Following Oak Street South from Oak Station, I rejoined Lakewood Gulch where I left it the last hike.
Green Mountain is still a prominent feature of the western horizon.
The landscape makes me think that the stream was already well established with a valley before erosion control structures and a rock lined channel was installed. The Wikipedia article states that it occasionally floods even now.
At Oak Street, Lakewood Gulch enters Sunset Park. There is a bicycle park at the eastern end of the park and the trail changes from paved walks to a dirt road until Kipling Street.
I don't expect to see a lot of life in the stream. It passes through so many residential areas that water quality sites on the Internet show large amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen, and bacteria in the water from runoff. The valley has a lot of diversity of healthy looking plant life, though.
Denver is good about providing these little neighborhood parks. They're dotted around all over the metro area. They will usually include a playground, like this one, a picnic shelter, and walking trails that connect with one or more greenways.
This playground is cushioned. The colorful surface is nice and bouncy, but I wouldn't want to slide on it. It has little sharp particles suspended in it, like the tiny "rocks" in roof coatings that come loose in rain storms and collect in the dirt around houses.
The trail ends at Kipling Street. Part of Colorado highway 391, Kipling Street is next to Independence Avenue (the alphabetical order isn't accidental - street names actually aren't random). The street was originally named "Howell Street" for Carson Howell, a veteran of the Sand Creek Massacre. I don't know when the name was changed. It's been Kipling since I moved to Colorado in 2013, and, yes, it was named after Rudyard Kipling.
I had spotted a tiny museum on the map while planning this hike and decided to visit it.
Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls, and Toys (830 Kipling St., Lakewood, Colorado, 80215)
Never pass up a tiny museum. They're often some of the best. They tend to be staffed by people who are passionate about their field and know what they're talking about. The toys here reflect Colorado history.
In keeping with my current themes of chemistry and geology, I couldn't pass up showing this old Gilbert Chemistry Set. I know it's old because, by the time I came along, the chemicals were in plastic bottles. These are cardboard (I assume, waxed) canisters.
Alfred Carlton Gilbert, a magician by trade, started the Mystic Manufacturing Company with his friend, John Petrie in 1909. Originally, it was a supplier of equipment for stage magicians but in 1911, they invented the erector set (another passion of my childhood). The first chemistry set was put out (did I really say "put out"? I started so many fires with my chemistry sets!) in 1922. They also produced other science sets including vacuum tube (there were no transistors radios back then and certainly not integrated circuits) radio kits.
If you're interested, there is a website that has a lot of information on the old science kits.
They also present a lot of the old, "classic" experiments.
In addition to displays-under-glass, the museum also has some hands-on displays, plus! there are hosted events so, if you plan to be in the Denver area, check to see if they have something coming up at
The walk from Kipling to Garrison was a street through a residential area.
Garrison Station, as usual, had art.
This piece, Winds of Change, by Mike Squared Mosaics, is a long (20 wall panels) tile mosaic representing changes in the area from prehistoric times to the present. If you look closely, you can see sunflowers and butterflies along with the square tiles.
The W line is sandwiched between highway 6 To the south and Colfax Avenue to the north, so there are always amenities close by. Before catching the train home, I strolled up to Ziggi's Coffee on Colfax for a dry place (there was a rare Denver downpour) and a snack.
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