The dream of having a dedicated trail path running from the South Platte River to Glennwood Springs and beyond is six miles closer to reality.

Last week the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) fund announced $29.5 million in lottery grants to help fund eight river and creek projects across the state. Among the awards was $4.6 million to Jefferson and Clear Creek counties to help fund plans to build a six-mile segment of trail along Clear Creek.

“It’s a wonderful project. We’re excited about it and looking forward to working with all of our partners,” said Jeffco Open Space Director Tom Hoby.

The project will get some financial support from the cities of Golden, Arvada, Wheat Ridge and Lakewood, along with the Prospect and Apex recreation districts and the Jeffco Open Space Foundation.

The two counties had initially applied for separate grants to work on portions of the trail through the narrow canyon. Hoby said that after GOCO received 63 different grant requests as part of its River Corridors Initiative, the organization asked Jeffco and Clear Creek officials to combine their grant proposals to increase their chances of making

the final cut.

The joint proposal asked for $10 million in funding to develop about six miles of trail along Clear Creek, stretching from a half mile east of the Mayhem Gulch trailhead, and extend a mile and a half into Clear Creek County, to the

Oxbow Property.

“(The grant plan) will have several areas where we’ll be improving some of the access,” Hoby said. The plan’s goal is to encourage people to use the area for fishing, hiking and climbing. He said construction would likely start in late 2013 and would have to be completed by June 2015.

“We’re hopeful it builds interest and momentum to get that trail all the way down to Golden,” Hoby said. That would entail construction of another seven miles of trail.

Outside interest is important for the project, Hoby said, because of the cost of building trail through the steep and winding canyon.

He said trail construction would cost an estimated $2 million to $3

million a mile.