Piney Creek
Piney Creek boasts a historic high-plains setting featuring mountain panoramas, a healthful outdoor lifestyle, and central South-Metro location roughly equidistant from I-25, I-225, and E-470.
Wagon wheel ruts discovered prior to development showed where the Middle Smoky Hill Trail, a immigrant route to Denver and the gold fields crossed Piney Creek in the mid-19th century past encampments of Arapahoe Indians, the area’s original inhabitants. The site has long been popular with arrowhead collectors.
Photographs of the wagon wheel tracks along with pioneer artifacts recovered from the Smokey Hill Trail are displayed at the Melvin Schoolhouse Museum Library, maintained by the Cherry Creek Valley Historical Society.
Located near the northern edge of the Piney Creek community, the schoolhouse commemorates John Melvin whose 12-Mile House served the Denver-Parker stagecoach route and became a vital oasis called Melvin City, amidst an otherwise barren landscape.
Today, flower beds and verdant lawns flourish throughout the warm months, brightening Piney Creek’s boulevards, community clubhouse and pool, pond and waterfall, playgrounds, tennis courts, and walking-and-biking trails.
Running parallel to Orchard Drive, the Piney Creek Trail connects with the metro-wide network of trails at the confluence of Cherry Creek and Piney Creek in adjacent Cherry Creek State Park, one of the finest water-oriented recreation areas in Colorado.
Organized community activities include an Easter Egg Hunt, Fourth of July Parade, Family Day (at poolside), and Halloween Pumpkin Carving.
Nearby, at South Parker Road and Arapahoe, one of South-Metro’s key intersections, Arapahoe Crossing Shopping Center, hosts a variety of retail stores and restaurants anchored by the Colorado Cinema Chinese 16, a newer multi-plex theater.
Slated to open in spring of 2008, opposite Arapahoe Crossing, is Cornerstar, an innovative blend of Town-Center-style shops, eateries, and residences together with a gourmet market and big-box retail outlets. The 750,000 square-foot center is being developed by widely respected, Greenwood Village-based Alberta Development.
Colorado outdoor living contemporary-style doesn’t get much better than at Piney Creek where you not only belong to the acclaimed Cherry Creek School District, but you’re just 30 minutes from Downtown Denver and E-470 offers an easy commute to DIA.