Apex Trail

This is a great park to hike! I live really close so I usually walk over to the Apex trail system about once a week to take my dog for a walk. The trails are well kept and there is a great views of Denver from different high points along the trails. There is a stream on part of the trail that my dog loves to stop at and cool down. It gets very busy on the weekends though and walkers need to keep a good lookout for fast downhill bikers.

Came to Denver for a few days and wanted to do some hiking while in town. Found this trail & decided to do it since it was near the city. It is a nice trail once you aren’t along side of the road… I tend to go hiking so I can get away from the city noise so being so close to the road wasn’t so fun for me. I enjoyed the scenery once I continued on the trail. It is a busy trail with quite a bit of mountain bikers. If you have a couple hours to kill and decide to stretch your legs check this trail out. Plus you can always head down to the Coors Brewery for a drink afterwards since it’s right in town.

Close to Denver and you don’t have to get on I70 westbound. New bathroom structure at the lower parking lot.
Can get busy, but great for a this time of year. In the summer it’s brutal with the heat and most of the trails are exposed.

Apex is a great hiking trail and so close to Denver! It is a quick easy hike. Most of the trail get nice southern light.
It does get crowded on weekends and you must be aware of mountain bikers.

As a recovering first time mom, this trail was perfect for my fitness level. The hus and I hiked Apex and Enchanted Forrest yesterday around 10am (Sunday). We had our 11 month old in a hiking carrier and went on our way. It was pretty crowded with mtn bikers and we weren’t ever secluded or alone with people in front of us and behind us. Not ideal but it didn’t really bother me too much since I needed frequent breaks while hiking up the mtn. I was hoping for more of a clearing to take a break before we turned back towards the parking lot but overall we were able to find a good spot to rest and feed our son before packing him back up and heading down. We will definitely be back to check out the other trails this summer.

I went with my dogs and had a great time! Very cool place to hike. Close to town and well marked. You can mountain bike as well as hike.

Unfortunately, the Enchanted Forest trail was closed when we arrived at Apex Park. I had looked up the trail prior to coming here and we were really looking forward to it. Nonetheless, we were there to go hiking so we found a different trail.
The park had flooded a few months back and really destroyed a lot of the natural habitat. There is a bulletin board with lots of information and what trails are open. They are working hard to restore the area, but these things take time. They have one nice and clean bathroom which is nice.
We decided to do the pick n’ sledge trail which is a steep hill climb. This was definitely more difficult than the trail we had planned on doing, but we like a challenge. One thing I would be aware of about this trail is that there is no shade, so wear sunscreen and a hat if its sunny!
We are going to wait awhile to come back to this park in hope that they will have fully recovered the area. Hopefully the Enchanted Forest trail is open when we return!

Pretty view of the kiddie amusement park and you can see Denver off in the distance.
Glad they finally opened up the trail that is more shaded (just in time for summer to be over, that’s a bummer).
If you are hiking watch out for bikers!
I hear this leads to an «enchanted forest» which sounds pretty BA, unfortunately I only have an hour for my lunch break so have had to turn around before I made it there.

Located next to Heritage Square in Golden, Apex Park is a nice, relatively uncrowded hiking/​biking spot just a short drive from Denver.
It’s pretty obscure, I had driven down Heritage Rd many times before I ever noticed it. I finally got a chance to hike here this weekend and will definitely return. There is an ample amount of parking– we parked in the lower lot but you can also use Heritage Square’s parking lot to be right by the trail head. For mid afternoon on a weekend, we hardly encountered any people on our hike. We passed a handful of hikers and a few mountain bikers, but I couldn’t get over how peaceful it was!
There are many different paths to hike on, although a portion of the Apex trail is still closed for flood restoration. Back in the 1800s, the Apex trail was one of the 3 main routes into the mountains. Eventually, the trail that is now I-​70 gained the most popularity and it became a major highway and Apex trail became a nice park. You can’t follow the original route very far (Apex trail is only 2.8 miles round trip), nor can you tell that it was ever a major thoroughfare of the old West. But it’s still cool to think about.
The trails weren’t terribly challenging but they are definitely a good workout. The Enchanted Forest trail is beautiful and it provides a lot of shade, which is always welcome in the summer. A nice place to check out!

After all the flood damage of last year, gradually they are repairing this challenging trail system. Phase 1 is open, which means Argos; Pick N Sledge, Grubstake and Bonanza trails are all open.
During the Flood Recovery work, the usual odd/​even directional flow is not in effect, which makes the trails quite busy on weekends.
If you’re a mountain biker, be prepared to have slight trail variations to some of your favorite rides, like Enchanted Forrest and Pick N Sledge.
When this trail system is open, you can ride/​hike from the Heritage Square parking lot all the way up to look out Mountain Road.
If your not in great shape, take two cars… park one at Heritage Square and the other at Lookout Mountain and take the flowing arduous journey down through Enchanted Forrest into Apex and down to the parking lot.
The scenery is incredible; wildlife is abundant and you’ll be ecstatic knowing this trail is so close to the foothills.
Keep checking back at:
To see which phases are open, enjoy!

Love this trail for a quick trip into the foothills with relatively low traffic… lots of cyclists if anything… the full loop at dusk may find you walking amongst herds of deer or elk. The trail has some nice burn and a great view from all vista points…
This is a great trail to bring visitors that is close to the city.