Parker completes High Plains Trail, closing Douglas County gap
Parker has finished the last High Plains Trail link, closing a break at South Parker Road with a new overpass and trail segment through Prairie Point. The route now connects across the E-470 corridor for walkers, cyclists and commuters.
Parker says construction on the High Plains Trail is officially complete, closing the last gap in a regional path that cuts through the southeast metro corridor. The town marked the finish with a ribbon-cutting on May 21, and Mayor Joshua Rivero pointed to the multi-agency partnership that carried the project to the end.
The completed link fills the missing stretch along the E-470 corridor between earlier trail sections that already ran from Quincy Avenue south to the Arapahoe County line and from Parker Road to the county line. Arapahoe County says the High Plains Trail is meant to run from the High Line Canal in northern Aurora to the Cherry Creek Trail in Parker, making the new connection a key piece of a longer route for walkers, cyclists and commuters who use multiuse paths to move between neighborhoods and business areas.
The biggest obstacle was South Parker Road. County materials describe the bridge over six lanes of traffic as a major engineering feat, and Arapahoe County says the overpass provides a safer crossing while improving access to the Denver-area trail network. Phase one of the High Plains Trail Connector was completed in summer 2023 with the pedestrian bridge at the border of Centennial, Aurora and Parker, and phase two finished the final trail segment along the east side of Parker Road through the Prairie Point housing community.
The May 21 event ran from 11 a.m. to noon at the High Plains Trail bridge on the west side, where local officials highlighted the coalition behind the work. Parker said the project involved the Town of Parker, Arapahoe County, the City of Aurora, the City of Centennial, Douglas County, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the E-470 Public Highway Authority, with additional support from the Denver Regional Council of Governments and Great Outdoors Colorado. The City of Aurora says it will maintain the trail.
E-470 has said the overpass was the first phase of a project intended to connect the High Plains Trail to the Cherry Creek Trail, and Arapahoe County Parks and Recreation District helped shape the routing near Quincy Avenue through the future Country Park area. The result is a continuous trail connection where there had been a break, giving Parker and Douglas County residents a safer and more direct way to cross one of the corridor’s busiest roadways.
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