Broncos Parkway Trailhead has a living-roof shelter

On paper, Broncos Parkway Trailhead is just parking for the Cherry Creek Regional Trail. The thing worth looking up for is overhead. Its shelter wears a living green roof — a layer of low succulent plants growing in place of ordinary shingles, so the roof is quite literally alive.

That roof is doing real work, not just looking unusual. Plants on top of a structure soak up rainfall before it can sheet off and pick up pollutants, which improves water quality and cuts the runoff that storms send rushing into the creek. The same living layer insulates the shelter, keeping it cooler in summer sun. A small shelter roof ends up being a working demonstration of stormwater and shade design you can stand underneath.

Location adds to it. The trailhead opens straight onto two pieces of protected ground (Cherry Creek Valley Ecological Park and Parker Jordan Centennial Open Space), so this one spot is a hinge between moving down the regional trail, the creek habitat alongside it, and quiet public land on either hand. You can park once and reach all three.

Trailhead amenities and hours change with the seasons, so the property’s county page is worth a glance for current access before you load up the bikes or the picnic basket. The living roof, though, is reason enough to look up the next time you pass through.