When Park Hill Park opened on Oct. 28, 2025, Denver Parks and Recreation director Jolon Clark showed up with a German shepherd named Park Hill Dave. According to The Colorado Sun, the dog had run loose on the closed golf course for months. It was eventually trapped with a "juicy stake," trained, and adopted by Clark. That day the Sun described the land as "a bit shaggy from overgrown golf roughs," with the last orange-yellow cottonwoods along the edges. Posters on the fences promised ballfields, natural playgrounds and exercise trails.
Nearly a year later, a walk there looks a lot like it did on opening day. On Oct. 13, 2026, The Denver Post still described the park as land that "doesn't have many amenities yet." On paper, almost everything changed. The open questions from opening day now have answers: who designs the park, how much money is set aside, whether the land is protected, and when construction should be done. The 155 acres you walk this fall are a temporary stage, and now it has an end date.
What you're actually walking through this fall
The park is free and open from dawn to dusk. Denverite reported at opening that it is limited to passive uses, mostly walking paths across the rolling greens of the old course. The city lists the address as 4141 E. 35th Ave.
A few practical notes for a weekend loop:
- Parking: Denverite reported parking around the old clubhouse, just east of Colorado Boulevard and 35th Avenue.
- Dogs: Denver Parks' general rules require dogs to be leashed and under physical control. Denverite saw leashed dogs and their owners walking the grounds on opening day.
- Hours: Daylight only. Late-October sunsets come early, so after-work walks get short fast.
- Footing: The Sun called the paths "uncertain." The city's interim plan mows only the landscape within four feet of a walkway, so sturdy shoes beat running flats once you leave the main paths.
The wild look has a history. Denverite reported that after Westside Investment Partners fenced off the land following its ballot defeats, the grass grew, irrigation was torn up for scrap metal, and the historic clubhouse fell into disrepair. The city's plan for this stretch lists low-cost interim amenities it intends to build: a dog park, disc golf, picnic tables and a walking trail. Those are plans, and the Post's October description fits a park still waiting on them.
The year's real work happened at City Hall
Each item below answers a question that was open when the gates first opened.
- Money. On opening day, Denverite noted that voters would decide the first $70 million of construction funding the following Tuesday. The Post now reports that voters approved the Vibrant Denver Bond in 2025, including a $70 million fund for the park buildout.
- A designer. On Oct. 13, 2026, the city hired Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the firm behind Brooklyn Bridge Park and the landscaping around the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Denverite adds Maggie Daley Park in Chicago, the Gathering Place in Tulsa and Allegheny Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh to the firm's list. The firm has an office in Denver. Mayor Mike Johnston told reporters that Van Valkenburgh "personally has committed 20% of his time" to these 155 acres.
- Protection. The city will officially designate the land as a park. Its release says designated parkland in Denver "cannot be sold or disposed of without approval of voters." Denverite reports that the park now in planning won't include housing or other development.
- A date. Johnston told reporters Denver plans to finish construction by 2029.
For a sense of how timelines move, compare that to opening day. Clark told the Sun the real design phase would start in 2026, "with construction to follow soon after." What actually happened in 2026 was picking the designer. The city says the firm and Denver Parks will be back working with the community on the design in 2027. That leaves roughly two years after design work resumes to hit the 2029 target. The fairways you walk this winter will likely look about the same next winter.
What the plan puts where
The design team starts from the city's Framework Plan, the big-picture vision built from community input. The project site counts 7,765 completed surveys and 5,930 open-ended comments since April 2025. If you walk the park often, the plan matters because it divides the land into zones:
- Down the middle: a meandering creek bed that manages stormwater and gives the open center its shape.
- Colorado Boulevard and 40th Avenue corner: the busiest zone, with a field house, a destination playground and outdoor adventure areas.
- Along Colorado Boulevard: athletic fields and sports courts.
- Around the old clubhouse: a cultural hub for community gathering, which would bring the building now known mostly as a parking landmark back into use.
- Throughout: restrooms, picnic pavilions, observation structures and a wide multi-use loop connecting the whole site.
The Post's summary of the vision also includes a mini golf course and an off-leash dog park. That's a fitting nod to a site that was a golf course from the 1930s until it closed in 2018.
The project site states the limit itself: "there is not confirmed funding for everything you see here." It calls the bond money "a big step," and says future input will shape how the project is phased and budgeted. The $70 million is a first chapter. So the 2027 sessions will be about what gets built first as well as what the park includes.
Why the grass may stay a little wild
One detail from the Oct. 13 announcement says more about the future look of the park than any amenity list. Speaking to Denverite, Van Valkenburgh said his team is especially excited about "how we're going to make a landscape here that is a dry landscape, that is a landscape that is not going to be sucking up water that isn't available."
Clark gave the scale behind that. "We are Denver Water's No. 1 customer — No. 1 user," he said, noting the department has more than 1,200 Denver Water accounts. He said Parks and Rec is converting 40 acres to more resilient landscaping this year and another 40 next year. He also said the city will look at bringing recycled water to Park Hill Park, as it already does at City Park and Wash Park, where that water was exempt from watering restrictions.
So the finished park probably won't be wall-to-wall bluegrass. Some of today's native, unmowed character could carry into the final design, alongside the fields and playground.
Getting involved before 2027
Ways to stay connected while the park waits for construction:
- Join the mailing list at parkhillpark.org. That's where Denver Parks and the Vibrant Denver Bond team will announce the 2027 community design sessions.
- Watch the Engage Denver volunteer calendar. Denver Parks scheduled a Park Hill Bioblitz for Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. The listing invited volunteers to log plants, animals and insects in the iNaturalist app and welcomed kids. It also says the Bioblitz took the place of that month's Trash Bash, so check the calendar for future cleanup days.
- Walk it on the anniversary. Oct. 28 marks one year of public access. Late-season cottonwoods are part of what made opening day memorable, and you can see them again this time of year.
The Bioblitz idea of counting what already lives on those 155 acres is a good habit for residents too. Clark said at opening that with 155 acres, "there can be a little something for everyone." The 2027 sessions are when residents get to help decide what that something is, and where it goes.
At Colin & Company, we're following Park Hill Park's design phase the same way we follow every big change in the neighborhoods we serve. If you'd like to talk about how a 155-acre park taking shape a few blocks away fits into your plans, whether that's next spring or a few years out, let's connect.
