When I wrote my post about kayaking on the Mohawk River, I mentioned that I loved the way that folks in Colorado were making the most of their rivers. So here’s a look at what we found on our Colorado trip over the summer.
At one point, we were walking around Golden, Colorado, and we noticed a surf shop. Why would there be a surf shop in land-locked Colorado? We had no idea, but we kept ambling along until we found ourselves in the park along Clear Creek, which runs through Golden Colorado. When you paused along the bridge, you could see people all along the water.
They had all sorts of little stone outcroppings that had been arranged to make fun little spots to gather, like the one that you can see in the lower right in the image above. There was also a trail along the creek, and a playground that sat right alongside the water, so kids could play wet or dry.
In this image, you can see that there are steps heading down toward the water as well as fish sculptures for climbing or sitting on. There were different spots where the flow of the water was pushed to make a fun current for surfing, there were people floating down the river in rafts, and there was an area where you could borrow free life jackets. It was easy to approach the water just to get your feet wet, but plenty of people had shown up with swimsuits, towels, and inner tubes, too.
It was all so cool, and such a fun way to spend a summer day!
Well, we thought that Golden was just uniquely fantastic, but then we headed to our main destination, Cañon City, birthplace of Cute W and home to numerous family members, and we realized that at some point while we weren’t paying attention, Cañon City, which is crossed by the Arkansas River and Four Mile Creek, had also learned to make the most of their riverside.
Once again, there was a spot to borrow life jackets, but this time I remembered to take a picture of it.
There were tons of areas where rocks were placed to make the approach to the river easy, with plenty of room to lounge or picnic.
The water was relatively shallow, and big rocks in the water were placed to allow swimmers to perch, launch themselves, or take in some sun.
There were also places where the water was clearly engineered to make fun little waves, including one spot where kids would “surf” and the current basically delivered them back to the river’s edge where it was easy to climb out and go again. I would have shared a picture, except that it was continuously swarmed with kids that I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to be a creeper.
Anyway, I loved these parks. I loved the laissez-faire, play-at-your-own risk openness of the design, and it really did feel like a fun little vacation right in the middle of town. Not to mention that in addition to the swimmers and loungers, bikers and walkers were loving the trails along the water. I don’t know of anything quite like this locally. But if it does exist anywhere nearby, please do tell me about it!
