Matthew Winters Park- Red Rocks Trail Golden

Matthews Winters Park Trailhead is located in Golden off 470 on County Hwy 63. Red Rocks Ampitheater is right next to the hiking park and the beautiful rocks can be seen at the end of the trail.  This is a nice hike for spring and Fall because of the lower altitude will be hot in summer. We went here because it had been so rainy and the upper mountain trails were mud. We start off on the VillageWalk that turns into the Red Rocks Trail.

There are several different trailheads to access the park. The elevation workout is closest to this parking area that has some restrooms, picnic tables, and bench. There is also a parking area at the end of the hike and across the road at the Dinosaur Ridge Visitor Center. Here is link to the map:
http://jeffco.us/open-space/parks/matthews-winters-park/

The Trail starts off in a meadow basically flat. We saw many runners on this trail.

There is a small creek crossing and you are in the trees for a short while until you get to a fork in the trail.

Here you can choose to go uphill on the Morrison Slide trail (1.2 miles) that switchbacks to the peak with a great view of Denver or red rocks trail (.8 m) that is relatively flat going around the hill on a ridge.

Once you get to the top it levels off a while till you reach the other side.

Views to the south towards Red rocks.

After heading downhill some more switchbacks you will meet up with the other trail. Here you can make a loop the other trail or continue toward red rocks ampitheater on the red rocks trail for 1.2 miles more. Your will end up at a another parking lot.

Heading back the Red Rocks Trail to our parking area we started.

Back at our start with the bridge and creek. Total miles we did was about 5.   But you could add more miles on either direction.

Matthews/Winters Park Morrison Slide/Red Rock Trail

The Trailhead was easy to find and plenty of parking. From I-70 at the Morrison/Highway 93 exit (exit 259) turn south. Just about .2 of a mile from the highway you'll see the sign for Mathhews/Winters Park on the west side of the road. Turn here for the parking lot.  There are restrooms at the start of the trail.

The hike begins on the Village Walk Trail about 1.1 miles to the start of the loop.

There are 5 or 6 stream crossings. I was surprised to hear and see so much running water around these rocks. I guess in May the snow was still melting.

The harder trail is the Morrison Slide Trail. This climbs up with many rocks and switchbacks to get to the top of the ridge for the great views.

There were areas of snow and waterholes in the rocks.

Views of Bear Lake and Chatfield Reservoir furthest away.

This was the top of the ridge on the Morrison Slide Trail.

Views of the rocks as we got closer to Red Rocks amphitheater. We never saw it from our hike. We even did the extra 1.1 mile hike to the other parking lot toward red rocks.

After you complete the loop you can keep going on the Red Rocks trail or take the Red rocks trail back towards the way you came. Here is the trail further south .

This picture shows the people on switchbacks up the hill on the Morrison Slide Trail.

There is a cemetery with tombstones dating 1867 off the first village walk trail. I checked it out on the way back. Total Mileage for this hike was 6.49 miles with 1,200 elevation gain.