Grasshoppers Galore.

The Flood

Castlewood Canyon State Park was one of my favorite places to hike when I lived in Colorado. It is close enough to Denver that most urban dwellers can drive to the park in less than 30 minutes. Even though more than a million people live within an hours drive of the canyon, I rarely encountered hikers while I was in the park. Probably because I liked to hike in the mornings on weekdays while most hikers showed up on weekends.

The Dam on Cherry Creek in Castlewood Canyon collapsed in 1933 (see image above), sending a 15ft high wave of water more than 20 miles into the city of Denver, killing two people in the process. If not for the actions of the Dam caretaker, 48 year old Hugh E. Paine, who was able to alert authorities, many more lives may have been lost.

Fortunately, most of the area at that time was made up of farms and open-land. If it had happened today the death toll would be much higher due to the extension of the Denver suburbs all the way to the Dam. In order to control future potential flooding on Cherry Creek the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built another Dam in 1949. It was constructed downstream from the damaged Castlewood Canyon Dam at the southeast edge of Denver, in Aurora Colorado.

Hiking Through The Canyon

Castlewood Canyon State Park is near Franktown Colorado, and is a common destination for metropolitan area school field-trips. Here children get to experience nature up close and personal, from wild flowers to rattle snakes (don’t get too close) and small lizards to soaring Turkey Vultures.

My favorite part about hiking in Castlewood Canyon is the giant boulders that line both sides of Cherry Creek. These huge rocks were formed in molten rock deep under the surface of the earth and were raised with
the Rocky Mountains. Millions of years ago they were broken off from the cap-rock by the forces of nature and fell to the canyon bottom. Many rocks are the size of an automobile and some the size of a bus or small truck.

The trails are well marked and meander throughout the valley and the cliffs above. There are three distinct areas to the park.

• The path along Cherry Creek with all the large boulders and variety of vegetation.
• The valley area with it’s open fields and a few scattered homes off in the distance.
• The seemingly barren canyon rims, home to many rattlesnakes and nesting Turkey Vultures, providing panoramic views of the park 50 feet below.

Whichever area you choose to explore remember to bring water and wear a hat, it can easily be 10 degrees hotter in the canyon than it is in the surrounding area. I’ve been in the canyon when it was over 110 degrees without a hat, trust me, it was not a pleasant experience.

The park’s meadow is beautiful, and a safe place to hike, as long as you stay on the path. The last thing you want to do is step on a rattlesnake.

From the meadow I usually hike the path to the top of the canyon wall. The view is incredible and full of large boulders and scattered trees.

Grasshoppers Galore

One day I decided to stroll from the marked path and walk through a large field of flowers and weeds (middle image above). Looking back on that day I realized that was a big mistake. That field most likely had rattlesnakes in it and I could not see the ground or my feet due to the thick vegetation. I could very easily have stepped on a snake. I highly recommend you not vary from the marked paths and wander through any field.

That being said, I want to tell you about the unusual experience I had walking through that dangerous growth of flowers and weeds. The field was about the size of a football field, maybe a little bigger. The dense weeds and wild flowers came up to my waste and were filled with grasshoppers and small birds. All the grasshoppers in my immediate area would jump as I passed by.

Literally hundreds of grasshoppers hit me as they jumped in random directions as I walked through the field. At any given moment there were dozens of them thumping against my body as they jumped in a panic to get away from the approaching giant (me). The noise was deafening, it kind of sounded like popcorn popping as each individual grasshopper crashed into my body… thump, thump, thump, pop, pop, pop. It reminded me of when I was a child and my father would make Jiffy Pop, it was that loud.

As I continued to walk through the field, with hundreds of grasshoppers colliding with my body every minute, I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to hurt myself. Here I was, alone in a valley full of grasshoppers, laughing like a maniac as I’m bombarded by a thousand jumping insects. It was quite the experience, the highlight of my hike that day.

Lesson Learned

This was a once in a lifetime experience. Partly because of the timing and the rarity of the event, but mostly because of my respect and fear of rattlesnakes. I know I will never blindly walk through another field were there is the possibility of being bitten by a snake.

I didn’t get this old by being stupid, it’s best if you don’t repeat your mistakes.

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Thanks for reading my article.

Info Sources: In addition to my personal experience, most ‘researched’ information was gathered from the websites noted below and from various Google searches.

• To plan your trip to Castlewood Canyon State Park, visit the official website for the park here.
• To visit the Wikipedia page for Castlewood Canyon go here.
• To learn more about the geology of Castlewood Canyon State Park visit it’s website page here.
• *Public Domain WikiMedia image used with permission via Creative Commons License BY-SA 3.0 Deed and/or BY-SA 4.0 Deed