Trail 7 - "Easy" Elk Meadow Park

Hiking in the Rockies on a sunny spring morning?  It's typically enjoyable.  Elk Meadow Park trails are no exception.  The park is a hilly area within the Rockies, just past the town of Evergreen, CO.

There's actually a lot of interconnecting trails in a somewhat complex layout. This requires you to know where you are going before you get going.  I walked on the course identified as Hike #7 in the book 60 Hikes within 60 Miles from Denver and Boulder.  Fortunately, there are trail signs that tell you clearly on to which trail you are about to walk. Some portions of the trails involve modest climbs that would make me rate the hike closer to "moderate" than "easy".

Various courses along the trail system allow you several options to walk in circuits rather than in-and-out. I like the idea of hiking in a circuit.  Although there is plenty of shade during the hike, there are also significant areas under direct sunlight. 

Even though this is mid-Spring, I didn't see all that many varieties of flowers along the trails, but there were a few.  However, while exploring the trails, I ran across a few birds, and a coyote off in the distance.  No name sake elks, though.

Trail 43 - Fall of the impending Winter

It's been while since I went for a hike at a location covered in 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder. I made it to Hike #43 from this book, South Boulder Creek Trail from Bobolink Trailhead. This is a fairly flat trail with a very slow incline. The trail is unusual, in that it splits between a paved path and a gravel-and-dirt path for a short stretch. The paved route is intended to support cycling, though cyclists were using both routes.

The trail follows fairly close to the right bank of the South Boulder Creek throughout the northern half of its length, and the left bank for the Southern half. The creek flows south to north.

Near the trailhead, there's a lot of shade on the unpaved route, but most of the trail is in open space. Wear sunscreen, as there's very little shade.  Additionally, the trail crosses both South Boulder Road and US Route 36 via underpasses.

Even for Midautumn, the vegetation was surprisingly brown with empty trees. It's pretty for Fall and Winter, particularly with a blue sky and the Flatirons as a backdrop.

Given the time of year, I didn't expect to see much wildlife. Even still, there were some curious cows in one of the fields. The hike was enjoyable and leisurely.

One warning about the creek.  Apparently, there's a New Zealand Mudsnail infestation. So, there's signs at several locations warning hikers (and their dogs) not to go into the creek (to make sure they aren't accidentally carrying this little invasive critters to other places in Colorado).

Trail 2 - City Park in Lakewood

Belmar Park is listed in the book 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder as Trail #2.  However, this park is really just a well designed city park around Kountze Lake in Lakewood, CO.  There is a paved trail and several dirty offshoots with varying sizes.  A combination of paths allow you to walk around the lake.  The various dirt trail widths allow for simple walks (narrow), walking your dogs (two-way), and riding your horse (wide).

 

On this day, the lake served as a respite for a bunch of geese as they head South for Winter.  Even though this is late Fall, the afternoon was warm and pleasant.  

My dog, Toebzilla, typically barks at everything.  However, on this nice afternoon, we passed by cackling children, several big dogs, geese and even horses (which he particularly hates when they show up on TV).  He didn't bark or even look as though he wanted to bark.  He was very interested in the horses and their smells, but he wasn't nervous by their presence. 

Much of the park's trail network runs through other areas, including a significant section that traces a nearby stream called Weir Gulch. 

The park is surrounded by homes and businesses, and this fact is obvious as you peruse around.  As mentioned above, this is a city park.  There are other trails in the Denver Metro Area that would be much closer to what one might call "trails".  I enjoyed walking here.  My dog also seemed at ease.  However, it's a bit of a stretch to call this a location for hiking.

One added word of caution about the name of the park.  The name of the park is Belmar Park.  However, the name of the neighborhood around the park is also called Belmar Park.  If you look this place up in your navigation app, make sure it's taking you to the park and not to the center of the neighborhood.

Trail 10 - Shady on a hot day

This past weekend, Allie and I drove a bit.  The destination was Meyer Ranch Park (backup link)  From the book, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles for Denver and Boulder, this is entry #10. Though the book lists this trail as being in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains, for all intents and purposes, this is in the Rocky Mountains.  The entire park is west of the Legault Mountain Peak (9045ft).  The drive here is a bit longer than places I would call "Foothills".

Meyer Ranch Park is worth the longer drive.  This is a great place for a hot day.  Most of the Lodge Loop Trail (that forms a full circuit at this park) is shaded under tall trees.  The trail itself is very well maintained.  The uphill portions aren't steep.  Overall, Allie and I really enjoyed this location and will definitely consider coming back.

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Though Allie and I originally intended to visit this park earlier in the year, we were unable to get out to this beautiful location until the very last day of Spring (or the first day of Summer by a certain reckoning).  However, this was the perfect day.  With temperatures in the 80's and 90's in Denver, a shady hike in a wind cooled valley exceeded our expectations.  

By my information, a visit to this park comes with a likelihood to see wildlife.  Unfortunately, on this day, we did not catch any glimpses of mountain critters.  

As an unexpected coincidence, we finished our hike at nearly noon.  After our hike, we headed back into Denver Metro for lunch.  We decided on a famous restaurant that we haven't tried yet, Cherry Cricket.  

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The burgers at Cherry Cricket were good.  I did something that is surely a sin somewhere to someone; I tried the Impossible Burger (veggie) with bacon strips!  Yummy.  Also, while we dined, this sucker visited us in the adjacent fish tank:

 

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Trail 3 - Hike, Hiking and then something else

I recently purchased a book called 60 Hikes within 60 Miles for Denver and Boulder.  The book includes 60 parks and paths for hiking, including various skill levels from Easy to Moderately Hard.  It's not a comprehensive book of every hiking or walking trail in the Denver region.  What I like about the book, though, is that many of the trails are full loops, with little to no backtracking.  I prefer loops.

Sixty is an achievable number.  I could conceivably hike every trail in the book with a reasonable effort.  I'm not going to try to hike 60 trails in 60 days.  Instead, the attempt will be to hike all 60 trails over the next few years.  I've already hiked some of the trails before.  For those, I'll only count them if I hike them again.  All hikes will be journalled here, on my blog (at least the first attempt for each), with the assigned label of 6060Denver.

Today was the first day of this journey.  Allie and I hiked the trail at Bluff Lake Nature Center.  It's a very easy trail, listed as trail #3 (not a ranking), within the Denver (Including Foothills and Plains) section.  Though we are in Spring, the area is still a bit bare.  There are no leaves on the trees; and the grass and shrubbery are still brown.  The day was partly cloudy, with plenty of sun.

We did see a few prairie dogs, including one critter that vocalized very clearly that we should leave him alone.  We obliged, though we did take a couple of photos from a distance.  

There were also some geese, including this watchman on the side of the trail.

Afterwards, we explored Stanley Marketplace, about a mile West in Aurora, CO.  For lunch, we tried the restaurant Annette for brunch.   Though the food was good, there were some distracting quirks, such as very small portions for beverages (like, smaller than what one might expect for "child size"), and no refills for iced tea.  Main course prices were about right for the quantity and quality of each dish.