More than a third of the trail you can walk on Green Mountain isn't on the official map. An April 2026 inventory for Lakewood's William F. Hayden Park plan counted 24.7 miles of maintained trail and 14.1 miles of social trail, which comes to 38.8 miles in all. Those 14.1 miles are the informal paths worn in by years of use: the shortcut from a cul-de-sac, the spur off the Summit Loop, the line that never got a sign.
The concept map shown to the public in April puts the future official trail system at about 41 miles. That's close to the size of what's on the ground today. So the plan isn't really about making Green Mountain bigger. It's about deciding which miles stay, which get rebuilt, and which entrances lead to them. For anyone who walks out their door and onto the mountain, the entrances are where the changes would show up first.
Where the plan stands as of late October
The city's October 5, 2026 update says the plan has reached the "95% plan stage" after an 18-month process. The final version goes to City Council for adoption later this year. The draft survey closed Monday, October 19, but the William F. Hayden Draft Plan is still posted on the Lakewood Together project page, along with its appendices.
The city is clear about what the document is. It's a framework for managing and improving the park over the next 10 to 20 years, "not a commitment to construct every recommendation." What actually gets built depends on future funding, priorities, resource conditions and more design work. The trail and trailhead details below are the concepts the city shared for public comment in April 2026. The final plan can still change them.
Two maps of the same mountain
The park covers more than 2,400 acres, and Green Mountain Trail climbs to a summit of about 6,800 feet. The April inventory lists these named trails as they exist today:
| Existing trail | Length |
|---|---|
| Green Mountain Trail | 7.35 mi |
| Rooney Valley Trail | 3.44 mi |
| Summit Loop Trail | 2.96 mi |
| Box O' Rox Trail | 2.27 mi |
| North Access Trail | 1.99 mi |
| John O. Hayden Trail | 1.92 mi |
| Narrow Point Trail | 1.34 mi |
| Rooney Valley Trail Connector | 0.59 mi |
| Box O' Rox Connector | 0.15 mi |
The C-470 Bicycle Trail also appears in the inventory. Here is how the April concept would rework the system:
- Base Loop: 11.2 miles, made of 4.8 miles of existing trail and 6.4 miles of new trail
- Closures and reroutes of unsustainable existing trail: about 4.5 miles
- Social trail closures: about 9.7 miles
- Future official system: about 41 miles
About 14 miles of unsustainable or informal trail would come off the ground, and new, realigned and newly recognized trail would replace them. The 9.7 miles marked for closure add up to roughly 7 of every 10 social-trail miles in the inventory. The concept map doesn't say which named segments get closed or rerouted.
The map also shows hiker-only bypasses, an accessible trail with amenities, future designated-use trail areas and future downhill-bike zones. The habitat analysis behind it ranks wetlands and riparian drainages as the most valuable land to protect, followed by native prairie, grassland-bird habitat, rare-plant areas, cultural sites and steep slopes. It recommends concentrating improvements near areas that already get heavy use or are already disturbed. That's how the plan decides which informal paths stay: a path through an intact drainage is the kind most likely to be closed.
Trailhead by trailhead
The trailhead concepts decide where people would start those miles. Here is what the April designs proposed at each named access point.
Utah Trailhead. The biggest change on the list. Utah would become a pedestrian-only entrance with no public parking. The land outside the fence would be restored, and a maintenance gate, kiosk, benches and trash cans would be added. A sidewalk would connect Utah to the Florida Trailhead and to the recently completed signalized pedestrian crossing on Alameda.
Florida Trailhead. Florida would take on more of the load. The concept includes new pavement, access walks and ADA parking. It also adds rerouted and restored trails for better accessibility and wayfinding, kiosks, bike racks, a vault toilet and a shade shelter. Parking could expand to the south if warranted.
Rooney Trailhead. The existing lot and vault toilet stay, and parking could expand to the west if warranted. Rooney also serves JeffCo Open Space and Dinosaur Ridge west of Rooney Road.
Forsberg Park Trailhead. The lot stays. Access gates and a connecting trail would be added, plus a day-use area with a shade shelter and picnic tables on either the north or south side of the lot, and a new Hayden Park map kiosk. Social trails here would be closed and restored. The trails north of the Alameda underpass would be improved, with better signs pointing visitors through the tunnel into the park. Parking could expand to the west if warranted.
Every proposed parking expansion comes with the same condition. The boards say trailhead parking expansion "will be considered for construction only when user demand exceeds available capacity."
Where neighbors and park users split
The city ran two surveys from April 15 to May 1, 2026: a public survey with 1,678 participants and a neighborhood survey with 503 responses. Respondents to both broadly supported the plan's goals. The public summary reports that more than 50 to 60% strongly agreed the goals were met, and another 30% moderately agreed. The disagreements matched the trade described above almost point for point.
In the public survey summary, the proposed Base Loop drew broad support, and many comments asked for more hiker-only bypasses. Views were more mixed on the downhill mountain bike zones and on closing ecologically unsustainable social trails. Some respondents worried that certain changes could favor particular user groups or cut off long-used informal neighborhood access. People also asked for better signs, separation between user groups and stronger enforcement of existing rules, including the leash rule, trail closures and yielding.
Feedback on the trailheads was just as divided. Some respondents wanted more parking at Rooney and Florida, and others worried that would bring crowds. The pedestrian-only plan for Utah split opinion. Respondents welcomed the decision to drop a proposed lot at Alkire, and Florida came up often as the place most in need of a permanent restroom and water.
The neighborhood survey summary is where the social-trail question gets personal. Neighborhood respondents described Hayden as valued for its quiet character, neighborhood access, wildlife and natural habitat. They recorded particular opposition to closing long-used social trails on the north side. They were also divided on downhill-bike zones and concerned that new parking and access points could bring more traffic and visitors into the neighborhood.
The informal paths that make Hayden feel like a neighborhood park are many of the same miles the plan treats as unsustainable. And the parking that could ease crowding at Florida and Rooney is the access some neighbors worry would bring more visitors to their streets.
What stays the same on the mountain this fall
None of this changes anything on the ground yet. The rules on the city's William F. Hayden Park page still apply:
- The park is open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
- "All users must keep dogs on a leash at all times."
- The city asks visitors to stay on designated trails and avoid wet or muddy ones, and its trail-conditions dashboard, linked from the park page, has the latest status.
The "designated trails only" request is the current version of what the plan is trying to make permanent. Freeze-thaw season on Green Mountain is when soft, unofficial paths widen the fastest, and the dashboard is the quickest way to check before heading up.
The next date to watch
City Council's tentative agenda lists a presentation of a resolution on the William Frederick Hayden Park Master Plan at the hybrid regular meeting on December 14 at 7 p.m. The city notes that meeting dates and agenda items can change. The tentative agenda page is where any change would show up first. Subscribing on the project page gets updates by email.
If council adopts the plan, the first visible changes will depend on funding and design work, not on a fixed schedule. For anyone who reaches the mountain from a side street, it's worth knowing two things before December: which entrance you use, and whether the path you take from it is one of the 24.7 maintained miles.
Hayden Park is a big part of daily life on this side of Lakewood, and I follow plans like this one because they shape the neighborhood right next to the trails. If you have questions about how the trailhead concepts relate to your part of Green Mountain, Brian Harvey - Green Mountain is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
