Parks and Historic Sites

Photos: Civic Center Park is commemorated as a national historic landmark

Mayor Michael Hancock joined state and national representatives yesterday in a ceremony inside the McNichols building to reveal plaques that commemorate Civic Center's new status as a national historic landmark. That honor is determined by the National Park Service and given to areas or buildings th ... More >>

Photo: Billboard gives thanks -- and advice -- to embattled BLM director

When you're a bureaucrat under fire, accused of being a tool of Big Oil, there's nothing like a big, wet kiss from your critics to let you know you're being watched -- closely. Particularly if that greeting takes the form of a giant billboard on I-70 in Golden, not far from the Bureau of Land Manage ... More >>

Drilling at Mesa Verde and Dinosaur National Monument: BLM boss backpedals after protests

The director of Colorado's Bureau of Land Management office seems to be engaged in an elaborate game of chicken over the past few months. On several occasions, Helen Hankins has announced plans to auction off oil and gas leases in environmentally sensitive areas, including tracts near Mesa Verde Nat ... More >>

Rocky Mountain National Park's sheepish new logo is a ram job

Here at the Wild-Urban Interface Desk, we're puzzling over the new logo just unveiled by Rocky Mountain National Park in celebration of its centennial, chosen two years early from close to a hundred entries. As you can see, it's a highly retro design, strong on pine cones and columbines and the prom ... More >>

Ken Salazar approves final fix on Martin Luther King Memorial -- "if" only

The situation was stupid enough that Ken Salazar probably wanted to punch someone. When the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was unveiled in 2011, eagle-eyed wordsmiths quickly pointed out that one of the quotes etched into the granite monument had taken King's words out of context, making him seem l ... More >>

Denver's Civic Center named a national landmark

It wasn't long ago that Denver planners had the crackpot idea of putting a new Colorado history museum underground in Civic Center Park, right by the McNichols building, once a Carnegie library. Cooler heads put the kibosh on that. And now Denver's Civic Center has been designated a National Histori ... More >>

Pollution: Nitrogen levels on the rise in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park officials have recognized for years that Front Range pollution -- from auto exhausts, power plants, emissions from oil wells and refineries, feedlots and more -- pose a threat to the health and welfare of their high-country streams, fish and plants. Now a new study from ... More >>

Civic Center Park will be open and fenceless by mid-August

They're getting close! Updates to Civic Center Park have shuttered many of its features for months as crews repair work funded by $9.5 million from the Denver Better Bond Project. Surrounded by fences, the park closed to the public in March and partially re-opened in April, and now there's an end in ... More >>

Rocky Mountain National Park wants you to get wild for its centennial

"Wilderness, Wildlife and Wonder." That's the slogan the feds chose to mark the centennial of Rocky Mountain National Park, which was founded in 1915. Personally, we'd have gone with "Crags, Crowds and Crappy Souvenirs" or "Treks, Tics and Traffic," but they didn't ask us. Not for a slogan, at least ... More >>

Civic Center in the running to become a national historic landmark

Within the next three to nine months, Denver's Civic Center could become the city's first national historic landmark. Earlier this week, Mayor Michael Hancock testified at a National Park System advisory board meeting in favor of the area's qualification of the honor, which will move to the National ... More >>

B-cycle stations in parks will be commercial-free

Ken Salazar's plans for tourism in San Luis Valley generates protests

Ken Salazar.​Two weeks ago, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar surfaced in Alamosa, surrounded by state leaders, to present the results of a federal study aimed at promoting tourism and conservation in the San Luis Valley. The National Park Service's study pushes for conservation easements, ... More >>

Reader: National Park passes don't cover fee areas popping up at Colorado National Forests

​Plenty of readers were surprised to learn (from Patricia Calhoun's recent post) that merely stopping to take a photo at Mount Evans scenic byway will cost a visitor $10. But one commenter was well aware of the situation -- and notes that it's not an isolated incident.

Summer's Ending: 8 Great Weekend Roadtrips You Need to Take Now

National Park Service​It's the first week of August, so it's likely that many of you are experiencing Endofsummeritis. You may think there's nothing you can do but watch the slow creep to winter, and before you know it, you will be shoveling your car out of six feet of snow while icicle tears form ... More >>

O'er the Land of the Free

Denver parks soon to host admission-based events -- but bigger isn't necessarily better

A Flickr photo.​ Admission-based events are more than likely coming soon to a city park near you! Last Thursday night, the Denver Parks and Recreation Advisory Board approved in a ten-to-seven vote a controversial policy allowing ticketed events in select city parks, including Civic Center, C ... More >>

John Salazar: Land swap aids big donor

John Salazar.​While Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has been enduring a summer of media broiling over everything from the BP oil spill to federal wild-horse roundups, his brother John has been coolly and quietly toodling toward re-election and a fourth term in Congress. But now, the Oth ... More >>

The dog days of summer have arrived for the vacant Church in the City

Steven Clay Romero pleads guilty to dragging Buddy the dog to death

Steven Clay Romero: Should he be sentenced to serve time in a kennel?​Some of those designated Westword's Shmuck of the Week earn this honor for kinda silly reasons -- like, for instance, the condom website that implied Coloradans have small dicks. Not so Steven Clay Romero, named after he wa ... More >>

Steven Clay Romero indicted for dragging Buddy the Dog to death

Steven Clay Romero won't be getting his own show on Animal Planet.​Some individuals accused of crimes wind up generating a significant amount of sympathy -- but that's unlikely to happen for Steven Clay Romero -- because of what he's accused of doing to a dog named Buddy. Late yesterday, a gr ... More >>

Nature Calls

Pretty in pink turns coyote ugly in Greenwood Village

Ken Salazar wants windmills in the ocean, but first he'll have to save the Interior Department

Chatfield Denver Botanic Gardens’ website is like hedge maze to nowhere

Theater on the Rocks

Betsy Tobin’s canyon-inspired multimedia work returns.

Go for the Gold

City Sounds

Culture Stock

Go native in Mesa Verde.

A House Divided

Black Hawk plays the Lace card.

Digging Deep

On Mesa Verde's hundredth birthday, there's still a lot of dirt behind the "Mystery of the Anasazi."

Rough Ride

Mountain bikers and hikers face off over wilderness.

Wild World

A park ranger gives the skinny on forest follies.

Best Way to Visit the Dunes Without Actually Going

Great Sand Dunes National Park: Between Light and Shadow
John B. Weller

Wilderness Witness

Photographer shares his affection for the Great Sand Dunes

At Close Range

The Cherry Creek Shooting Center finds itself under the gun.

On the Road Again

This state was designed for explorers -- and a 1986 Jeep Wagoneer.

Mountain Perks

Mountain parks grew as a Denver marketing tool.

Park Place

An ambitious plan to expand Denver's parks may take root if the political climate is fertile.

The Plot Thickens

A fear of development is growing in community gardens around Denver.

Best Online Campsite Reservations

ReserveAmerica

Best Ecosystem Trail

M. Walter Presman Trail

Best winter camping trips

Colorado State Parks yurts

Black to Nature

Bill Gwaltney wants to see more people like him at Rocky Mountain National Park.

He Walks With the Animals

Maybe Jasper Carlton is a radical -- or maybe he's ahead of his time.

A Bird in the Hand

The fate of the northern goshawk--and the timber industry--could rest with Richard Reynolds. He's not out of the woods yet.

Artsbeat

The Height of Insult

Best-selling author John Krakauer gets caught in the dispute between "Mr. Longs Peak" and the Park Service.

A Rocky Road

The ranger known as Mr. Longs Peak has to climb down. His friends wonder why.

A RIVER OF ASPHALT RUNS THROUGH IT

DENVER MEEKLY YIELDS TO DENSE DEVELOPMENT AT THE CHATFIELD ARBORETUM.

GET OFF MY CLOUD

PLANS TO PUT A "LEARNING CENTER" ON MT. EVANS LEAVE SOME FUMING.