Cherry Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River, 48.0 miles (77.2 km) long,[2] in Colorado in the United States.

[4] Cherry Creek rises in the high plateau, east of the Front Range, in northwestern El Paso County.

It flows north, through Castlewood Canyon State Park where it is spanned by the historic Cherry Creek Bridge, past Parker and through portions of Centennial and Aurora, and into southeast Denver.

The dam lies immediately southeast and southwest of the Denver and Aurora city limits, respectively, approximately 8 miles (13 km) from the creek's confluence with the South Platte.

Speer Boulevard, running along Cherry Creek, is part of Denver's parks and parkway system, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

After decades of notoriously leaking, the dam suffered an utter collapse following heavy rains at 1 am on 3 August 1933, resulting in a 15-foot wall of water rushing down Cherry Creek to Denver, some 15 miles away.

The creek is also home to a large population of small fish (Including immature trout and sunfish, crappie, yellow perch and others).

Plants along the banks, damaged by the drought, dropped organic debris into the water, increasing biochemical oxygen demand substantially.

[10] For some of its distance, notably in the region of Four Mile Historical Park, the creek is flanked on each side by approximately 15 metres (50 ft) of woods and scrub.