Sand Creek Trail

It’s a high of 53 today! In February. We NEED to get outside and do something. Tomorrow it will snow again. I know the trails will be crowded since it’s a Saturday, mid afternoon, and the only nice/warm day this week.

We could go for a walk with the dog in the neighborhood. Then I thought, hey wait… there is a trail system near the house that we haven’t explored yet. That trail system is Sand Creek Trail.

Per Alltrails.com it’s about 5 miles long. That length isn’t our style yet. BUT who says that you have to go the whole way. And our house is about halfway down the trail. So we laced up our boots and off we went.

Parking

There is not a parking lot to access the trail. The trail is literally behind houses. You can park along the residential street, just avoid driveways and fire hydrants.

There is a “back way” to the trail from our house. We took that route to get to the trail.

Trail terrain

It is a gravel trail. There was still a lot of snow on the it from a few days ago. The scenery is very pleasant. There are trees and shrubs along the trail. From what we could tell Sand Creek Trail has heavy traffic. There were lots of footprints in the snow. We passed several couples walking and a guy riding his bike.

Stroller friendly

The first day we went it wasn’t stroller friendly because of the snow. But yes this trail is stroller friendly. The terrain is gravel but packed well. You might come across some lose rock or a soft spot but nothing too terrible that you couldn’t go around it.

Dog Friendly

Yes, must be on a leash. We took our puppy with us. She’s a 1 year old German Shepherd. There were several other dogs on the trail at the same time we were.

Kid Friendly

We took our 3 kids with us both times we visited the trail. We were the only family on the trail both times. But the trail itself is suitable for all ages of children.

A little Scenic

We walked on a cute little bridge that had a creek running underneath it. Once we crossed the bridge it looked like you had to cross a main road so we turned around.

You can still see the mountains off in the distance on the trail. The view is pretty even though you are still in the suburbs.

We explored this trail another day, to see what adventure lies on the other side of the dirt road. The path continued between the backyards of houses.

There was another bridge to cross. There wasn’t any water under this bridge. We joked this is how Sand Creek got it’s name.

Update: 5/16/22

After the Akerman Fire that happened on the trail, it looks nothing like the photos above. It was a very upsetting scene. I’m sure if you give it a “Google” that you’ll find more info on it. The burn covers about 30 acres and damaged about 20 homes. Below is the photo that we took the day of the burn. Other parts of the trail still look lovely. But this section will be in “re-growth” for a while.

We hope you still enjoy Sand Creek Trail even with the recent fire. If you want to avoid the burn area, then enter the trail at Dublin and turn around once you get to the bridge. Or Enter the trail on Stetson Hills Blvd and go South. Or if you visit next spring then you might get to see some re-growth. Fingers Crossed.

Have you been on the trail before? If so how’d you get to it? That seems to be a frustration for some. Did you enjoy the wildlife that lived there? Or did you see any pretty wild flowers?