South Valley Park

Author's Comments

Everyone goes to Red Rocks. I understand the impulse - the amphitheater is genuinely extraordinary, and the rock formations have the kind of presence that justifies the crowd. But ten miles south, the same hogback continues into a park that almost no one talks about, and the rock there does the same thing the famous rock does. Red sandstone tilted up at improbable angles. Light catching the western face at the end of the day and turning the whole ridge the color of a struck match. South Valley is what Red Rocks would be if you could have it to yourself. The Swallow Trail runs along the base of the most dramatic formations, and in late September I have walked it for two hours and seen four other people. Deer Creek cuts through the valley floor and the mule deer come down to it at dusk. Raptors work the thermals along the hogback in the afternoons. The Coyote Song Trail threads through a gap in the rock where you can stand with the foothills behind you and the plains stretching east, and the geology of the whole Front Range arranges itself in front of you in a way that is hard to find elsewhere. Come on a weekday morning in spring or fall. Come at golden hour if you want the rock at its most theatrical, though I have made photographs here in flat midday light that I still like, which is not something I can say about most places. Bring a wide lens for the formations and something longer for the wildlife. Leave time to sit. This is the kind of place that does not announce itself, and it rewards visitors who arrive without a checklist.

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