This is the first in a planned series of diaries on our state park systems, published under the Park Avenue group banner. Each diary will focus on a particular park, much like the group's Thursday in-depth national park series and its Tuesday "Things To Know Before You Come To..." series. In addition, we hope to profile each state's park system in a bit more detail to inform readers about the benefits - and the fragility - of these important protectors of our wild lands.
If you would like to help bring this series to life, please send me a message within the Daily Kos messaging system including the state and park name you want to profile and a timeline for when you can contribute the diary. I will get in touch with each volunteer to schedule the diary. For as long as we can manage it, I'd like to profile a park in a different state each week.
And with that, please continue below the squiggle to learn about my "home" park, Colorado's second state park, Golden Gate Canyon.
Colorado's State Parks
In 1937, the Colorado State Legislature created a board to begin evaluating lands for a state park system, but it wasn't until 1951 that the state actually began to acquire land for the projects, leasing the recreation area surrounding the Cherry Creek Reservoir from the Army Corps of Engineers. Eight years later, in 1959, Cherry Creek State Park - located just south of Denver - was opened to the public. The next year saw the opening of Golden Gate Canyon State Park - the first mountain state park for the fledgling system. Since that time, the Colorado state park system has grown to 42 opened parks with two more in development.
Despite the apparent dedication to the park system indicated by the ongoing development of new park lands, the state parks department itself tends to be cash-strapped due to Colorado's restrictive budget system (i.e. TABOR). The department has recently had to lay off a number of rangers and other staff, and has resorted to closing a portion of various parks at certain times of the year. However, park improvements and land purchases continue under the Great Outdoors Colorado program, funded outside of the general budget restrictions by lottery earnings. GOCO can't directly fund park operations, but it can spend money building or renovating facilities (including trails and campgrounds) and on continuing to purchase land or conservation easements to protect and expand the park system. In this way, the park system mimics dichotomous funding processes throughout the state as we move away from general budget funding and toward fee-based funding of large chunks of state government.
Some of Colorado's more notable state parks include:
- Eldorado Canyon - world-class rock climbing destination in the canyon carved by the rushing South Boulder Creek.
- Arkansas Headwaters - famous for its whitewater sports. The state park system licenses outfitters to lead rafting and kayaking trips through this beautiful jointly managed river. Sections of two other rivers join the Arkansas in the state park system - the Yampa and the Colorado.
- State Forest - a rambling, mountainous forested land just north and west of Rocky Mountain National Park with great wildlife (including hunting) and scenery.
- Navajo - Colorado's side of the 35,000 acre Navajo Lake with all of its boating opportunities.
- Rifle Falls - a small park protecting the triple falls that give the park its name.
Golden Gate Canyon State Park
Between the rocky and snow-capped peaks of the Continental Divide and the start of the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountain "foothills" serve as home to a great diversity of plants and wildlife. Golden Gate Canyon State Park protects more than 12,000 acres of this land, from stream-carved mountain valleys to 10,000+ foot bare rock peaks, providing shelter for Elk, Black Bear, Mountain Lion, Bobcat, Moose, Snowshoe Hare, Pine Marten, Abert's Squirrels, and many other species. The altitude of the park places it in a transitional zone where species from the subalpine and montaine zones get to mix with Ponderosa-Juniper growth as well as several types of prairie habitat. Cactus and yucca grow just down the trail from riparian growths of Shooting Star, Iris and Bog Orchid; tree-shaded sprays of Columbine and Calypso Orchid; and hardier outcroppings of plants such as Alpine Pennycress and Bearberry.
The park also protects several historic sites, including the late 1800's Tallman Ranch (occupied by the Tallman family through 1955), a few relics of the Prohibition along the Bootleg Bottom trail, and the historic Harmsen Ranch - now available to rent from the park as a guest house.
Of course, to get to any of these sights - natural or historic - you have to get out of the car and take a hike. Golden Gate Canyon provides 35 miles of trails to help your feet find their way to a more relaxing place. Okay - you'll find wherever you go more relaxing but your feet may beg to differ, as most of the park trails are rated as strenuous and only the visitor center pond trail qualifies as easy. (The 1/4 mile pond trail is also the only ADA accessible trail in the park.) A number of the trails are open to mountain biking and horse riding as well as hiking.
One of my favorite trail routes is the loop formed by the Coyote and Mule Deer trails (with a bit of the Elk trail thrown in). A walk through Bootleg Bottom along the Coyote trail takes you through a mature Aspen grove, down through a small stream drainage, and then up the side of Promontory Ridge, where at the top you have to step up over the rocks of the ridge. From there it's a long and mellow descent through mixed forest and meadows filled with wildflowers (in season, anyway) in to Frazier Meadow, continuing on out of the south side of the meadow and back down over a milder stretch of Promontory Ridge through an open Lodgepole Pine forest, then out for a short stretch in the open prairie around the Ole Barn Knoll.
After you've had your exercise on the trails, you can settle down in one of 156 campsites within the park, spread out in two campgrounds and a number of backcountry sites. The park has a few heated yurts and cabins, a number of improved RV spots, and a few sites set up for horses. One of the campgrounds is tent and car camping only. 20 backcountry tent sites and four Appalachian style backcountry shelters round out the camping experience at Golden Gate Canyon. Also available for stays is the historic Harmsen Ranch, former home of the founders of Jolly Rancher candies, and the Work Ranch and group campsite for larger groups.
In between hiking and sleeping, you can enjoy fishing in the several stocked ponds, or hunting in some portions of the park or in the attached State Wildlife Area (permit only - see the park website for details). The park visitor center is a good place to go to learn about the history of the park lands and the creatures that live in it today; in summer, GOCO volunteers and park rangers add to your knowledge through interpretive programs at the main campground and interpretive hikes. Additionally, the Rocky Mountain Nature Association, associated to the national park, occasionally holds wildflower photo hikes in a restricted section of GGC.
Iris and Tiger Swallowtail, Aspen Meadows Campground
The Ole Barn ruins and Fall color
Aspen leaf on weathered wood, Bootleg Bottom
Finally, no article on Golden Gate Canyon would be complete without mentioning the vistas of Panorama Point, where visitors can stand out on sheltered decks and view more than 100 miles of the Continental Divide, along with one of Colorado's tallest mountains, Mt. Evans. The park rents out the Panorama Point area for weddings, though it can't accommodate too many people at once; most wedding parties then retire to the Red Barn group picnic and recreation area for their reception.
In the eleven years I've lived in Colorado, I've managed to visit perhaps one third of the state's parks. Ten of them I got to visit for a photo taking gig for the park system itself; that experience, while rushed, greatly expanded my understanding and appreciation of our state park system. I visited parks I would not have considered and fell in love with some that I would not have thought worth visiting - for example, seeing the teeming wildlife at John Martin Reservoir or the massive sunflower blooms and coal mining history of Trinidad Lake. But though I'm more inclined now to visit the rest of the state's parks, Golden Gate Canyon, so close to my home, still draws me back to its familiar embrace.
Thank you for visiting my local state park with me. I'll try to add some more in the comments and answer any questions you might have, as well as enjoying any comments you might have on our state park system...
Update: For those of you who like maps, here are two:
Google helps you find it...
Google Maps...
And the Colorado State Parks website provides a simple pair of regional maps in PDF form for Golden Gate Canyon State Park.