Decatur-Federal Station to Auraria West Station

Lakewood Gulch at the Decatur-Federal Station has grown to quite a respectable stream.

The sound of water rushing over rocks is nice. Those rocks, of course, were placed there to break the force of the water and reduce erosion. I see many places here along the gulch where the mud is wet and slippery. It's evident that the stream has been out of its banks recently. Flash floods have occurred in this section, but the valley here is deep.

The light rail station here can be busy since it offers access to both the Department of Human Services offices and recreation like Empower football stadium and the Meow Wolf Art Exhibit.

Lakewood Gulch Trail is right on the edge of downtown Denver here.

Despite the urban setting, the South Platte

River draws water fowl. Here at the confluence of Lakewood Gulch and the South Platte River, things happen. The river has grown to a respectable size (see other photos of the South Platte in these blogs) and mixing of shallower waters carry pollutants but they also pour nutrients into the river and oxygenate it's waters. This egret seems to be looking for minnows.

After I reached the river, I had a tangle of highways to deal with, Interstates 25 and 70, Colfax Avenue and Old West Colfax Avenue, Walnut Street, First Street, Auraria Parkway, Fifth Street, the light rail and train yards, and the river. They all come together and try not to collide right here. Plus, the football stadium and Meow Wolf is tucked in amongst it all.

Meow Wolf is an interactive art exhibit in Denver run by a company in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have other exhibits there and in Las Vegas. For the curious, the name was drawn at random from a container of slips of paper with words on them.

Denver, or the settlements that were to become Denver, was built around the promise of gold, a promise that soon played out with little result. What saved the town was a branch of the railroad that dropped down from Wyoming. Denver became associated with culture, cattle, and the railroad.

The railroad is still prominent here. It runs between Meow Wolf and much of it's parking area, so I waited awhile with several customers trying to get back to their vehicles while a long, slow train moved through.

The last stop on my itinerary was the Auraria campus, shared by Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the University of Colorado in Denver. I've been here before (Auraria West to Osage, November 10, 2018 blog) but there were parts of the campus I didn't see until I visited it with a friend a couple of weeks ago.

The campus is a mix of old (some of the oldest parts of Denver) and very new (the campus was built in 1973) architecture, and the old and still operating, Tivoli brewery serves as the student union.

The lynx is the official mascot of the University of Colorado in Denver.

For a major hub of the light rail system (the W Line branches off the rails to Union Station here), there is surprisingly little art here. As the train pulls into the station from points to the south and west, a mural appears on the side of one of the campus' administrative buildings. I say "appears" because the building is blocky and the mural is split between several walls that can only be seen as an unbroken whole from one direction.

This completes my exploration of the RTD W Line and the land (physical and cultural) surrounding it. I didn't include a lot. I passed through a major art district that offered much more than I had space to describe. The geology is complex and fascinating and I will have to revisit it. The cultures range from wealthy to the tent cities of Denver's homeless population (which is distressingly large and trapped in their circumstances.) The history spans the earliest native inhabitants to contemporary Denver.

Paths offer unique opportunities to learn from your surrounding. Following a railway, or a highway, or a stream can provide adventure and many learning opportunities.

What's in your world?

--- Terminus: Westminster ---

Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

                                                Arlo Guthrie

The song laments the demise of the passenger trains that were just beginning to disappear when I was a child. I was about 14 when I took the only train ride of my childhood. Our Sunday School class took a train from LaGrange, Georgia to West Point, Georgia.

Trains took more scenic routes than highways. The road beds were narrower so they could manage rougher terrain. The hilly country of central Georgia was entrancing with the constant rhythm of the rail.

Of course, train travel hasn't disappeared completely but it has shrunk to the rare entertainment or the urban commuter trains.

Trains are a common factor in big city life as more metropolises offer options to the jammed city traffic. I still appreciate the Denver trains as a pleasure.

The new B and G lines remind me strongly of the one train ride I took as a child. The big silvery commuter trains have the flavor of the old passenger trains.

The B line runs from Union Station to Westminster Station near Federal and Lowell Boulevards. I wouldn't call the route scenic, running through mostly industrial areas of North Denver, but the terminus is pretty offering a view of the Front Range of the Rockies between Golden and Boulder, including the Flatirons.

                                             [The B Line commuter train at Union Station]

 The Westminster Station park blends Little Dry Creek into an architecture of art and nature. The creek is well used as an element of the landscape, along with indigenous plants and wildlife.

How many "Dry Creeks" are there in the Denver area? There are Little and Big Dry Creeks in both Littleton and Westminster. I am surprised to find that the Little Dry Creek that runs through Englewood, down the hill from me, is the same Little Dry Creek in Littleton that I saw while on the Highline Canal Trail.

There are other Dry Creeks in Colorado. and many of them sport trails. The funny thing is, I've never seen one of these creeks actually dry.

[Westminster Station and Park]

Westminster is a sprawling northern suburb of Denver. The land is high plains with mostly grasslands with most of the neighborhood trees being more the product of landscaping than nature. Dry Creek and Little Dry Creek in Westminster usually looks tame enough but in times of snow melt and heavy rain in the spring and fall, there is a danger of flooding and flood management is an issue here. About half the distance between Westminster Station and Sheridan Boulevard, the stream becomes a concrete conduit.

                                                  [Fire Training Tower at England Park]

                                                           [Little Dry Creek conduit]

Westminster Station Park seems to be a surprisingly good area for birdwatching. The short time that I was walking through, I spotted a snowy egret, magpies, ducks, and a red winged blackbird. I wasn't out for birds so I didn't have the equipment to catch the blackbird on the wing with his brilliant red and yellow bars.

                                                    [Birds at Westminster Station Park]

                                  [Westminster Station Park with the Rockies in the background]

Actually, anywhere there's water in Denver is a good place to watch for water fowl. On the walk back from University Station, I crossed Harvard Gulch and saw these two ducks huddled on a rock.

                                                            [Ducks at Harvard Gulch]

Train rides are special but train stops often have points of attraction that should not be missed.