The Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail officially opened Saturday morning, but a U.S. Parks and Wildlife refuge manager said it's been under use for a week.
Governor Hickenlooper cut the ribbon on the trail, which is a part of "Colorado the Beautiful." It's part of a push to put every Colorado resident within 10 minutes of a park at any time.
"It allows us to really be able to imagine, a bike system where you can ride from Wyoming to New Mexico without having to ride along a road," Hickenlooper said.
The portion of the trail opened is seven miles long, but the entire trail is close to 25. It runs from the Two Pond National Wildlife Refuge to the Westminster Open Space. The trail butts up against the former Rocky Flats Plant, a nuclear weapons facility. Some municipalities have called for more testing as bridges and tunnels are created along the trail route.
"There's been over 13,000 soil samples that have been taken. So, I'm pretty darn confident in the work that's been done in the past 20 years," said David Lucas, refuge manager for U.S. Parks and Wildlife. "If it helps us get more public support, we are more than interested in doing that."
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