Friends

Here I am with two of my friends I went to Colorado to meet up with. That's me in the middle. We're at Roxborough State Park, south of Denver. I used to work there as a park ranger. Very pretty. Despite all the development around the park they are still seeing black bear and mountain lions, fox, deer, elk and other wildlife. My last year as a ranger (even after) we formed a "friends" group to purchase 800 acres on the east side of the park, grassland habitat that was slated to become homes. It was an integral part of the grassland to mountain ecozones that the park encompassed, plus very important wildlife habitat. I'm glad we were able to purchase it and the park as since bought about 500 more acres on that side. When I was there in the mid-80s a very small portion of the local population knew the park existed. I think that might still be the case. Not a bad thing, since it helps keep the park "pristine". There isn't any overnight camping, boating, picnic shelters, or other activity centers that attract most people to parks, though, it's just a day use hiking, interpretive, nature area. It's not a place to come party, barbeque, play your music loud and get drunk, so it's not appealing to a lot of "outdoorsy" people. They can go to the other state park nearby, which is fine by me.