Castlewood Canyon State Park

2989 State Highway 83

Franktown, CO  80116

More than a hundred years ago, in 1890, local farmers arranged to have a dam built across the creek for irrigation purposes. On 3 August 1933, the dam broke, sending a 15 ft high wall of water into downtown Denver. Thanks to Elsie Henderson’s quick action many lives were saved, as people responded to her telephone call and pulled their families out of the torrent’s path. Today Castlewood Canyon State Park contains the ruins of that old dam.  

The map above shows a 6 mile long hike from the Lake Gulch trailhead, dropping down to the shore of what was formerly the lake created by the dam, crossing Cherry Creek just south of the dam, following the Rimrock Trail up the east side of the canyon, dropping down to the creek bed and returning south along Creek Bottom Trail, returning to the trailhead via Inner Canyon Trail along the north side of the creek.

The trail is great for kids with lots of opportunities to climb around on the rocks in the upper part of the creek (Inner Canyon Trail).