Castlewood Canyon State Park is a

Colorado state park This is a list of the state parks in the U.S. State of Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages the state park system to accommodate both outdoor recreation and tourism. There are currently forty-two parks open to the public, and there are ...

near

Franktown, Colorado Franktown is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

. The park retains a unique part of Colorado's history, the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam. Visitors can still see the remnants and damage from that dam which burst in 1933. The event sent a wave of water all the way to downtown

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

resulting in a flood. Also contained within the park is the historic Cherry Creek Bridge.

Recreation

This park hosts a multitude of hiking/running trails, handicapped access trails and rock climbing opportunities, as well as a nature preservation area on the eastern side that is home to wildlife and interesting geological features. Located within the northernmost extension of the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

, Castle Wood Canyon encompasses with elevations ranging from 6,200 to . Many urban dwellers come for the picnic opportunity away from the city (group picnic facilities can be reserved), others visit the park because of the unusual geology, particularly the

caprock Caprock or cap rock is a hard, resistant, and impermeable layer of rock that overlies and protects a reservoir of softer organic material, similar to the crust on a pie where the crust (caprock) prevents leakage of the soft filling (softer materia ...

features.

Wildlife, ecology, and geography

Among the many species living in the park are

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

cottontail rabbit Cottontail rabbits are in the ''Sylvilagus'' genus, which is in the family Leporidae. They are found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characterist ...

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

prairie rattlesnake Prairie rattlesnake may refer to: * ''Crotalus viridis'', a.k.a. the plains rattlesnake, a venomous pitviper species native to the western United States, southwestern Canada, and northern Mexico. * ''Sistrurus catenatus The eastern massasauga ( ...

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

meadow jumping mouse The meadow jumping mouse (''Zapus hudsonius'') is the most widely distributed mouse in the family Zapodidae. Its range extends from the Atlantic coast in the east to the Great Plains west, and from the arctic tree lines in Canada and Alaska to t ...

turkey vulture The turkey vulture (''Cathartes aura'') is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus '' Cathartes'' of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of Sou ...

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

prairie falcon The prairie falcon (''Falco mexicanus'') is a medium-sized Falconiformes, falcon found in Western North America. A separate species from the peregrine falcon, with which it shares some visual similarities, the prairie falcon is, essentially, an ...

, virile crayfish,

Woodhouse's toad Woodhouse's toad (''Anaxyrus woodhousii'') is a medium-sized () true toad native to the United States and Mexico. There are three recognized subspecies. ''A. woodhousii'' tends to hybridize with '' Anaxyrus americanus'' where their ranges overla ...

and the

northern leopard frog ''Lithobates pipiens''Integrated Taxonomic Information System nternet2012''Lithobates pipiens'' pdated 2012 Sept; cited 2012 Dec 26Available from: www.itis.gov/ formerly ''Rana pipiens'', commonly known as the northern leopard frog, is a s ...

. Ecosystem Zones in the park are

grasslands A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur ...

shrublands Spring Park is a small area in London, England. It is within the London Borough of Bromley and the London Borough of Croydon, straddling the traditional Kent-Surrey border along The Beck. Spring Park is located north of Addington, London, Adding ...

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

, foothills-conifer, and

. Castlewood Canyon is on the edge of the

Palmer Divide Named after Colorado Springs founder William Jackson Palmer, the Palmer Divide is a caprock escarpment-style ridge in central Colorado that separates the Arkansas River basin from the South Platte basin. It extends from the Front Range of the ...

, a geologically upraised area that results in more moisture falling than is normal in eastern Colorado, watering the

History

The Cherry Creek Rockshelter archeological site is located within the park. The

Castlewood Dam Castlewood may refer to: Places United States * Castlewood, Colorado, a town * Castlewood, South Dakota, a town * Castlewood, Virginia, a city ** Castlewood High School ** Castlewood (Chesterfield, Virginia), a historic plantation listed on the ...

in Castlewood Canyon, built in 1890, suffered an utter collapse following heavy rains at 1 am on 3 August 1933, resulting in a 15-foot wall of water rushing down Cherry Creek to Denver, some 15 miles away. Warnings to the city by 4 am allowed most people to move out of the way of the flood waters.Cherry Creek Flood, 1933
Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy Division, 2015.Castlewood Canyon State Park: A brief history
Colorado Parks and Wildlife, State of Colorado, 2007].Disaster Nearly Drowns Denver In 1933
Ion Colorado, 1 February 2019. Castlewood State Park was formed in 1964, following an 87 acre land purchase in 1961 and an additional 792 acre purchase in the late 1970s.

References

External links

* * {{authority control State parks of Colorado Protected areas of Douglas County, Colorado Protected areas established in 1964 1964 establishments in Colorado