Standley Lake Regional Park

This lake and park are in Westminster. We went here right after West Woods Park in Arvada. It started to drizzle and get really cold, so Madison didn't come down to the lake with us. It probably would have been more fun to explore, and we would have gone further around the lake had it not been so cold, but it was beautiful regardless. I would want to come back out here again sometime.

West Woods Park

We went out for a drive one day last Fall and wound up in Arvada, so West Woods Park is an Arvada park, but it was still fun. It's a nice community park, that has rolling hills, a tennis court, and just lots of running around playing, picnicing, throwing a ball around, and, as you can see, teaching your daughter how to decide which pedal to press- the gas or the brake. It was a dreary day so not many people were out and it got colder as we were out, but even if cold, I think parks are still fun to explore. A little bad weather shouldn't deter us from getting outside, right!

Bear Valley Park

Both kids were in cross country this past September, 2014, which was super exciting. They had several meets here at Bear Valley Park, and they both agreed that running it was nice. Some of the meet locations weren't at nice as this one. There was shade in some places and it was relatively flat. For me, this location was nice for a meet because parking was easy, as well as getting in and out of the area. The kids did a great job and we were so proud of them for how hard they worked in training, being a team player, and just trying something that they didn't think they would enjoy.

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.