Neighborhoods with young kids in Highlands Ranch

[step33]

West Lakewood over by Green Mountain might work for some of the mountain biking needs. Besides the Green Mountain single track, you can ride at Red Rocks and the other parks just over the hog back (via Morrison or Dinosaur Ridge.

[brown_dog_us]

If you are looking for mountain biking close to your house then HR isn't that great either. It's OK, but the great tracks that are close to subdivisions will be from Ken Caryl to Golden along 470. Boulder, where I live, has great trails, but they are up in the mountains and not great for a quick lunch time ride. The close stuff is limited and a bit boring. Don't get me wrong, it's way better than nothing!

A bit off topic, but in the fall cyclocross is really popular and fun, so remember to save enough money for one more bike.

Oh, and you'll want a fat bike for winter....

[karmabiker]

ACL / MCL / Meniscus keeps off CX ... but I have a CX/Gravel bike for other adventures. My wife has a Crux CX, yep its a full shed.

[ironlady]

Originally Posted by karmabiker

Thanks for the feedback on Lowry and Stapleton. Unfortunately trails are just too far away. Contenders from a trails point of view are golden, Boulder, Littleton and highlands ranch. Castle rock is decent, but not quite there.

For an idea of the trails I'm looking for check out Mountain bike trails & Mountain bike reviews || Singletracks.com || SINGLETRACKS.COM and look for blue and black trails around Denver. Of particular interest is the Colorado trail.

Highlands Ranch is still the front runner. A lot can change in the next 5 years.

I recently moved to the Ken Caryl area. I'm still trying to understand what's going on with the schools. It's really difficult to ascertain exactly what the truth is. It seems like everyone either has a vested interest or a political interest and only present one side of the story. It's really hard to get to the bottom. Recently, Littleton had a big brou-haha over proposed curriculum and a proposed implementation of merit-based teacher pay. Honestly, I don't know what the truth is. As a middle-of-the-road independent, I'm pretty disgusted at how politicized our educational system seems at the moment. I teach at a local university and just reached out to a colleague, a professor and Dean of the Education Department, to give me an education on the truth of what's going on. So, I'll know more in a month or so. One thing she did say is to remember is that open enrollment allows you the chance to enroll your kids in schools other than your specific district. My daughter is only in kindergarten, but I've been really impressed with both the school and how invested parents are in their children's education and PTA.

As for the Ken Caryl area, you really couldn't ask for a better place for trails. Deer Creek Canyon is right around the corner, Red Rocks 10 minutes away, Golden 15 minutes away. The neighborhood is so, so friendly.

Here is some information my colleague passed along:

I would advise assessing schools of choice; you can choose the school that you feel is best, regardless if it is out of district. I did not have my kids in the local school, as I was moving to Littleton (we had not chosen a home at the time we needed to choose a school). We applied as out of district and everything worked out well. Here are several websites to help you in this process:


Find Colorado's best schools

Colorado School Choice Organizations

or the CDE website
Colorado Department of Education Home Page | CDE

General district information written for families and their realtors:
Denver Public Schools | Area Districts | A Guide to Public Education

Good luck with your choice and your move!

[MountainK]

Originally Posted by brown_dog_us

If you are looking for mountain biking close to your house then HR isn't that great either.

Just an FYI, HR has the Backcountry mountain biking trails, which have recently expanded: Maps They also offer a mountain bike race series: Mountain Bike Races These are in addition to the trails referenced above.