Hikers can now access the Hunter Creek Trail from its new trailhead on the Rio Grande, just past the first two bridges when starting from the Aspen terminus. A one-third of a mile extension of the trail winds along a gentle section of Hunter Creek—through a bucolic riparian area and under huge fragrant evergreen trees before crossing a new footbridge near the original trailhead, which was tucked obscurely behind a residential neighborhood. Wide and smooth enough to walk two abreast, the new gravel-dirt path offers a pleasant, socially conducive beginning to the rock-strewn and often steep trail ascending the Hunter Creek Valley.