Left Hand Creek is a tributary of Saint Vrain Creek, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed March 25, 2011 in Boulder County,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The creek drains a section of the foothills of the

Front Range The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encounter ...

northwest of

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

, descending from the mountains in a steep canyon, known as

Left Hand Canyon Left Hand Canyon is a canyon, near Boulder, Colorado, United States. The area It is a natural area, and has much wildlife.Colorado DailyBear ransacks Left Hand Canyon home - Colorado Daily accessdate: April 14, 2017 Uses It has been used for ...

. Left Hand Creek issues from Left Hand Park Reservoir along the north flank of Niwot Mountain. Flowing through a steep gorge to the East, passing below

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

(which sits roughly at the head of the canyon). It emerges from the foothills North of Boulder and crosses ranch lands the

Colorado Piedmont The Colorado Piedmont is an area along the base of the foothills of the Front Range in north central Colorado in the United States. The region consists of a broad hilly valley, just under 5000 ft (1500 m) in elevation, stretching north and northe ...

, passing north of Niwot and joining St. Vrain Creek on the South edge of

Longmont Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Its population was 98,885 . Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder. It is named after Longs Peak, a prominent mountain th ...

. Lower Left Hand canyon is a popular destination for road biking, hiking,

whitewater kayaking Whitewater kayaking is an outdoor adventure sport where paddlers navigate a river in a specially designed kayak. Whitewater kayaking includes several styles: river running, creeking, slalom, playboating, and squirt boating. Each style offers ...

and rock climbing. It contains several City of Boulder Open Space parks along the Boulder County road that ascends into the canyon from U.S. Highway 36 north of Boulder. The canyon rims provide habitat for raptors and are seasonally closed to rock climbing during the late winter and early spring during nesting season. LeftHandCreekAW1

The creek was named for Chief Left Hand of the

Arapaho The Arapaho ( ; , ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed t ...

Indians. In 1859, during the Colorado Gold Rush, the canyon was the site of an early discovery of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

at Gold Hill located on a side gully approximately halfway up the canyon. Left Hand Creek experienced a significant flood event in September 2013. This flood killed one resident of Jamestown in a debris flow from an adjacent ravine in the town. The flood of September 2013 considerably redistributed stream sediment and re-channelized the stream bed in places. Mitigation and recovery efforts in the town of Jamestown and for all Left Hand canyon residents is ongoing in 2017. Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group, a nonprofit watershed organization based in Boulder County, works to assess, protect, and restore the quality of the Left Hand Creek Watershed. An obscure whitewater kayak run until 2000, Left Hand Canyon was first run in 1998 by Brook Aitken, Chris McEniry, and Craig D. Irwin. The whitewater kayakers first descended the Class V mini-gorge by entering through a small culvert passing under Left Hand Canyon Drive and beginning a tight and snaking boulder garden entrance through a cascade along the road. The mini gorge is below the roadway of Left Hand Canyon and is frequently choked with woody debris. The Left Hand Creek kayak run is short and full of action. The City of Boulder Mountain Parks and Open Space has one parking facility at Buckingham Park.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Boulder County, Colorado Canyons and gorges of Colorado Rivers of Colorado Tributaries of the Platte River

See also

References