Acknowledgments

First I’d like to thank all of my contacts in the nineteen different agencies responsible for the lands and the trails in this book. These wonderful people work for city and county open space departments, city mountain parks, Colorado State Parks, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They took time from busy schedules to answer questions, review chapters and provide feedback, and in two cases, hike with me on trails that were not yet open to the public.

I would especially like to thank all those people who came before who not only saw the need to preserve open space and wildlands, but who followed through on their visions. Over the years many people have continued their work to create the wonderful collection of parks and open space lands, along with the national forests, parks, and wildlife refuges that we enjoy today in Colorado’s Front Range. Thanks also go to the citizens in the various cities and counties for consistently voting to tax themselves to purchase and preserve more lands, not only for their recreation, but also to protect wildlife habitat. We all owe a great debt to these people, and to the people who continue the work of maintaining existing lands and procuring new ones.

Thanks to all the individuals in the many volunteer groups who help the land management agencies with everything from trail maintenance and construction to fund-raising to keep these special lands, well, special! Please consider joining one of these groups to add your talents to help in whatever way you can.

Thanks also to all my friends and co-workers who put up with two years of “I have to work on the hiking guide” when they asked me to do things.

A special thanks and a big hug to my Mom, recently deceased, and my Dad, long dead, for encouraging me to do what I want to do and to strive for peace and happiness.

Last, but not least, thanks to you readers and fellow hikers for buying Best Hikes Near Denver and Boulder. I hope you find it useful and interesting, and may you enjoy many hours hiking the trails described between these covers.