Greenland Open Space Trail Hike

Today was the first day of Thanksgiving break for both Zack and me.  We were both awake by 6:00AM and were out of bed shortly thereafter.  (Zack and Lex always come into my bedroom to snuggle with me early in the morning.  Instead of snuggling this morning we just decided to get up and get going for the day.)

The morning dawned crispy, cold and cloudy.  There was a huge storm rolling into Colorado’s high country this morning.  Though Denver wasn’t to get any snow out of this storm, today was a day filled with cold, wind and clouds.

Given the weather forecast we decided that if we were going to do a hike today we needed to do it early and we needed to head to the south as areas to the west and north were supposed to get pounded by the snow.  As a result of all this we were in the car by 8:30AM headed south on I-25 to the Douglas County Greenland Open Space.  This open space is located about 20 miles south of our home off the Greenland exit off of I-25.  We have hiked at this open space before but it has been a while since we have been there.  

After a drive through breakfast from Burger King we arrived at the open space trail head a couple of minutes before 9:00AM.  It was definitely warmer there than it had been at home, but still the temperature was hovering around 30 degrees – so it was a brisk morning for a hike.  What makes this hike worse than other areas is that 90% of the hike is over terrain that is exposed to the wind.  There are few to any trees around as you are mainly hiking across open prairie.

Despite the cold we had a great hike and went further from the trail head then we had ever gone before.  On our hike out the wind was at our backs so almost the whole way back to the car we were walking into a driving wind.  That wasn’t exactly fun but it certainly could have been worse.

We spent about 2 – 2.5 hours hiking through the beautiful country.  We reached a point where we mounted a small ridge that had the ruins of an old house upon it.  After trying to get close to the ruins we decided it was time to head back and start home.  

The rest of the day was all about preparing for tomorrow.  I had to go to the store and buy a bunch of things for all the stuff that I am making for tomorrow.  We will be spending the day with Tim and Celinde and a number of other people who will be there.  It should be a good day!

Below are the pictures that I took on the hike today.

Peace! ~J.

FYSRD