News Flash: The Cherry Creek Reservoir Is Not The Ocean, Or Even Lake Michigan

I drove a friend to a wedding this past Saturday that took place at the Dixon Grove Shelter in Cherry Creek State Park, located just to the southwest of Denver in Aurora, Colorado. It was the first time I have been there in 35 years, and as I recall, my impression back then was that it was pretty ugly. When we arrived, there was a huge line of cars waiting to get in. It took approximately 45 minutes to get through the entrance gate. My plan was to drop my friend off and have her call me when she was ready to leave. Of course, after waiting that long to get through the damn gate, I had no intention of going through all that again and decided to just walk around the Cherry Creek Reservoir while she attended the wedding. The park was not as ugly as I remembered, but it was definitely not the ocean, or for that matter even Lake Michigan or Superior. The photograph on the left shows people in the water kayaking, standup paddleboarding, motorboating, or simply standing in the water cooling off. All fine when you look in that direction, but looking the other way, you see a huge pile of rocks that make up the dam that created the reservoir. Pretty damn ugly no matter how nice the water is.

I'm sorry, but no matter how hard you try, it is difficult to imagine that you are at a natural beach. However, it was a very hot day, and the place was filled with people enjoying the water. Since this is the only place in the Denver area to do all these water activities - with the exception of Confluence Park along the Platte, which has the highest levels of e-coli in the state - I guess people just accept that this is the best it gets and make do. We are, after all, almost 1,000 miles from either the ocean, the gulf, or Lake Michigan. And by the way, the reservoir is stocked with fish by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and so there are a lot of anglers out there, too, such as the one in the photograph on the right. And will I visit again soon? Personally, I think I will give it another 35 years. Don't want to go so often it gets boring, right?