One of the Front Range’s most scenic and popular recreation destinations is expanding with the acquisition of a 347-acre parcel of land adjacent to and near Morrison.
, which owns Matthews/Winters Park, acquired the for $7.3 million last week, with The Conservation Fund serving as a facilitator in the transaction. Great Outdoors Colorado contributed $2.3 million toward the purchase.
The acquisition expands Matthews/Winters Park, which already has nearly 14 miles of trails in the Morrison valley between 7,000-foot peaks to the west and the Dakota Ridge hogback to the east. Its trails are popular with hikers, trail runners and mountain bikers, and it borders Red Rocks Park, which is owned and managed by the city of Denver. Red Rocks Park has a trail network of more than 10 miles that connects with Matthews/Winter trails.
The Braun Ranch acquisition expands Matthews/Winters to the west, topping out at more than 1,000 feet over the Morrison Valley and offering a view that includes Mount Blue Sky, 35 miles to the west. Matthews/Winters Park has two parts, north and south of Red Rocks Park. Braun Ranch is expanding the northern part.
“Absolutely thrilled with the acquisition,” said Hillary Merritt, who manages land conservation for Jeffco Open Space. “It is such a great opportunity for us to connect two currently disconnected parts of the park, and itap really a beautiful property.”
The viewpoint at the top, with vistas to the west, north and east, is nearly as high as Lookout Mountain just to the north. The main trailhead for Matthews/Winters Park, located just south of the Interstate 70 Morrison exit, lies 800 feet below. The expansion area is also accessible from Red Rocks Park via the Red Rocks Trail, which connects to the Morrison Slide Trail within Matthews/Winters.
“You can be on the trails of Matthews/Winters that everybody knows and loves,” said Justin Spring, Colorado director for The Conservation Fund. “And, in the near future, have the chance to go further west and have more of a backcountry experience — really get away from the city.”
Spring said he and Merritt have been working on the acquisition for a year and a half. The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit, identifies at-risk landscapes to prevent them from falling into the hands of developers and facilitates their transfer from private ownership to public land agencies.
“We saw this property was for sale,” Spring said. “Itap been on the market for a couple years. There were developers looking at it, and then interest rates went up. It created a remarkable window of time where it was too expensive to buy and hold and speculate as a developer. We were fortunate to stumble into it when it was at a better price point, and we brought it to our friends at Jefferson County.”
Great Outdoors Colorado accepted a grant application outside of its normal cycle of grant submissions in order to make the deal possible.
“We had to move quickly,” Spring said. “They agreed to accept a grant application out of cycle because they saw how timely and urgent this opportunity was.”
Matt Brady, a regional program officer for Great Outdoors Colorado, said preserving wildlife habitat was one of the reasons the agency was so supportive of the deal.
“This is obviously a migration corridor for elk and mule deer, so that is added benefit, especially in this foothills transition zone where there is rare connectivity at this scale,” Brady said. “There is strong development pressure in this part of the state, so it definitely checked the box in that sort of thinking.”
Great Outdoors Colorado was also mindful that Jeffco Open Space draws visitors from far beyond the county’s borders. Of its 27 parks, 24 are situated along or in the Front Range foothills, and Jeffco estimates that its parks attract 10 million visitors annually. Only one national park attracts more. Rocky Mountain National Park attracts just over 4 million visitors annually.
“The Matthews/Winters open space property is a highly trafficked trail system,” Brady said. “Jeffco is aware that they’re serving a population of recreationalists that is much broader than the county, with the millions of people that live and recreate on the Front Range.”
As of last Wednesday, Braun Ranch is officially part of Matthews/Winters Park. Jeffco plans to build at least one trail from the existing Morrison Slide Trail to the top of the expansion area. There is no timeline yet for construction.
“Siting a trail is going to be a little bit challenging,” Merritt said. “We certainly want to do an investigation of natural resources and make sure we are creating a sustainable trail, because it is quite steep. That will be part of the challenge. We’re hoping (to build) at least one trail that would get us from one side of Matthews/Winters to Mount Morrison. That would be in conjunction with Denver Mountain Parks, because that is their property, but we already have one trail that goes up the other side (from the south), and this might be a good opportunity to connect.”
