Information Specialist Judy Smetana, Volunteer Program Coordinator Ronnie Terry, and Volunteer Gardeners Michelle Poolet and Sandy Bates stand in front of the Boettcher Mansion display at this year’s Volunteer Recruitment Fair, which was held at JCPOS Headquarters in Golden.

OPEN SPACE VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT FAIR 2026

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Information Specialist Judy Smetana, Volunteer Program Coordinator Ronnie Terry, and Volunteer Gardeners Michelle Poolet and Sandy Bates stand in front of the Boettcher Mansion display at this year’s Volunteer Recruitment Fair, which was held at JCPOS Headquarters in Golden.

Information Specialist Judy Smetana, Volunteer Program Coordinator Ronnie Terry, and Volunteer Gardeners Michelle Poolet and Sandy Bates stand in front of the Boettcher Mansion display at this year’s Volunteer Recruitment Fair, which was held at JCPOS Headquarters in Golden.

Volunteerism isn’t anything new – it’s been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Officially, volunteerism can be traced back to the 12th century in Britain, where more than 500 hospitals were staffed by volunteers.

The word “volunteer” stems from the Latin voluntarius – “willing, of one’s own free will”. It became part of the English language via Middle French, initially referring to someone who willingly offered themselves for military duty. Today, it has evolved to mean anyone entering service freely, whether military or community service.

Every year, Jeffco Parks & Open Space (JCPOS) hosts a Volunteer Recruitment Fair, during which time folks who are interested in becoming more engaged with our parks can investigate what being a hands-on part of Open Space might be like, i.e. entering service freely. Read more

ENOR group hiking in the park

ENOR Environmental Discovery Camp Has Scholarships

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ENOR group hiking in the park

You’re hiking or cycling in one of our Open Space parks. You encounter a group of kids with a couple of adults, and they seem totally engrossed in a patch of shrubbery. You stop for a moment, you hear children’s voices exclaiming about what they’ve found – they seem so excited about everything around them.

Welcome to ENOR – Eagle’s Nest, Owl’s Roost – Environmental Discovery Camp, which is sponsored by the Jeffco CSU Extension office. ENOR has been in the business of getting kids outdoors for more than 50 years.

Jeffco Parks & Open Space was so impressed with ENOR’s achievements that, in 2024, they presented ENOR with the Gambel Oak Award, as a Pioneer in Environmental Education, at that year’s Conservation Awards Ceremony. Read more

Entrance to the Jenkins Peak Trail. The former dog park housed a popular fenced off-leash area JCPOS closed down the area in 2017.

Miracle Makeover: Stagecoach Trailhead Reopens

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By Vicky Gits, Staff Writer PLAN Jeffco

The map at the entrance to the refurbished and new trails in the former Bark Park in Evergreen.

After being closed for restoration since 2017, the former dog park and trailhead off Stagecoach Boulevard reopened Oct. 25, 2025, as a feature inside Elk Meadow Park in Evergreen. Dogs are still welcome in the park, as they are elsewhere in the system, but they must be on leash, as there is no fenced, off-leash area.

The Stagecoach Trailhead is about two miles west of Evergreen Parkway on the south end of Elk Meadow Park. The enclave has 107 acres compared to 1,600 acres in the whole of Elk Meadow Park. Read more

2025_April_CCC Clear Creek Trail Construction-11 Huntsman Segment_quarter

Huntsman Segment Major Milestone

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2025_April_CCC Clear Creek Trail Construction-11 Huntsman Segment_quarter

Traffic comes to halt in both directions on Hwy-6 as construction workers place bridges over Clear Creek and create the underpass for river access as Peaks to Plains Trail makes substantial progress.

Canyon Project Hits Major Milestone With Huntsman Segment of the Clear Creek Trail

By Vicky Gits, PLAN Jeffco Staff Writer

Photos courtesy of Anne Ludolph, Jeffco Parks & Open Space Multimedia Specialist

UPDATE 11/20/2025: The trailhead formerly known as the “as yet to be named trailhead” now has a name. The CCR (Colorado Central Railroad) Trailhead was the site of a grand opening ceremony for the eastern 1.25 miles of the Huntsman Segment on this day.

An engineering miracle on Jeffco Parks & Open Space land is nearing completion in Clear Creek Canyon along U.S. 6. Just beyond Tunnel One, the new segment of the Peaks to Plains Trail is expected to partially open before the end of 2025.  This is a moment that Open Space has been planning for years.

Currently under construction is a 3-mile concrete trail deep inside one of the least forgiving passages along the rugged river’s granite gorge. Read more

How to be a horse-friendly biker, SB25-149

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Horseback riders in the parks in the spring

Since the recent passage of Colorado Senate Bill 25-149, the “Local Government Duties Equestrian Protections”, or the Equestrian Bill of Rights, as it’s more familiarly called, Miss Mountain Manners has decided that it’s time to refresh this post on how to share the trail with equestrian visitors.

SB25-149 aims to enhance equestrian safety by:

  • allowing municipalities and counties to create equestrian zones, which are defined as areas with public equestrian venues, residential neighborhoods with significant equestrian activity, or properties that serve the equestrian community;
  • Read more
Female park ranger cartoon

DEAR MISS MOUNTAIN MANNERS – An Advice Column on Multi-Use Trail Etiquette

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In memory of our beloved Board member Bette Seeland, we’re republishing a few of the articles in which she was a major contributor…this is one of them.

Dear Miss Mountain Manners: When I got to my favorite Jeffco Open Space Park for a hike, the parking lot was full. What should I do? Feeling Shutout

Dear Shutout: You could walk close to home instead of driving to a park. Do not park on the road shoulder leading to the park. Download, sign up, then check the LotSpot parking lot app to find a park not currently overcrowded.  Come at a time when the park is less crowded such as weekdays, before 9 am or after 3 pm.

Read more

Westminster Reverter - social trail heading west into Rocky Flats

Open Space agrees to forgo trail improvement near Rocky Flats in deal with Westminster

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Westminster Reverter - social trail heading west into Rocky Flats

Westminster social trail heading west across Indiana Street into Rocky Flats.

By Vicky Gits

Jeffco Open Space Advisory Board unanimously approved an agreement resolving a contract dispute between Open Space and the City of Westminster over completing a 0.4-mile-long trail connection between the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge and Westminster Hills Open Space. The advisory board endorsed the deal in an 8-0 vote in a regular meeting on March 6. Read more

Take Notice — Winter Is Here!

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A few years ago, Shaun Howard, who was the Jeffco Open Space Ranger lead at that time, wrote this post to help all Open Space Park visitors understand a little more about how to enjoy winter activities in the Parks. It’s time to republish as a reminder.

Our parks are “primitive” parks. Don’t expect the trails to be groomed for you. Make sure you have micro-spikes with you, just in case you need them. Be prepared for any type of weather, especially as you gain in elevation. Know before you go.

Temps have dropped and winter winds lick the landscape of the Jeffco Parks. Although the winter season has arrived, the parks are still great places to visit. Read on for essential winter safety tips.

Read more

Trails Through Time: A Geologist’s Guide to Jefferson County Open Space Parks

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Typical outcrop of 1.4 billion year old granite in Alderfer/Three Sisters Park.

Typical outcrop of 1.4 billion year old granite in Alderfer/Three Sisters Park.

This article was initially published in 2014. Between then and now, the link to the full document was lost. Thankfully, we’ve just been able to recover a copy of the document, thanks to generous efforts by the USGS. We’ve embedded the document in our own library, for safekeeping. This repost will lead you to the full story of the geologic history of Jeffco’s Open Space Parks, as they were in 2014.

Jefferson County straddles one of the most conspicuous and important geographic and geologic boundaries in western North America, the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. To the east you can travel 1,100 miles across Great Plains and Central Lowlands before you sight the western foothills of the Appalachians. If you travel in the other direction you will cross or skirt mountain range after mountain range until you sight the Coast Range near San Francisco, more than 900 miles to the west. Many of these mountains have different ages and origins than the Colorado mountains, but they are all part of the great mountain belt called the North American Cordillera that extends along the western edge of the continent from Alaska through Mexico. Read more

HISTORICAL versus CONTEMPORARY WILDFIRES

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Wildfires in the mountain west have become less frequent but more intense.

Recently, the Denver Gazette published a short article on current research comparing historical versus contemporary wildfires in the America Southwest, with (to this reader) some rather surprising results.

The areas investigated in this study were primarily dry conifer forests dominated by Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, very similar to our own forests in the Jeffco Front Range. Prior to 1880, wildfires used to sweep through these forests every 10 to 12 years. These were almost entirely low-to-moderate intensity fires that cleared out undergrowth and forest duff, burning off the lower limbs of the trees, but not devastating enough to kill the trees themselves. Typically, these low-intensity burns involved smaller areas, 5 to 250 acres. Despite the small size of these wildfires, the frequency and style of these fires were able to maintain forest health, even during prolonged periods of drought, when fires were started by lightning strikes and/or Indigenous forest stewardship events. Read more