If you've walked, biked, or rolled a stroller along Ralston Creek Trail anytime in the last week and a half, you've already hit the orange signage north of Arvada-Blunn Reservoir. The main paved path is closed for a stretch, and everyone gets funneled onto a gravel path running just south of it. The city posted the notice before it happened: a detour beginning the week of September 14, expected to hold for three to four weeks. Do the math from today and that puts the reroute wrapping up somewhere between the first and second week of October, assuming nothing pushes it further.
What's easy to miss, standing at the barricade with a dog leash in one hand and a phone in the other, is why this particular stretch, why now, and why the fix is a short gravel detour rather than a full trail closure. The answer involves a construction contract that's been ready to go since early summer, a piece of paperwork that took longer than expected, and a nesting pair of red-tailed hawks that the city was, by its own account, unwilling to disturb.
What's Actually Going in North of the Reservoir
The detour exists because the City of Arvada is building a new 1.7-mile segment of the Colorado Front Range Trail, a project designed to connect directly into Ralston Creek Trail just north of Arvada-Blunn Reservoir. The city hired CEI-Muller to design and construct it, and as of June 2026, the project had cleared its required permits. That's the version of events that shows up on the city's own project page for the Colorado Front Range Trail in Arvada.
A mile and seven-tenths doesn't sound like much next to a trail that already runs somewhere between 12.5 miles by the city's own measurement and closer to 14 by third-party trail trackers like AllTrails. But this particular addition isn't meant to add mileage for its own sake. It's meant to extend the existing spine north into territory the current trail doesn't reach, which is why the city has been tracking it against its 2016 Parks, Trails, and Open Space Master Plan rather than treating it as a bonus loop.
The Hawks That Held Up the Schedule
Here's the part that explains the timing gap. The city's own project notes state plainly that construction would begin once red-tailed hawks nesting in the area had fledged. That single sentence answers a question a lot of regular trail users have probably asked without realizing it: why did a project with permits in hand by June not break ground until mid-September?
Raptor nests near active construction zones typically mean waiting for the young birds to leave the nest before heavy equipment moves in, and that's effectively what happened here. The permits were ready months before the hawks were. The detour you're walking around this week isn't a scheduling slip. It's the visible tail end of a wildlife-driven pause that pushed a summer start into a September one.
Three Routes Were on the Table. One Won.
Before any of this reached the permitting stage, the city reviewed three different alignment options for how the new segment should run. The one that got picked wasn't chosen for scenery. It scored highest on a combination of safety, maintenance, and user experience, according to the city's own comparison.
The winning alignment runs north from Ralston Creek Trail, then turns and heads west toward Highway 93. That westward turn is where a lot of assumptions probably go wrong. The trail doesn't push through to the highway itself. It stops at an overlook near the top of the grade, held back a deliberate distance from the road. If you've been picturing this new stretch as a shortcut toward Highway 93 or a link toward the foothills beyond it, that's not what the city designed. It's a dead-end viewpoint, not a through-connection.
The Connection That's Still a Maybe
There's a second piece worth knowing before you build expectations around it. The city has also floated a spur trail that could connect to the Pattridge Open Space Trailhead. It's recommended in the planning materials, but it isn't part of the formal Colorado Front Range Trail alignment that's currently funded and under construction. In plain terms, that means the Pattridge link is an idea the city likes, not a project with a contractor and a start date. If you're hoping your evening loop eventually ties directly into Pattridge, that's still an open question, not a scheduled outcome.
What This Adds to an Already Long Trail
None of this happens in isolation. Ralston Creek Trail already threads together a long list of Arvada parks on its way from Gold Strike Park in the east, where a 400-foot suspended cable bridge called Spar Bridge marks the spot where gold was first discovered in Colorado back in 1850, out through Creekside, Memorial, Ralston Central, Ralston Cove, Oak, Davis Lane, Danny Kendrick, Gibbs West, Ralston Valley, and Maple Valley parks, past West Woods Golf Course, and out to Tucker Lake before ending at Arvada-Blunn Reservoir.
That's the existing spine. The new 1.7-mile segment doesn't rewrite any of it. It picks up right where the trail currently stops, at the reservoir, and pushes the network a little further north and west than it's ever gone, ending at a spot most current users have never had a paved reason to walk to.
Reading the Detour While You're In It
For the next few weeks, the practical version is simple. The main paved trail north of Arvada-Blunn Reservoir is closed, and the marked gravel path just south of it is the official route around the closure. If the three-to-four-week window holds, expect the detour itself to lift sometime in early to mid October, though the underlying construction on the new 1.7-mile segment will likely continue past that.
Once it's finished, what you'll be walking toward isn't a new route to the mountains or a faster way to Highway 93. It's a short spur to an overlook, built to a standard the city chose specifically because it tested better for safety and upkeep than the two alternatives it beat out. The trail gets longer. It doesn't get you anywhere new that a map would suggest at first glance.
The overlook at the top of the grade is the finished piece of this project. It is the reason the gravel detour exists right now, and the hawks are the reason the start came later than the June permits alone would suggest.
If you're weighing what it's like to actually live near a trail like this one, not just visit it, House2Home Real Estate knows Arvada's parks, trails, and the neighborhoods that back up to them well enough to walk you through it. Call or email the Arvada team when you're ready to talk specifics.
