Mansion On The Hill

Saturday's hike took me back to Mt. Falcon Park. I went to the park's east entrance this time. It took a lot longer to get to the park than I thought. It must have taken eight minutes. I was only expecting five. I headed up the Turkey Trot Trail. It is a hiker only trail that has some beautiful views of Bear Creek Canyon. The trail is well used, but it is in descent shape. The Turkey Trot Trail connects up with the Castle Trail, which goes the rest of the way up the mountain. The Castle trail is like a major highway up the mountain. It is a Horse/Mountain Bike/Hiker trail. The terrain was beautiful, but the trail was wide and worn down. It will be interesting to see how long they allow mountains bikes on this trail. There is just too much traffic in a significant park. Anyway I took the Castle Trail to the Walker's Dream Trail, which took me to the ruins of the Summer White House. The previous owner (John Brisben Walker) of the land had plans to build the summer home of the President of the United States on a peak across from his own home. The project came to an end when Walker's home burned down in 1918. The foundation of the Summer White House was the only thing that got built. It would have had great views of Mt. Evans and Denver.













This picture is looking northeast towards Red Rocks. It was taken from the peak that has the Summer White House Ruins.














This picture is taken from the same peak. Denver is to the left of me. Bear Creek Lake is to the right of me. I have walked to that lake from my apartment. I believe I picked out my apartment while I was up there.

On Sunday, I went for a hike at Mount Galbraith Park. Like Mount Falcon Park, Mount Galbraith Park is apart of the Jefferson County Open Space Park System. The trails in this park are hiker only, and they are in great shape. The only issue I have with trails here is that they don't have a trail that goes to the top of Mt. Galbraith. I'm not sure why, it would be easy to put a trail to the top. Anyway the trail loops around the mountain and gets close to the top. There are some great views of Golden, Colorado from this trail.

There is some beer being born down there.