Denver

So last week I was up in Denver for work. I was working at the Littleton Space Systems campus, which is south-west Denver. I've never been there before so jumped at the chance to spend a week there NOT in the middle of winter. Flew in early Monday, checked into the hotel, and was off like a shot for a hike. Did a measly 8 mile out and bike in the Mount Falcon Park (pretty much east Denver). The trail took me to the Walker Castle ruins. Never heard of that before? Me neither! Luckily for you, I have PICTURES (of course). LOTS and LOTS of pictures! (note that I put the explanation of each picture below it's picture. For whatever reason, since the Blogger site was re-done a while back making it infinently harder for me to add pictures and then go back and write what each is about, I also lost the ability to put in blank lines...as in to double-space below each bit about the picture above it, giving seperation, or to even seperate a huge paragraph into smaller paragraphs...now it's all just one huge paragraph unless I seperate it with a picture).

So this first shot is the Open Space sign with the map of the area. I'd never been down here before so thought it worthy (in case my phone "AllTrails" app failed me and I need to see a map to find my way back, figured I could zoom in on this picture if I really was stuck).

Self explanatory...the name of the park.

The view looking back from a ways up the trail. Nearly in the middle of the shot is the trailhead...a small square area of parked cars.

Not a lot of excitement on the way up to take pictures of...it was right at 4 miles to this sign, the Walker castle/house ruins.

The sign that explains everything...hope you can read it.

The south side of the ruins.

More of a south view.

Looking east from across the greatroom.

Working aorund the east side, now looking west. Two floors of fireplaces.

Looking west (using the wall to shield the sun).

Now on the north side looking south back across the greatroom which is further inside (the fenced area). That's all the pictures I'll post of the ruins...was that too much? My thoughts...can you imagien building this in 1905 I think it was? I'm 4 miles up a hiking trail...that's a LOT of rock they used...cement, everrything had to be hauled up (don't know of any roads, maybe there is something to the west of this that I don't know about). It was a MASSIVE castle/mansion...10 bedrooms. Just wow.

This nice corner-stone is just about all that remains of an attempt to build a summer home for the President of the US. The few remaining wall portions are beyond even bothering to take pictures of. This one with the block on it is the largest piece still standing.

This shot explains what the "Presidential Summer Home" block is all about.

This shot is looking East towards Denver, a view that WOULD have been there if the Presidents summer home had ever been completed and occupied.

This shot is looking north-west. That would be the continental divide off in the distance. I'm up to about 8000' or so here, there are portions over 12,000 over there. Snow stays on some of those year-round.

Almost hiked out, this is a view to the north of some of the red standstone formations that are all over the eastern side of the Rockies. Much like this is down around Colorado Springs (about 75 miles south of here). This is the last shot of my Monday hike. So my next (and last) hike was on Thursday. We finished all our work on Wednesday, Thurs was a contingency-day which we didn't need. What to do...change flights and go home a day early? Uhm...no. Stay and fly home as planned, and have a nice all-day hike on Thursday...that's what the Dr. ordered (the trip was planned from the very beginning for the entire week...why tempt fate? Maybe something horrible would have happened had we left a day early). SO this next hike was very close the Campus I was working at, it was just a few miles further down the road this trailhead was at in fact. The trail(s) were called "Two Brands" and "The Blackbear Trail". Two Brands takes me along the base of a short range of hills, then The Blackbear Trail takes it from there and crosses that hill/range, then another hill/range, and finally goes up into the mountains to the top of Plymouth Mt which is my turnaround point, 8 miles up/8 miles back.

This first pic is the trailhead map showing where the start is (red blog in upper right corner), the Two Brands trail curves around and runs down the map and goes on past The Blackbear Trail, which gues to the left of the map.

This is part of the trail switchbacking up the face of this short range. As I hike I'm always looking at the trail with an eye towards riding it on my mt bike (or gravel bike now that I have a good one). Oh...don't think I've mentioned that yet...about a month or so ago I bought a new Salsa Cutthroat, SUPER ULTRA MEGA Gravel bike. This bike has literally been designed from the ground up to do the Tour Divide race (follows the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico, 2800 miles, over 150,000' of climbing). I've been fascinated with this race for years, following the SPOT tracks every year for a long time now. Well, I HOPE to pony-up at the start-line the year I retire. The race starts the first Friday in June every year (except last year). This year they had to cut out over 200 miles as the Canadian Border was still closed due to Covid...typically it starts up in Banff Alberta. So this year it started at the border, and was just under 2500 miles. Anyway, I truly hope to be there (wherever 'there' is) the First Friday of June, 2023. We shall see soon enough..it's coming FAST!

Another view of the east side, boy is this good mt biking! (a few bikes have already gone by me as I hike).

Here I've crossed over the top and am hiking generally east, tho this shot is facing mostly south. Off in the distance is the backside of the Space Systems campus that I worked at (the entrance is on the south side of the campus...most of the buildings aren't visible from this view).

Further down the little range, and also further south, you can see the back of the campus a bit better in this shot.

So here I'm all the way down and looking back at the small range I crossed over, this is a pan-shot so distorts it. You an see the trail I came down slanting down and to the left.

Here I've gone up/over the 2nd little range, and am looking northwest, There appears to be some kind of rather expensive housing area down here. HUGE plots of land, very unlike us middle-class people sharing fence-lines in tiny 1/8th or so acre lots. These people have MONEY. LOTS OF MONEY. (just my guess, you'll see a house or 2 a bit closer in a bit).

So this particular little range is a lot more rock than the other one. In fact this portion here is pretty much solid rock, with a rather narrow trail working it's way north and down. Tho this bit here is actually a bit uphill. So picture doing THIS on a bike! (there are bike-tracks all over this trail btw). I'd definetly be walking this part cuz I'M a HUGE chicken of scary stuff.

The rocky ledge-trail continues. I'd still be walking my bike. Wierdly, I'm not at all afraid on foot...but on a bike I'd better have been wearing the brown shorts is all I can say.

And even more, some even narrower. I should add that the fall to your death on the left isn't like 1000' or anything, just 50 or so. But I'm thinking that would still do it. It would certainly leave a mark!

So I"m off the scary rock part, heading towards the money. This first place, all I could think of is "lottery win house".

Here I'm looking south again at the back of the Campus. Some cool sandstone formations, very cool.

Here I'm looking back east at the range I just crossed over, and some of the sandstone formations in the little valley. Now the sun is better and you can see the red sandstone. And just to the right and above the left formation you can make out the rocky ledge-trail I came across.

So the trail winds near this fenceline. Seems Lockheed Martin owns all that land on the other side of the fence. They used to build Titan rockets here (Titan II's and III's and IV's). The II's were actually used as the booster for ICBM's back in the day. Then after newer rockets were made for the nukes, they found the II's were good for launching satellites with. Then by adding solid rocket motors the III's and IV's) they found the same rocket core could launch heavier stuff. They launched the II's till just after the year 2000 (I saw the last II go off of the pad I was soon to be working at on Vandenberg in 2003 the day I hired on). The III's were fraught with problems (like they would blow up along with the pad and whatever spacecraft they were carrying). SO with a bunch of improvements they became the Titan IV, and launched MANY MANY of our nations most important spacecraft for many years. I worked on the Titan IV pad for 3 years and helped with the VERY LAST Titan IV launch ever, that went to space in September 2005.

So now the trail winds by some of the Lottery Win houses. The fenceline is just off to my left.

Here I'm looking back east where I came from, past a few nice houses, the 2nd range I crossed, and beyond that the 1st range I crossed. The house in the foreground would be the one I would choose as our "Lottery Win" house. I can't guess how many acres of fenced in horse-pen-land, but on the left you can see a barn/horse-area that is probably good for maybe 10 to 20 horses (my guess). It's a pretty amazing property!

So HERE you can see the fenceline keeping us rif-raf hikers out of the expensive homes area on the left, and on the right the LM owned land fenceline...they are squeezing the trail into a rather narrow little corridor as it heads to the mountains to the west.

Now I"m looking north-west as the trail-corridor heads past the last house and into the hills. There are LOTS of bike tracks on this trail btw.

Looking back down the corridor, as I approach the last house on my left.

Here I've switchbacked up the first mountain and looking back where I came from...you can see the two fences. The pic is looking east, and you can see the two little ranges I've crossed to get here. The trail winds around that red-blob in the middle (that's all on LM owned land).

A little further up, zoomed in to look at the rich peoples houses and the two ranges I crossed to get here (the very first was much taller than the 2nd one). And that's downtown Denver way off in the distance, looking like it's sitting on top of the bluff just to the left of the middle of the pic.

Here I'm heading up into the mountains, I believe the one in the bright sun is where I'm headed (you can sort-of see a trail slanting across near it's top). But to get there I have a ways to go on this side, then cross down and over to that mountain and switchback up it.

Now I'm getting near the summit of this mountain, this is one of the swithbacks...it's a great trail for bikes I can tell you! Wish I was on mine!

Here I'm at my turn-around point. I gather there is a road of some sort off to my left, the trail heads that way. I'm pretty sure this peak is called "Plymouth Mountain". I'm now 8 miles from my car.

Heading back down, in this shot you can see over both ranges I crossed, and even the man-made lake I drove near to get to the trail-head. I believe I'm still about 3 miles from those expensive houses, you can sort of see that area just past the green of the mountain trees.

Here I'm looking mostly south at the LM campus, just a different perspective of it. That campus is HUGE!

A very similar shot to one I took on the way up as I approach "the narrows" of the trail. Here you can see the roof of the house furthest into the mountain, likely the most expensive (it seemed absolutly HUGE walking alongside the fence, private paved road, enormous tract of land). Must be nice.

Here's a closer view of the house I'd like to have if we hit a huge lottery win...the one with the huge pastures and barn. Wonder what a place like this goes for, with all the land in a rather selective neighborhood...nearest neighbors I'd say at least a quarter mile away.

Heading back up and across the rocky 2nd little range, just a different shot as I'm going a different direction. Wouldn't be too keen to be 'riding' this bit either.

And the last shot, as I near the top of the 2nd range. Didn't take many more after this, the few I did weren't post-worthy (the shade on the eastern side was pretty bad and nothing really came out)...it's now approaching 5pm, and I've been hiking since around 10am as I got a rather late start.