Cherry Creek State Park

I have a state park pass and this state park is closest to me, so I tried to go as many times as I could to get our money's worth. We hadn't gone to the swim beach nearly as often as I would have liked and had planned. We seemed to be just so busy doing other things this past summer, but we did go this time and it was a lot of fun! I wish I had planned more of a picnic as well. The water and weather was nice, a little bit chilly, but still worth it.

Chatfield State Park

I have a Colorado State Park pass so wanted to explore other state parks, besides just Cherry Creek Reservoir, so we went to Chatfield State Park. There's a swim beach, lots of trails, and it must have been the time of year, but there were so many wasps! We had the most fun though when we found this little area near the water where there were tons of friendly, unafraid lizards. They came right up to our shoes and let the kids help them dig out their holes. There were also a gazillion grasshoppers or crickets, whichever! I don't know the difference, and they hopped around crazily whenever we walked near the grass. It was fun. We went to another trail which was really beautiful, but there was so much standing water, small ponds I guess, that the mosquitoes were terrible. There were frogs along the path too but I didn't get a chance to see them because of the mosquitoes!! A fun adventure.

Mount Galbraith Park

Since it's Fall and the leaves are so beautiful, I wanted to go exploring and get wonderful pictures of the fall leaves. We didn't have much of a plan for where to go and ended up near Golden. We went on the trail at Mount Galbraith Park which was really beautiful. We could have walked further up the trail along side the mountain but since it was a little wet I was nervous about it. I'm not quite sure how far the trails wrap around, but it didn't appear to go too far and didn't seem to end in anything, so I gave this park a 3/5.

Matthews Winters Park

We only went here for a little bit and didn't travel along the trails as much as I would have liked, plus, it's a Jefferson County Park and not a Denver Park, but hey! it's a park. It's usually really crowded with cars so difficult to find parking. You have to park along the side of the road. It's on your way to Red Rocks, and you can get to this park from the Red Rocks Trail anyway, so either way, it's accessible.