Morrison: The tiny town of Morrison is a great starting point on the Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway. The small village offers a variety of shops and restaurants along Main Street. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Corwina Park: Corwina Park is one of three Denver Mountain Parks on the Lariat Loop between the towns of Morrison and Evergreen, Colo. Shown is a stone shelter at the park constructed in 1918. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photography
Formerly of Los Alamos
“Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees” is an old familiar saying that hit home with me this week. We enjoyed hosting visitors from New Mexico and took a day to explore around the Denver area.
We started our day by stopping in Morrison, Colo. Morrison is a tiny village that is tucked behind a ridge and next to Red Rocks Park and the foothills making it feel like you’re nowhere close to the city which sits a mile away. While walking around this charming mountain town, we saw a few references to the Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway.
I had never heard of the byway, so we did further investigation and found that it is a 40-mile scenic loop on the west side of the Denver metro area. Our day was set. We continued our time in Morrison walking along Bear Creek, which runs parallel to Main Street and shopping in the small shops that line the street.
Red Rocks Park, which is home to the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre, is Morrison’s most notable and recognizable landmark. Thousands visit the outdoor concert venue every year for concerts as well as other special events.
After a while in Morrison, we drove west on the Lariat Loop through Bear Creek Canyon toward the town of Evergreen, Colo. This is a short 13-mile drive but can take 45 minutes to drive due to the winding road. This scenic drive twists and turns as it follows Bear Creek through the canyon that provides ample beautiful views of the canyon, creek, and the surrounding mountains.
There are three Denver Mountain Parks along the Lariat Loop between Morrison and Evergreen. These parks offer visitors a chance to get out and hike on multiple trails or just enjoy the scenery. These parks are beautiful in all seasons including the winter. During most Decembers, these parks would be blanketed in snow but that is not the case this year. In the spite of the lack of snow, the creek and surrounding area is still beautiful, and the trails are still dry and hikeable.
We continued through Evergreen and admired several people ice fishing on Evergreen Lake in the center of town before driving a few miles to Interstate 70. The Lariat Loop joins I-70 for two miles before exiting at the Lookout Mountain exit. Lookout Mountain Road twists and climbs to Lookout Mountain Park and the grave of William Frederick Cody, “Buffalo Bill Cody”. The views of Denver and surrounding area stretches eastward as far as the eye can see while the view to the west reveals Clear Creek Canyon and several snowcapped peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
The Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway leaves Lookout Mountain and descends almost 2,000 feet quickly as the byway takes visitors around several hairpin curves before leveling out in Golden, Colo. We stopped in downtown Golden to view the sites and small shops as well as dinner at one of dozens of restaurants in the area.
The drive from Golden to Morrison completes the Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway. We had visited most of the area covered at different times, but it wasn’t until exploring with visitors from New Mexico did we discover this beautiful scenic loop right in our own backyard! The Lariat Loop has been in existence for more than 100 years and we finally know the route and its many sites. Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway bills itself as “40 Mile of Western Adventure” and we could not agree more.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Bear Creek: Another point on the Lariat Loop between Morrison and Evergreen gave us a chance to see and photograph the partially frozen waters in Bear Creek, which runs through Bear Creek Canyon. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Gravesite: The gravesite of William Frederick Cody, ‘Buffalo Bill Cody’ is on Lookout Mountain near Golden, Colo. The soldier, hunter, and frontiersman loved this location and requested to be burried on Lookout Mountain. His wife Louisa Maud Cody is burried by his side. A Buffalo Bill Museum is on the grounds near the gravesite. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
City View: Lookout Mountain Park offers visitors views of the city of Denver and beyond to the east. This is one of the best views of the entire metro area from a single location. For this image, I used a zoom lens to feature the downtown Denver area. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Lookout West: The view from Lookout Mountain looking west reveals several snow covered mountain peaks as well as Clear Creek Canyon. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Golden: The last stop on our tour of the Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway was in Golden, Colo. This town known as home to Coors Brewery is a suburb of Denver but isolated somewhat by large mesas, which help give the community distinction from the rest of the metro area. The Colorado School of Mines also is in Golden. Shown is the overhead sign welcoming visitors to downtown offering a variety of shops, restaurants, museums and other points of interest. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com