North Table Mountain Park, near Golden, Colorado

North Table Mountain View #1. Jefferson County Open Space, Colorado, 2013 (Looking north toward Bear Mountain near Boulder, from the south end of the quarry.)

This is a Jefferson County Open Space park and comes with some superb views–as above.

Some highlights…

–Five minutes from Golden, 15-20 minutes from Boulder, 30-45 minutes from Denver.

–Fun mountain biking loop (with great views of Denver) that is only slightly technical in a few sections.

–Plenty of hiking trails for you and your dog…in 15 minutes you can get from the parking lot up to the old quarry and the main plateau where you can find some wonderful views of the town of Golden, the Coors Brewery, and Denver.

–Good raptor habitat. Keep your eyes skinned and your telephoto handy.

–There is actually some reasonably good rock climbing here on the basalt cliffs (many bolted sport climbing routes on the cliffs and in the quarry area) for those looking for a smaller, lesser known and lesser frequented locale than, say, Eldorado Canyon. For details, go to the SummitPost.org website.

–And, of course, there are some nice landscape photography possibilities. During the right time of year, you could get sun or moonrises behind the city of Denver. (See The Photographer’s Ephemeris to do your calculations!) Either sunrise or sunset can be good depending, of course, on the light, the clouds, and your eye.

A view of Denver from near the quarry using the grass as a leading line…