Sunday, April 5, 2015

Globeville Landing Park

There are so many Denver neighborhoods that are kind of cities and kind of not, so I'm never quite sure where I am. But going to the Argo Park and this one, I saw a sign that said "Entering Globeville." I didn't know if it was a city, town, or what. It's a neighborhood now, but it used to be a city. It has always been home to immigrants. In the beginning people from Austria, Russia, and Croatia lived there, but not there more Hispanic/Latinos in the neighborhood. It's very industrial and isolated because of the freeway, train tracks, and South Platte River. When you first drive up to the park it seems like a tiny section of grass, but once you walk over the small hill you see that it connects to both the South Platte River Trail and the Colorado Front Range Trail. You can walk off to the right where there are picnic benches and then a bridge the goes under the train tracks. We didn't walk on the trail too far, but looked at all the graffiti and out over the water. There wasn't a playground or really any place to play sports, but because of the trails it was busy with bikers, mostly. The photos below are of the South Platte River, the train, and all the graffiti under the train and over in this other area, but also some graffiti right down the street from here as we were heading home. I typically wouldn't give a park like this a 5 Star rating, but because it was so interesting and fun exploring, I did this time.




















Argo Park

This park is way up near the intersection of I-25 and I-70, which is a bit far from where I live, but if I'm going to visit all the parks in Denver we'll have to travel around sometimes. This park is a quaint neighborhood park, with a cool playground and a water slide. The pool wasn't open but it looked like a lot of fun if it had been. We most likely wouldn't drive all the way out here for the pool house, but if you live in the neighborhood it seems great. Cainen rode his skate board around the park and Mad and I walked up to the railroad track. It's not the best park for walking around or jogging or anything, but a cute place for picnics and swimming if you live nearby.








Chautauqua Park, Boulder

We did a day trip to Boulder, explored the Chautauqua Park and Pearl St. Mall. It was a really fun day. I'd heard that Boulder had great parks and trails, so I really want to come here and explore some more, but one park at a time! It was the kids' spring break so we wanted to have some fun. We went on this trail that was supposed to loop around, and perhaps it did, but it was getting daunting for us. It's a great workout though. I had fun and started throwing pine cones at the kids, to which they FREAKED OUT. :) It was hilarious. Cainen did a bit more climbing to get some of the view.

Later, at Pearl St. Mall we shopped a little bit and then had lunch. It was a beautiful, perfect day for both activities. Parking is a bit crazy at the trail, but not too bad, at least one this day, downtown by the mall. I would definitely recommend coming to Boulder for the parks and trails for sure, but there are many cultural events as well.













Skyland Park

This is an okay park. We don't live in this neighborhood so would probably never come here again. It's near a rec center, has a nice playground, courts, and we laid a sheet down to read and have a picnic. I suppose it has all the things I like in a park, I just didn't get a good vibe from it. Parking is okay, just along the side of the road. One thing I didn't like was that there wasn't much of a walking trail, at least nothing long enough that would feel like a good work out to me, and it doesn't connect to any trails. Overall though, if you live in this neighborhood, I'm sure it's great.

That's Cainen





Greenway Park

This is a long thin park that seems more of a community park and a park for small children, but that didn't stop us from getting on the playground! There was also a small community garden which is also fun to see. It connects to several other large parks- Stapleton Central and Westerly Creek- and has the Westerly Creek Trail connecting it.