MyShadowProductions #51 - Belmar Park

Hi everyone.

Been awhile, I guess its called Blogger’s Block (like writer’s block)?

Found another park that is accessible by RTD bus from downtown. It is Belmar Park in Lakewood via the 9 bus.

Here is a little history of the park:

Attached to the park is Heritage Lakewood. I missed it on my first visit so I did a return trip a few days later.

 They have an amphitheater and several vintage buildings that have been salvaged and moved to the area to display the “heritage” of the Lakewood area.

Here are a couple movie/videos from my photos:

Fishing is not allowed in the Lake so the carp that I saw looked fairly large.

Hard to imagine the mansion not surviving but the “developer” had what he thought were better ideas for that particular piece of land??!?

This is the third or fourth park I have visited where they have trails and areas for horses but I haven’t seen any horses or “signs” of them?? Maybe someday?

Have a good day!!

MyShadowProductions #50 - Bear Creek Greenbelt

Hello again.

Today was a Plan B type of “trip”. I had planned to take a day trip to Breckenridge but changed my mind when I read that the free Breck Connect Gondola was closed for a couple of weeks due to Moose Calving time. I sure hope the mama moose got the memo :) Hopefully I will see a moose and her calf when I make that day trip!

For Plan B, I turned to Google’s map of Denver, looked for something that might be interesting and then used the RTD Trip Planner to see if could get there by bus/light rail.

Lucky me, Bear Creek Greenbelt was accessible via the 9 bus from Broadway and Cleveland Place, transfer to the 76 bus at Wadsworth and 10th and go south on Wadsworth to Yale, the northeast corner of the Greenbelt/Park. Total one way trip time about 1 hr 25 minutes.

I didn’t realize it until I started looking into this hike, but Bear Creek flows from Summit Lake in the mountains to the South Platte River (the same South Platte River that we saw in Lake George, CO in the previous Post). Needless to say, I did not hike the full length of Bear Creek :). I doubt it is allowed, but would be interested to know if it can be “tubed”??? 

Click here to see what Wikipedia has to say about Bear Creek. By the way, how did Wikipedia even know there was a Bear Creek in the first place?

The hike I chose goes from Wadsworth Blvd to the City of Lakewood Stone House on Estes Street and back, 1 mile each way, so a 2 mile flat hike with some “bumps” on a gravel path. There is a concrete path also, but it doesn’t follow the creek closely and there are bicyclists.

The following photo is from the Stone House area looking west. At the base of the mountain and left of center, I believe the red rocks are “Red Rocks Amphitheater”. If we could look real close, they are probably smiling Red Rocks, they are open again!

I took the photo below as I was just about to finish the hike. I was coming up a slight hill from the creek and out of the trees, I looked back to the west and my heart kind of skipped, I immediately thought of the view in the mountains of Chiang Mai and Lop Buri in Thailand! All the greens, white cloudy sky, the mountains, the trees and just a peaceful look!!

Here are some of those Thailand photos:

I know it’s a stretch, but wanted to express the feeling, it was hot today too, so that might have influenced things as well :)

Here is a little info on the Bear Creek Greenbelt:

The following are the movie/videos created from my photos:

It was a very interesting hike, and I am sure that all of the rain over the past months made it extra “green” for my eyes! Did you notice the happy Cottonwoods?

I saw this sign, and it was right, there were ”no horses on bridge” :)

Well happy trails for now, more adventure awaits, and hopefully a MyShadow photo, two posts without is unacceptable :)

MyShadowProductions #49 - Lake George, CO and Eleven Mile Canyon

Hello everyone.

It is a somewhat chilly and sometimes rainy Memorial Day in Denver.

I just spent a few days in Lake George, CO at the Mountain River Lodge (39 miles west of Colorado Springs on US 24) with other family members to join in the wedding celebration of one of our nieces.

A pre wedding cookout and the wedding reception were held at TihsreeD (I dare you to pronounce it backwards:)) Lodge in Florissant, CO and the wedding ceremony was in Woodland Park, CO at Our Lady of the Woods Catholic Church. 

There was also time for a few hikes in the Pike National Forest at the Eleven Mile Canyon Recreation Area, just minutes from Mountain River Lodge.

In this part of Colorado, Pikes Peak is visible around almost every corner:

Pikes Peak from Hard Rock Trail

Pikes Peak from TihsreeD Lodge

Another local mountain is Blue Mountain in the Pike National Forest and visible from the Hard Rock Trail:

Here are a few movie/videos created from my photos, I failed to get a MyShadow photo :( but there is hopefully another time for that:

The next movie/video is from the Google Movie app. I am still frustrated with how the app handles my landscape photos whether the “portrait or landscape” mode is selected when creating the movie. Basically my photos are cropped in the movie and do not show all that I intended.

My photos at TihsreeD Lodge are prior to the majority of the guests arriving for the cookout and/or the reception, photos for the actual events is better covered by the professionals. One thing for sure, the weather changed almost by the minute, very interesting and mountain like!!

Well, probably TMI, but time to remove the flannel sheets and heavy covers and change to the summer bedding :)

Talk to you soon in June!