Fox to Union Station

The last leg of the G Line brought me back to Union Station. I started my hike at 41st and Fox light rail station and and walked straight down Fox Street into downtown Denver.

Actually, since I begin these G Line adventures at Union Station, it was both my starting and end points. Here's another photo of the train pavilion.

Union Station was first opened in 1881 but was rebuilt in 1914 after a fire. It was revitalized in 2014, conserving the image of the past with the high ceilinged hall and 112 room Crawford Hotel  and adding the very modernist additions of the RTD facilities. With ready access to 16th Street Mall and the free MallRide buses; the underground bus terminal serving RTD buses, Colorado's Bustang routes, and Grayhound; plus Amtrak, Union Station is central to just about everywhere.

The Colorado monsoons were in full swing so the day was nicely overcast and the rains were hours away. All in all, it was a nice day for an adventure.

Fox Station serves a neighborhood. I don't see much to drew tourists. Being north of and close to (and not in) downtown Denver places it in an area of industrial activity. 

This hike was short, under and over a couple of bridges, and became interesting as I neared downtown.

There is the Fox Station art piece.

Aggregation, by Brian Brush, looks like an industrial fabrication waiting to be delivered. That's not a criticism since it certainly fits it's surroundings.

Between the station and downtown, under Interstate 25, Fox Street is lined with a gallery of art works and quotes calling for peace.

Fox Street, terminating as it does at the doorsteps of Coors Field and Union Station is conceived as a gateway to downtown Denver. The Washington Street Bridge was designed with that in mind.

It passes over the South Platte River in a long arc.

Coors Field is Denver's baseball diamond and home to the Rockies professional baseball team. I'm not a fan of baseball (or much of anything, for that matter) but this building draws my attention. It looks very goth to me.

Union Station is right down the street and so, to home.

I go places that I would not normally choose to go because when I put feet to the ground I'm often surprised by things that I would otherwise not experience.

The last leg: The W Line

The terminals tend to be the most interesting stations on a line.

The W Line began in the mountains at Golden and ends in downtown Denver at Union Station. Along the way, I've seen ancient lava flows, art, antique toys, and miniature houses, and heard people's stories. 

You won't see any snow in these photos. That's funny since snow is still on the ground a few miles down the track where I live. The Front Range urban corridor, the most populated areas in Colorado just east of the Rockies, varies drastically in weather as you move north or south. Warmer downslope winds called "chinooks" crash down off the higher mountains, often with hurricane force winds, while the mountain passes let colder air through as fronts move out onto the plains. So ten miles can make a huge difference in weather here.

My hike began where I left off the last time, at the modernist event center, the Ball Arena. Although it hosts cultural events like concerts and plays, the big theme here is sports and you can see art dedicated to sports and buy items celebrating many of the local teams.

Not much of a spectator, I look and pass by.

Denver should be a Mecca for people who like bridge architecture. There are bridges everywhere illustrating many styles. These truss bridges over Cherry Creek are foot bridges connecting the Auraria neighborhoods to Denver proper. They don't span much distance so the simple truss structure works well. It works like a board across a creek.

If you built bridges as a kid, you probably remember that your plank was, well...fun? As you walked across, it sagged in the middle and bobbed up and down.

All bridges are a road or trail bed supported by some kind of structure to carry the weight of the "plank" and lead the force of the weight down into the earth. Here, sturdy steel girders form a lattice work that lays across from one bank of Cherry Creek to the other. The road bed rests on a platform of girders like the slats under your mattress. The trapezoids on either side keep it from sagging and bobbing. The trapezoids are reinforced by diagonal girders that form triangles. In a triangle, any joint is braced by the opposite side. A triangle is the most stable plane shape.

Cherry Creek and the South Platte River define major regions of Denver. West Denver is west of the river. The original settlement of Auraria where settlers of European heritage joined Chief Little Raven's tribe of Arapahoe was nestled between the two streams, and Denver proper developed across Cherry Creek. The streams have never been navigable to large river traffic but was the original draw to the area as gold was panned from them and their tributaries. Then they served as open sewers. Although they have been cleaned up considerably, they still carry an invisible load of diverse toxic metals from mining operations upstream and enteric bacteria like Escherichia coli from ongoing sewage contamination. Swim at your own risk.

Nevertheless, water fowl find the streams inviting, and I occasionally see fish there. Denver used to be on the migration routes for many birds but as the climate has warmed, more and more are staying put year round. Also, further south they get shot.

Confluence Park

The South Platte River and Cherry Creek merge in downtown Denver at Confluence Park. This area has been extensively landscaped not only for aesthetic reasons but also to manage erosion. A lot of energy is expended here and the valley shape can change quickly (over geologic time) if allowed.

Confluences are often a good place to look for heavy metals like gold. Industrial placers are troughs fitted with slats or ridges in the beds. Water is sent down under pressure (often by gravity flow). Light particles of dirt, sand, or crushed rock wash on by while the heavier partials are caught behind the slats. In a confluence, the trough is the natural stream bed and the slats are rocks and boulders that slow the flow of the water. The Sand that collects there is enriched with heavy materials and can be panned to find heavy particles.

Confluence Park is a popular place for kayaking and tubing because the water gets a big boost there. There's actual white water around the boulders that have been washed down from upstream (but keep an eye on the pollution reports if you're interested!) It's no surprised that this was the first place prospectors decided to look for gold in the area. 

Why is Denver where it is?

That's why.

Geology not only changes geography. It changes us.

But they didn't find gold at the Confluence of the South Platte and Cherry Creek. Bragging rights for the first gold panned in the area goes to the confluence of Clear and Ralston Creeks further to the west. Then they found placer gold three miles south at the confluence of the South Platte and Little Dry Creek, and the rush was on.

The pedestrian bridge at Confluence Park

Many of the bridges in the Denver area are arch suspension bridges. The road bed is suspended by cables from an arch. Of course, arches were used extensively by the Romans for their strength and stability. In the case of the pedestrian bridge at Confluence Park, each cable holds only a section of the weight of the road bed. The downward pull of the cables threaten to push the ends of the arch outward but, if you look at them, they're braced so that the force of the weight is conducted up the cables into the arch and down into the Earth.

This is a typical confluence. Two streams rarely, if ever, join at right angles. There is a stagnation zone in a larger stream just before a smaller tributary joins it. That allows particles to precipitate out of the water to form a delta pushing the junction of the two stream further downstream.

The confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River from the pedestrian bridge at Confluence Park.

Near Confluence Park are three suspension bridges of innovative design. They're featured prominently in the January 13, 2019 blog, Terminus: Union Station (http://adventuringbcc.blogspot.com/2019/01/terminus-union-station-gold-drew-people.html). Here, the road bed is supported by cables attached to one or more masts. These two masts are curved outward to counteract the tendency of the weight they're carrying to pull them together. They're also springy (remember the old saying, a flexible tree doesn't break in the wind"), so you might have a little more bounce in your step as you cross the South Platte River pedestrian bridge.

Millennium Bridge from the South Platte River bridge.

Highlands pedestrian bridge from the South Platte River bridge.

All three bridges are in line and visible from each other.

This striking building, at the edge of downtown Denver, is a condominium called "the Riverfront Tower". It was built in 2002 and if you want to live there, be ready to shell out the $$$, because it's right in the middle of everything. At this writing, space goes for over $700 per square foot per month. You can sit in Commons Park and gaze at it for free. (I also like to watch humans and dogs play catch there.)

This hike (and the W Line) ended at Union Station light rail pavilion. The Millennium Bridge is just to the west (trains pass under it as they pull into the station). The big concrete barrels shown in the photograph above are works of art but, primarily, they are the ventilation shafts for Union Station's underground bus terminal. 

Union Station sits directly on the 105th meridian west. It is one of 24 meridians on which time zones are based. Running north and south, the meridians are imaginary lines of longitude used to describe positions and time zones on the globe. This one is seven hours west of the prime meridian. That means that, when it's noon at Union Station, it's 7:00 pm in Greenwich, England.

How does the topography of your area alter your weather. If it's hilly or mountainous, it might impede winds and air masses as they move across. If you live on the plains, they may crash through with impunity.

If you pay attention, the more you walk in an area, the more you become aware of migration patterns of animals. Have you noticed that habits of animals in your area have shifted? Are new species appearing or old ones disappearing?

Are there any places near you where two streams join? Is there a delta there? If so, what does it look like? Is the water in the streams different colors? Do they mix immediately or can you see the different colored waters further downstream as though there are two streams flowing down the same stream bed?

Bridges are cool! There's likely one near you. Visit it and see if you can tell how the road bed is supported. How does the force from that  weight flow from the road bed to the ground. Most energy, to be useful, has to flow from a source to a sink. For instance, in an electrical circuit, electrical force is produced by a battery or generator, some of the force is lost to heat in a load, and the rest travels into a ground. In a microscope, light is reflected from a small object, magnified by lenses, and collected by your eyes' retinas. If most of the force of a road's weight was not directed through a bridge's structure into the ground, it would strain the bridge's structural members and eventually break them.

The final terminal hike: Thornton

The title sounds ominous but it's okay.

A few years ago, I started a series of hikes around the Denver light rail system. The first year I hiked along the C line from  Mineral Station in Littleton to the Auraria West Station in downtown Denver in station-to-station sections. The next year, I decided to hike around all the terminal stations (terminal = end of the line)...until Covid hit and I stopped using the RTD. I wasn't afraid of catching the virus. I didn't want to give it to a member of my family who would then be knocked out of work for a time. I completed all the hikes except one.

So last Sunday, I took the train to the last terminal in Thornton.

These hikes are not technical hikes. They're pure sightseeing. I go. I see. I take photos. And, now, I'll share the photos with you 

The Arapahoe Marketplace Shopping Center is very near the summit of the eastern rim of the South Platte River valley, so it's a good place to view the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. I see that Mount Evans (the snow cap in the distance) is being renamed Mount Blue Sky due to the first governor of the Colorado Territory, John Evans', involvement with the Sand Creek massacre and other atrocities against Native Americans.

Arapahoe Marketplace is about halfway between our house and the nearest train station, Arapahoe at Village Center Station so I'm treated to this view whenever I leave the area and return.

The station is nestled between I25 and the cluster of buildings that make up Village Center and Fiddler's Green.

It's often my point of departure for day hikes.

The light rail offers some spectacular views of the Rockies throughout.

Union Station is the hub for the Regional Transportation District, RTD, and is a gateway to downtown Denver and it's many shops, restaurants, and other points of interest. The cables in the center of the photograph above are the suspension cables for the famous Millennium Bridge. It is a footbridge that spans a train yard. It's innovative design allows it to fit between a cluster of skyscrapers. 

It's one of several interesting bridges in the area. Some of them are mentioned here in the January 13, 2019 blog.

The northern branches of the light rail system has newer trains that look more like traditional passenger trains. They're heftier, silver electric trains with larger capacities. 

The Eastlake terminal is one of the newest on the light rail, servicing the Eastlake community of Thornton.

My hike destination was the East Lake Nature Reserve, which surrounds the lake that gives the community it's name. The area is short grass high plains. It's not very picturesque during the winter. The only wildlife I noticed was geese on the lake, but it looks like it might be a hotspot for birders during the warmer parts of the year.

Like most of the prairie, any trees will likely be around lakes and streams, or will be planted there by the inhabitants. The prominent vegetation is grass, which dies back in the winter to add to the thick, rich prairie soil. The scientific name for the soil is mollisol (mollis is Latin for soft, which, if you've ever had to dig a hole in prairie soil might seem a little ironic. Dead grass gives the dirt a tough, fibrous texture).

The bedrock is much the same as that where I live, Arapahoe/Dawson formation and colluvium. Of course it's covered by a thick cover of mollisol, so I didn't see any outcrops.

Longs Peak, one of the prominent mountains of the Rocky Mountain National Park, is visible from Eastlake Station. Much of the head waters of the Colorado River drains from it's slopes.

A last look at the Eastlake Station before heading back home.

Another view of Mount Blue Sky from the top of the hill at Arapahoe Road.

It was a good day for a hike, clear skies, and not very cold. People were out with their families. Overall, a nice last hike for my terminal hikes.

Terminus: Ridgegate

Ridgegate station is the southern terminal for three lines of the light rail system in Denver: the E, F, R lines. It's just about as far south as you can go and be in the Denver area. Just south of there are the bluffs, a wild grassland.

I hear that there are companies wanting to build there, but there are also concerned citizens fighting them to keep that area wild.

Ridgegate is growing. The light rail extension from Lincoln Avenue to Ridgegate Parkway is new and I haven't been south of Lincoln on it. I visited someone at Sky Ridge Hospital near Ridgegate a couple of months ago.

Currently the terminus is isolated but in easy walking distance of the Ridgegate community, it's shops, and the hospital. My destination was The Bluffs Regional Park.

Like all train and bus stations in the Denver area, this one has been adorned by a known artist, in this case, two artists. The names are Erik Carlson and Erica Carpenter. Decidedly modern, the art incorporates local ranch brands and technological symbols into an exhibit called "End of the Line." I'll let them tell you.

Here's some of the art.

The station is large but sort of lonely out on the plains.

As near as it is to a dense residential area, it's separated by I-25. A short hike brought me there. The entrance to the town is guarded by a brass elk at Cabela's parking lot (I guess it's an elk.)

Long, long ago, in a land pretty darn close by (I live in a suburb of Denver), the Pacific Plate crashed into North America and buckled the continent forming the Colorado Plateau. Except for a few volcanoes that belched a lot of ash into the wind, it was a fairly well rounded plateau, but rains fell and, soon rivers formed (like they do) and the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers started carving out deep gorges and depositing silt and rock east of what would be the Rocky Mountains. Mixed with the mud that formed when the volcanic ash decomposed, there was a deep blanket of gunk sloping out across the plains. To the south of what is today Denver, quartz rich sands got washed down and formed a hard layer over the softer stuff.

Time and rain kept flowing and water flowed both west and east. Tributaries of the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers kept excavating. To the north of Denver, nature wore the land down to a nub, and today we have the gently rolling hills of the western plains. To the south, that hard capstone resisted erosion in places and now we have the mesas and buttes like Castle Rock. Between, the ridge of Palmer's Divide split falling waters apart to run into the South Platte to the north, and the Arkansas to the south. And right on the northern border of Palmer's Divide is this 

I'm sure the little Creek that flows through Lone Tree had something to do with forming the hills in Bluffs Regional Park but they look like wind might have played a big part, too.

The Bluffs are an island of grassland above the surrounding residential areas. The wind was strong and cold and I'm sure there was plenty of wildlife out of sight. Still wintery weather in the Denver area, it's too early for wildflowers to be blooming. The main draw today was the views of the mountains. Only four miles further south from where I live, the bluffs make Pike's Peak seem far closer.

Pikes Peak

Mount Evans and the Front Range

Devil's Head

At the overlook, there's a little circle of stones that serve as a place to sit. It served me as a place to eat my lunch.

A stone disk set in the center of the circle points out some of the surrounding mountains.

After a short hike, I headed back down to the station and took a train back home.

Do you know the geological history of your area? There are surprised there. Check it out and then keep your eyes open for clues to it's past as you hike.