Golden Gate Canyon / Dinosaur Ridge
Hiking in Golden Gate Canyon State Park | Hiking Dinosaur Ridge in Lakewood | Last Day in Denver | September 2024
On our last full day in the Denver area and with my parents, we decided to drive a ways out of the city to go for a hike that would be among the golden aspen trees. We got an early start, and drove the winding roads up into the Rockies and to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Luckily for us, the state park was in a county we hadn’t visited –however, we still haven’t entered Boulder county, so we can’t say we’re done with the front range yet. Once we entered the state park, we started to have great views of surrounding mountains and fall colors all around.
For our morning hike, we decided to walk the Snowshoe Hare trail because it was a moderate 3.5 mile loop that would feature plenty of colors and a lake along the way. Since the campground was closed, we had to park just outside the gate in a small parking area and walk through to reach the trailhead. After paying the parking fee at the self registration station, we gathered our water and snacks and hit the trail.
After making it through the campground, we started on the loop going counter clockwise. It started with a short downhill section, and soon we were surrounded by golden aspens — just what we came for! We also passed by remains of a log cabin, the home of Thomas Belcher. Not too long into the hike, we came to the most scenic point: a small man-made lake. The break in the trees here allowed us to see some of the surrounding peaks, with plenty of aspens in the foreground. After enjoying the views, we continued on the trail, going at a good pace through the woods. Altogether, the hike was 3.5 miles and took us just under 2 hours to complete. If you’re interested, you can check out our trail recording here.
Once we were finished, we returned to the car in the small lot which was now completely full — as was every other lot that we passed on our way out. We stopped at the visitor center before leaving, and heard the park rangers saying the same thing to everyone that was arriving: be prepared to wait for a parking spot. Good thing we had such an early start, and that we didn’t have our hearts set on doing another hike! We drove back to our hotel and took it easy for the afternoon, besides taking Charlotte for her own walks.
That evening, we decided to wrap up our time here with one more sunset hike. This time, we drove to the small trailhead on the East side of Dinosaur Ridge, and began our walk up the paved road. Charlotte got to come along this time, and though she was a little pokey she did a great job — Curtis graciously took over walking her so that I could walk the whole trail with my parents.
As we were starting out on the hike, an older woman stopped to warn us that there was a rattlesnake up ahead on the side of the path. We got to talking with her, and when she found out this was our first time here, she offered to walk with us and show us all the different features on the hike. This included many different dinosaur tracks and even some bones!
We enjoyed the very educational walk, and watching the sun set behind the Rockies. We also saw a long line of traffic on the road leading up to the Red Rocks Amphitheater — maybe if we had stayed here late enough, we could have heard whoever was performing that night. But instead, we returned to the car and made it back just after dark. We said goodbye to our tour guide, then drove Charlotte back to the hotel so we could get one last dinner out together.
The restaurant my dad chose was Blue Pan Pizza, which had good ratings and served Detroit style pizza. We got the Brooklyn Bridge pizza, and I don’t want to sound dramatic but believe me when I say that was the BEST PIZZA we have EVER HAD. We do enjoy the Detroit style pizza at Tomaso’s in Cedar Rapids, IA, but it’s like they took that pizza and perfected it in every way imaginable, and topped it off with the most light and creamy dollops of Ricotta on top. We don’t have any desire to return to Denver, but if we do find ourselves going back someday, we will absolutely return to get more Blue Pan Pizza. (Maybe we would return just for the purpose of getting Blue Pan Pizza…maybe). It was a fantastic way to end our long weekend in the area. After returning to the hotel, we said goodbye to my parents who were leaving early in the morning, and prepared to move back into the van for the next leg of our Colorado vacation.
