First Creek Park

First Creek Park is a six-acre nature-based neighborhood park in Denver’s Green Valley Ranch community that brings floodplain restoration, recreation, and ecological design together in one connected landscape. Denver Parks & Recreation and Mile High Flood District partnered on the project, with Valerian serving as lead landscape architect, Jacobs Engineering providing civil engineering, and Naranjo Civil Constructors delivering the civil construction. Great Ecology, 5 Smooth Stones Restoration, Corvus Environmental, and Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds supported the project with ecological design, restoration, environmental coordination, and natural play expertise.
The project transformed a reach of First Creek into a park where stormwater function and public recreation work together. More than half of the site lies within the floodplain, so the design emphasized resilient grading, creek access, native planting, and restoration strategies that could withstand changing water conditions while remaining inviting and accessible to the public. Naranjo’s work helped establish the underlying site, drainage, grading, and civil infrastructure needed to support the park’s natural play and ecological features.
A defining element of the project is its fully integrated natural play environment. Rather than separating playground equipment from the landscape, the park uses landform, boulders, logs, trails, shallow water, and riparian areas as part of the play experience. Features include a fully accessible natural playground, forest play trails, natural amphitheater spaces, boulder and timber climbing elements, and an exploration area where visitors can interact directly with First Creek as conditions change throughout the year.
The project also completed an important connection in the regional First Creek Trail system, helping link the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge through Green Valley Ranch toward the High Line Canal Trail. By combining civil construction, floodplain improvements, natural play, trail connectivity, and habitat restoration, First Creek Park demonstrates how public infrastructure can provide both community and ecological value.
For Naranjo Civil Constructors, the project highlights the ability to deliver complex civil work within an environmentally sensitive public setting while coordinating closely with engineers, landscape architects, ecologists, environmental specialists, and specialty play contractors. The result is a park where the creek, floodplain, trail system, habitat, and recreation spaces function as one integrated system.