A Return To Sloan's Lake

This past Saturday I biked from my condo across the street from the University of Denver to Sloan's Lake and back. I really like that area. In recent years, it has gone quite upscale, with pricey condos and apartments on the south end, and expensive new McMansions replacing humble bungalows everywhere else. The first of these condo developments was Lake House, seen in the photograph on the left. Although not nearly as iconic, it reminds me a bit of those upscale high rises bordering Lincoln Park in Chicago, facing a small patch of parkland in front of the Lincoln Park Lagoon. Considering what you have to pay for a 2 bedroom condo at Lake House, it boggles the mind thinking what those condos lining Lincoln Park must now cost.

Saturday was a pretty strange weather day. Halfway through my ride, it looked like it was going to start pouring, and I seriously considered turning back for home. But to the west, I saw a bit of blue sky and thought that even if it did rain, the odds were good that I would not melt. As it happened, for the rest of the ride, it was mostly sunny, although to the east and south it looked pretty ominous. Sloan's Lake Park still seems to attract a pretty diverse crowd, rich and poor all enjoying time outdoors together. And by the way, the lake itself was created when a farmer named Sloan - surprise! - decided to dig a well on his farm. He wound up hitting a natural spring, and the next day found he now had a lake instead of a farm. The City of Denver eventually bought that farm, as well as some land surrounding it, and created today's park. The rest, as they say, is history.