Chatfield Lake and State Park (about 5,000 acres, located on the SW side of the Denver Metro Area) is a highly used bicycle training and recreation ride.

http://parks.state.co.us/default.asp?parkID=78&action=park

It is a safety dam designed to hold water in case of a flood on the Platte River, and was built after a major flood of Denver in the 60's. It connects with the 35 miles C470 trail, and the 40 mile Platte River trail, and its headwaters is the start of the Waterton Canyon Trail (7 miles) which is also the beginning of the Colorado Trail, which 473 rough and rugged miles later, takes you to Durango, CO. The out and back is 20 miles, but you can also loop at about 30 miles, using Roxborough Road, etc.

At the very back of this picture, taken from the dam, you can barely see the start of the beautiful ride up Waterton Canyon. You can see pics of the canyon at:

http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox/fambicy.htm

The trail to the left goes to Chatfiled, to the right to the C-470 West trail

Around the lake, you can either ride the cement trail or the road. On a weekday like today, the road is great. On busy weekends, it may be filled with idiot drivers pulling boats who have no clue how wide their boat trailers are!

On the trail to Chatfield Lake, many old gravel pits have been turned into wonderful ponds housing many different birds. Bald Eagles, Blue Herons, Cormorants, Geese, Ducks are among the many birds seen in the area

I ate lunch at the Marina.

Nice pictures! Thanks for sharing with us. The sky looks a beautiful blue. I enjoyed looking at this.