Martin Luther King Park

I didn't really like Martin Luther King Park. It's not that it's not a nice park. It has a trail to walk around the park, grass area, and a playground. Maybe it was the way it was laid out or it's location, but I just didn't feel like I cared too much and I wouldn't go back. I'm sure if I lived in the neighborhood I would be here all the time though.

This wasn't taken at MLK but I liked it, so wanted to add it somewhere.

Henry S. Lindsley Park

This is a cute park! It's off Colorado, on 12th Ave. I don't like the location all that much, or the street parking. The surrounding area isn't much to look at. The hospital is there, apartment buildings. If I lived nearby it would definitely be worth going to regularly, but it's not a park I'd drive out of my way to go.

Some of the cool features of this park are the work out equipment. They have the standard playground equipment, sports areas, a short trail. But they have a place to workout some and also a hill with a secluded spot among the trees which is nice. When we there a guy was standing around playing his guitar. I love it when people make their parks their own like that.

Overland Pond Park & S. Platte River

Overland Pond Park was nicer than Habitat and Vanderbilt (previous two posts). As we walked along the S. Platte River Trail we got a little bit further away from the freeway, but still in a highly trafficked area. There's a small pond with an overlook. There are some seating areas around the pond and also information about the animals, trees, and plants that can be found there. The signs talked about it being educational, so maybe part of the park's purpose. You can tell with this park that it's much prettier when it's green and probably with everything lush and alive, you probably wouldn't see so much of the urban area around it. It's near the Overland Gold Course on one side and across the street is another large park. There is also another trail nearby. I wouldn't go out of my way to visit this park. There's no playground or place to play sports or anything. The kids and I also weren't too impressed in general with this whole area. We will need to come back to this area for some of the other parks though.

City of Karmiel Park

City of Karmiel Park is part of Denver's Sister Cities project where they designate a park here after cities, internationally. Karmiel is named after a city in Israel. We share with the city of Karmiel being urban and mountainous. They are also known for their cleanliness.

The park here is along the Cherry Creek Trail so I'm sure if we were on the trails a lot or biking then we'd have visited this park earlier. As it is though, it's tricky to get to. We had to park at the Cherry Creek Mall, and actually had to park in a specific parking lot at the mall, to get here. It was a pain and we'd probably never have gone here because it's so inconvenient to come here intentionally. We walked around a bit and the main part of it is it's access to the trail. We did have fun on this trip just because there was the stream, bridge, ducks, and stuff to climb on.

Bonnie Brae Park

Bonnie Park is right down the street from Veteran's Park. It's a cute, circular neighborhood park. It's small, but sort of quaint. Even though there wasn't a playground or anything to do there, it had a better feel to it. There were benches, some stone walls, a walking path around it, and landscaping. We wouldn't come here again or go out of our way at all but it's cute enough and I'd visit it a lot of we lived near here.

City of Cuernavaca Park

Although this park is near several other parks- Denver Skate Park, Commons Park, Confluence Park- it is a little harder to get to. You have to cross a busy street and there's nothing else here besides some grass and rocks. The rocks are cool and have things carved into them, but there's no playground or anything. If you wanted a quieter place to go, since the other parks across the street are so busy, you might like it here. Unless I wanted to go along the trail I'd probably never come here again. 

City of Chennai Park

This is a very tiny park with a walking trail around some grass. The second picture down is basically what the park looks like. Apparently it's part of the Sister Cities program. Chennai is a city in India. It's written in a picture below, but I guess President Eisenhower started this program to promote understanding between different cultures and countries. Pretty cool idea, but boring park.

City of Takayama Park

This park is right across the street from Brest Park. It's also just a strip of grass that seems more centered around the Cherry Creek itself and the Cherry Creek Trail. There isn't a playground and I wouldn't play sports or anything around here because it's so close to a busy street. It was fun to come at least once though just to walk down and see the creek. The kids really love playing around bodies of water, and Cainen saw a snake so was super excited. Madison also saw a lot of graffiti under the bridge so was excited. I probably wouldn't come here again, but if we were ever on the trail and passed by, we'd probably stop in near the creek. 

"Smoky Hill Trail: Emigrant and stage route from Kansas City to Denver via Ft. Riley, Ft. Hays, and Ft. Wallace. Traveled by gold seekers, soldiers, and pioneers. Route of Butterfield's Overland despatch and Wells-Fargo Express. Trail was replaced by the Union Pacific Railroad 1870. Erected by Daughters of Colorado, April 19, 1941"

City of Brest Park

City of Brest Park is right off of Colorado Blvd. It's a long strip of grass with a trail that you could probably play sports or have a picnic, but it does not have a playground structure. There is parking right along it but it was kind of hard to see if you've never been there. It's not super quiet because it's at a busy intersection. It seems like it would only be a park we'd go to if we lived nearby or wanted access to the trail, or just happened to be walking through to get somewhere else, but not a park we'd ever want to go to and hang out. 

We did read that Brest is a city in France, and is the sister city to Denver. We also learned that this whole area used to flood all the time. They built a dam in the 1800's that didn't hold and it flooded again, so they finally built the Cherry Creek Reservoir and Dam, which helped with the flooding and we're now able to have businesses near this area. 

Interesting, but we'll probably never come to this park again.