Park Highlights
To Get There
• Four ecosystems within walking distance of
one another–Grasslands, Montane Shrublands,
Montane Forest and Riparian (living near water).
Castlewood
Canyon
State Park
• A wide variety of birds, flowers, grasses, shrubs
and trees. Watch for mountain bluebirds arriving
in March and black turkey vultures soaring over
the canyons from April through September.
Sniff the thick, scaly, yellow-brown bark of the
ponderosa pine to reveal the scent of butterscotch.
A Brief History
• 12 miles of trails, each with their own
“personality”, including the calm, cool Inner
Canyon Trail and the exciting warm Rim
Rock Trail.
• Ruins of an 1890 dam that burst in 1933, sending
a wall of water that floods downtown Denver.
• Castle Rock Conglomerate–the signature rock of
the canyon walls. Look for the rocks imbedded in
the conglomerate, like chocolate chips in cookie
dough. Why are some of those rocks smooth and
round while others are rough and angular?
• A Visitor Center with a video presentation about
the park and a gift shop with nature-themed
books, apparel, postcards and other items for
adults and children.
Castlewood Canyon State Park
2989 S. State Highway 83
Franktown, CO 80116
303-688-5242
Email: castlewood.canyon@state.co.us
www.parks.state.co.us
CSP-CAST-200-4/07
Photo by Benjamin Shipley
• An 1894 homestead with walls still standing
from the family’s concrete home built in the
1920s. What clues about their life can you
discover as you walk around the site? Did they
have livestock?
The First People
A $10 land purchase...
In 1961, Lawrence P. Brown deeded 87 acres of
the Lucas Homestead land, located north of the
Castlewood Dam ruins, to the state park system,
receiving a payment of $10. The area officially
became Castlewood Canyon State Park in 1964.
Our story begins with the land...
Human history in the park begins relatively
recently in geologic time–only about 5,000 years
ago. Beginning about 2,000 years ago, groups of
hunter-gathers lived in shelter caves in the area.
They were not a tribe or nation. They were small
family groups consisting of perhaps 15 to 30
individuals. Evidence of winter camps of Plains
Indians such as the Arapaho, Ute, Pawnee and
Cheyenne have been found in the canyons of
the park. These sites date back to the 1700s and
early 1800s.
The story of Castlewood Canyon State Park begins
more than 60 million years ago, when the area was
a tropical rainforest. The rising of the Rockies,
the down cutting of the ancient rivers, the massive
eruption of a prehistoric volcano, and the rushing
torrents of floods carved the landscape that is
the park today. How do we know these events
occurred? No human being saw them.
Logging and gold brought the first white settlers
to the Castlewood Canyon area in the 1860s. They
called it Wildcat Canyon. Homesteading began in
the 1880s, as ranchers and farmers, including the
family of Patrick and Margaret Lucas, were lured
to the area by the promise of readily accessible
irrigation water from the Castlewood Canyon Dam,
completed in 1890.
We know they occurred because we can read them
in the rocks. Look for patterns. Can you imagine
a flowing river creating that pattern? Look at that
piece of rock–the one with the sharp, clear edges.
Can you imagine the superheated volcanic ash that
turned into that rock?
The canyon itself is relatively young, maybe only
about 100,000 years old. But still no human being
saw it forming.
Scraper
Point
The park bought 792 acres at the end of the 1970s,
growing to almost 900 acres of unique riparian,
canyon, forest and grassland. This area borders
County Road 51 on the west side of the park.
Planning and construction of much of the park’s
infrastructure began in the late 1980s. Trails were
built, often with significant support from Volunteers
for Outdoor Colorado. The Visitor Center and east
entrance of the park (from Highway 83) opened to
the public in August of 1993.
The park has continued to expand into the
21st Century. The most recent land acquisition
completes the circle of the park’s story to date. The
original Lucas Homestead site totaled 160 acres.
The first land donation for the park in 1961 was
just over half of these acres. In 2002, the remaining
73 acres were purchased and the park now owns
the total site–and an important piece of its human
history. The park currently preserves 2,303 acres of
this unique landscape.
