Nature’s Neighborhood: Nancy Lewis Park, Lincoln Mountain Open Space

As the weather heats up, we're wanting to enjoy the outdoors more and more--but we also need to continue following social distancing guidelines and avoid piling up at popular parks.

This week on Nature's Neighborhood, Susan Davies of the Trails and Open Space Coalition talks about two parks that will be a hit with the kids.

The areas are included in the organization's initiative, Get Out Spread Out, which encourages people to avoid overcrowding parks by offering more than 100 locations to explore across the region.

Last week, the state reopened playgrounds with limits of 10 people at a time. For those who want to avoid any crowding or counting the number of kids playing, here are a couple of natural playgrounds to check out.

Credit Courtesy of Susan Davies/Trails and Open Space Coalition

Nancy Lewis Park is one of the city’s prettiest neighborhood parks. It has a small pond, wetlands, rocks, a bridge and even ducks that the kids are going to love. There’s also a sidewalk ringing the park for easy strolling for the whole family. Located off Templeton Gap, not far from Union and Fillmore, it really is a community treasure.

Credit Courtesy of Susan Davies/Trails and Open Space Coalition

Lincoln Mountain Open Space is three miles over the Douglas County border off Highway 83 along Jones Road. I love it because if you take the Lower Loop Trail and head east, a mile and a quarter from the trailhead is a lovely natural playground.

There’s a creek to play in, an old tire swing and even a man made lean-to where your kids can use their imagination and pretend that they’re early Colorado settlers. If you continue down the trail, you’ll find Dewey Hill with really cool rock formations for scrambling. The entire loop is just over four miles.