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 :)