece draws on the history of discrimination affecting the area which has been home to a few of Denver s the majority racially diverse neighborhoods and is intended to highlight the importance of racial dialogue When I turn around to head back west I look up taking in Mount Blue Sky and the rest of the Front Range on the horizon as I trot toward the still-emerging RiNo skyline that bookends the other side of the greenway The th Avenue Greenway in Denver on Wednesday Oct Photo by Andy Cross The Denver Post Subscribe to our weekly newsletter The Adventurist to get outdoors news sent straight to your inbox