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Where are Golden’s Open Spaces? Heritage Dells Open Space

Heritage Dells Open Space in winter. Top Left: narrow gulch between houses. Top Right: wider portion of a gulch. Bottom Left: Looking toward the sources of the gulches. Bottom Right: Tripp Ranch gulch near Crawford Street. Photos by the authors. - Click to enlarge


By Preston Driggers and Tom Schweich

In south Golden, three parallel gulches form the Heritage Dells Open Space. Over thousands of years, water running off the southeastern sides of Lookout Mountain eroded away sediments to shape the sloped grasslands and gulches where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains.

Two of the gulches were deeded to the city by the Heritage Dells subdivision and one by the Tripp Ranch subdivision. Together they establish the southern beginnings of Kinney Run.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Pulte Homes and other builders constructed homes adjacent to the existing gulches and dedicated them for drainage and open space. All three gulches begin in Apex Park. The southernmost gulch enters Golden between two houses on DeFrance Way, widens into a large gulch, and then passes under Crawford Court and into Heritage Dells Park.

The middle gulch enters Golden about 1½ blocks farther north on the west side of De France Drive. Passing under the street, water flows into a wide gulch also entering Heritage Dells Park. At this point, the two gulches join to form Kinney Run. Significantly, a lot of rain and snow melt in the neighborhood also flows into the gulches due to the sloped hillsides.

The northernmost gulch enters Golden through a culvert under DeFrance Drive and forms a medium-sized gulch between Tripp Ranch houses. Passing under Shelton School, it joins the other gulches just below the Kinney Run Trail bridge.

Gravels and clays in the gulches help to clean both surface and subsurface water and support trickles of water in dry seasons that often go unnoticed yet support diverse vegetation.

The grass and shrubs in the gulches are common Foothills shrubs and mixed grass prairie. However, there have been no biological surveys of the gulches, so it is not known if rare plants may be present.

All three gulches provide wildlife habitat and corridors for both hunters and prey. Over the years, species such as white-tailed deer, elk, bobcat, fox, mountain lion, coyotes, bull snakes, garter snakes, and rattlesnakes, as well as an occasional brown bear, have been observed in the neighborhoods. Additionally, there are a variety of rabbits, brown bats, and birds.

There are no trails through these three gulches, although the original plat for Heritage Dells calls for an equestrian trail through the south gulch. The main trail in the area is the Kinney Run Trail, and parts of the gulches can be seen from this trail.

For residents, these gulches provide visual and physical open space buffers and collectively serve as neighborhood open spaces, which are shown to be important for personal health and for the movement of wildlife.

Preston Driggers was one of the first residents of the Heritage Dells neighborhood, moving there in 1980, and was very active successful fight against the proposed Nike headquarters building on South Table Mountain in 1998. He has been active in Golden open space issues since that time.

Highlights