Smoky Hill Trail - Cherry Creek State Park

Tess Johnson - 23 October 2024

After driving through an unusual amount of traffic for a Wednesday morning and being forced to sleep for the past 10 hours due to being sick, I am here in Cherry Creek State Park. It is practically devoid of people, spare the maintenance guy, a few cyclists, and a singular boater. The reservoir is still, perfectly reflecting the cloudless sky. There is an autumn chill, but the sun is keeping me warm at one of the picnic tables. The tress are clinging to their fall attire, golden leaves quiver as birds and squirrels chirp at each other. These sounds of nature contrast with the roar of i-225 traffic as it flies past. I can’t help but wonder…

Venturing onto a trail into the unknown (unknown to the traveler at least), is such a human instinct, the desire to pursue curiosities. Trails, as a medium, capture this. We go out often with a desire to discover or change ourselves. But, if in all of that effort, we actually leave a piece of ourselves? The trail clings to these fragments, for as long as it can, until it folds into the fabric of the trail own identity. Trails are for literal and figurative connection. How, and where, do I see that connection today, as I perform my final exploration of the Smoky Hill Trail? Can I even see that connection when there aren’t any other people present?

I started my time at this trail like I did with every other, by sitting in quiet reflection at a picnic table near the parking lot. I had a clear view of the Cherry Creek reservoir, which most certainly did not exist during the days of the Smoky Hill Trail. Behind me was the freeway, ever present on these excursions. I then wandered to the start of the trail and started walking. There were no other hikers, and only the occasional cyclist. The parking of this trail was at the very end of the road through the park, so I knew there was no one else around because I would have probably passed them. In total, I completed 3 miles at a fairly leisurely pace, trying to take notice of the trail and everything around it. The trail was made of very sandy soil, and after about half a mile traveled directly along the reservoir before turning away again. Around a mile and a quarter, it joined with a paved path, which would have turned into the Cherry Creek Trail if I had more time to venture on. The weather still feels like fall, even as we approach late October with no snow. Like the other places I have traveled to for my practicum, this trail was flat and easily accessible, though the lack of other recreators meant that I needed to help myself if I somehow was injured or lost (though unlikely for both).

As I walked along the trail, I tried to make note of evidence of history along the trail. At first, I struggled with this. Without educational signs and preserved historic sites, how am I supposed to learn about the place I’m in? However, I realized that this approach towards history, and how it is preserved in public spaces, was limiting. Rather than looking for evidence of change over time, I was looking for someone, or something else, to tell me what that change was. After this perspective shift, I began to realize that there was more evidence than I initially thought. The fact that a reservoir was here at all, with a busy freeway and residential neighborhoods right next to it, showed that this place has been growing and evolving for decades. But not everything has changed. The freeway, as well as the road through the park, paralleled the Smoky Hill Trail. 150 years after the trail became obsolete at the conclusion of the Colorado Gold Rush, it was shaping transportation in the 21st century. Even the trees along the trail and reservoir had to the planted there, intended to provide shade in a place that lacked it before (considering cottonwoods didn’t exist here prior to the construction of the reservoir). The fact that local government chose to set this land aside as a park, shows a change in values of the local culture. That is, the Smoky Hill Trail has changed from purely utilitarian, used for survival even, to that of an environmental and recreational purpose.

Of all of my practicum experiences up until this point, of all of the time I have spent on the Smoky Hill Trail, this is the only trail actually named Smoky Hill Trail. That doesn’t change the fact I have been walking along the Smoky Hill Trail, but this is the first time the name of the trail acknowledged its historical role. Even though the trail name hasn’t changed, the trail itself certainly has. Today, it is narrow and sandy, only trammeled by the boots of hikers and fisherman. I can only imagine what it was like 150 years ago, wide from frequent traffic and deep furrows carved the wheels from wagon trains. Now, it requires special effort to walk along this trail, as opposed to traveling along the trail being a daily necessity.

So, it begs the question once again, how do trails influence the preservation and telling of human history, and what skills are needed to safely and ethically participate in outdoor recreation? The trail itself offers an avenue to explore where it came from and where it is going. A traveler can question these, or not. The Smoky Hill Trail exists today and fulfills both recreational and utilitarian values of today—through hiking trails and modern highways. Many of the skills required to safely interact with these spaces are similar to that in the wilderness, focusing on self-awareness and accurately assessing the space. In my NOLS wilderness first responder class, we practiced asking the right questions and using the power of observation to make well-informed decisions. This process applies to urban trails and highways as well, only requiring myself (or any other person) to have the awareness the seek answers in their surroundings.

I suppose this is the end of my practicum adventures. Five sites all along the Smoky Hill Trail, all unique in their structure, aesthetic, and purpose. All hold fragments of their prior purpose, and all are moldable to the interests and values of today. Even as I try to find cultural significance in their current configuration, the very existence of the Smoky Hill Trail today and its integration into the structure of modern-day Denver, are evidence of the trail shaping the paths of people throughout history.