Along the banks of Cherry Creek in eastern Denver sits the Cherry Creek mall and a surrounding shops that boast dinning and retail options galore.
About 35 miles south, in , the banks of Cherry Creek are also home to some impressive variety. In this case, it isn’t edible and wearable so much as ecological and educational.
At just over 4 square miles, Castlewood Canyon isn’t Colorado’s largest state park, but the number of habitats within its borders means it is home to an abundant variety of Colorado wildlife. Thanks to the efforts of Colorado Parks and Wildlife employees and volunteers, the park — a few miles south of Franktown on Colo. 83—also provides an array of to draw visitors from nearby Douglas and Elbert counties and beyond.
“We call it the gem of Douglas County,” volunteer said as he prepared to lead some local elementary school kids on a nature hike through Castlewood last week.
The program Knight and fellow volunteers were helping with was called “Home Sweet Habitat.” Each student — in this case fourth-graders from Running Creek Elementary School in Elizabeth – was assigned an animal, whether it be rattle snake, coyote, skunk, or even mountain lion, and charged with identifying an area in the park where that critter might live.
Warren Coker, a park interpreter who this year worked his fourth season at Castlewood, said the park typically welcomes at least three schools groups per week between August and late October, then again from March through June.
“Itap just a very unique site, I think,” Coker said. “The geology here tells a story of a very active earth.”
Coker relayed that story when he led a group of Running Creek kids on their Home Sweet Habitat hike.
Starting from the grasslands inside the park’s main entrance, Coker lead the dozen or so students downhill into an environment populated by shrubs, then lower into denser forest, before bottoming out in the riparian habitat along Cherry Creek. On the way down, they passed the “cap rock” layer of stone at the top of the canyon carried there by ancient creeks. Below that lies a layer of volcanic stone brought to the area by the eruption of Mount Princeton 36.5 million years ago. At the bottom the students finally found the loose, sandy stones that make up the geological formation known as the Dawson Arkose. (The composition of that layer may have contributed to the collapse of the Castlewood Dam in 1933, Coker said.)
Piper Loeks, 9, was part of Coker’s tour group. She was charged with finding the habitat for a prairie falcon, an airborne predator she said must live in high on the top of the rocks around the canyon.
“I enjoyed every bit of it,” Piper said of the park, which she had previously visited with her family. “I enjoy nature a lot.”
Christiane Klick, a teacher at Running Creek, said the school brings its entire fourth-grade class to Castlewood once a year when they are learning about “Colorado life zones.” She said seeing three of those zones – riparian, grass land and shrub land—in person benefits her students.
“When they see it they conceptualize it and they will remember it,” she said.
Castlewood Canyon offers a dozen of programs beyond those geared toward schools. In , it hosted live reptile viewings every Saturday, a “Microscope Safari” program, led by Coker and focused on local microorganisms, and a moonlight hike. On the evenings of Oct. 14 and 15, it will host a haunted trail hike, with a short trail segment decorated for Halloween with some surprises built-in, park staff said.
“It’s a good time,” Coker said of the haunted trail.
Of course, with more than 14 miles of trails, a waterfall, the ruins of the old dam and many other features, visitors are more than welcome to shape .
If you go:
What:
Where: 2989 S. Colo. 83, Franktown
Cost: $7 for a vehicle day pass
For more info call (303) 688-5242.