Just Lauren

Shari and I walked around Sloan’s Lake for the first time this past weekend. I’ve lived here for 9 years and had never been. I’ve driven by it, sure, but for some reason I had never taken the time to specifically visit and walk the park. I had been missing out. A 2.5 mile sidewalk winds its way around this lake that’s in the northwest part of Denver. Grass, trees, and of course, the water, surround you and you get a nice view of downtown on part of the walk. We went Saturday morning a little before 10am and we took our time strolling around the beautiful scenery. It was surprisingly quiet there. There were lots of people, it was clearly a busy park, but I very rarely felt crowded. And even then, even with all the people around us, the space was so quiet. I didn’t hear a lot of loud talking. I didn’t hear barking. I didn’t even hear cars. This park is surrounded by streets, Colfax is only a block or two away, and still, quiet. I think that, in itself, would have won me over to this place, but it was also beautiful and I thought the 2.5 mile loop was the perfect length. A handful of people were out on the water on kayaks and paddleboards which made me long for a kayak of my own (or perhaps one to just rent for a couple hours), some other time for sure. I don’t think you can rent kayaks here though. There was a group doing yoga in one corner and firefighters learning how to rescue drowning people in another. There was a dad pushing his baby in a stroller who lapped us twice which reminded me that I need to work on my cardio game, but thankfully Shari was there to give me encouragement and not judge my lack of jogging ability.

I enjoyed this walk so much that during it I kept thinking about when I could come back. I also didn’t take any pictures because I was more focused on taking everything in through my eyes and just hanging out with Shari. It means you’ll have to go and see the park for yourself, oh darn. 😉 The park would be a nice place for a picnic too, there are a handful of picnic tables along the water near some bathrooms and a dock. However, it should be noted that there are a lot of geese and goose poop in that area so be warned. This is also the lake where the annual Dragon Boat Festival takes place. It’s in September this year, and I’ll be in Texas when it occurs but I’ll plan on going next year when it’s back to being in July. There are two or three parking lots around the park and street parking as well so you’re bound to find a place to park. This place was lovely and I won’t wait another 9 years to go!

Denver’s very own Denver.org has an entire article about what to do in the Sloan’s Lake neighborhood so I’ll just link it here since I’m not familiar enough with the area to give decent recommendations but it seems worth while.

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