P.O. Box 822 Golden, Colorado, 80402
kinney run open space
Introduction
The Kinney Run Open Space was given official status by the City of Golden in Resolution 1573 on June 9, 2003.
“The unique geologic areas in the Eagle Ridge area (including the Dakota hogback, Cambria Lime Kiln, Kinney Run Trail, and riparian areas) are hereby designated as a geologic and environmental education park.”
Most of the Kinney Run Open Space shares boundaries with Jefferson County Open Space, Stonebridge HOA Common Areas, and Golden’s Magic Mountain Open Space. These other open space areas add to the expansive and scenic visual impact and serve as part of the larger watershed for Kinney Run.
This discussion includes references to maps that can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.
more about kinney run
In 2002 the City of Golden paved the Kinney Run Trail that had its beginning as an old wagon road and bisects the open space north to south. This paved trail now serves both to provide pedestrians and cyclists with an opportunity to enjoy the unique characteristics of this area while protecting the surrounding fragile terrain and wildlife habitat by controlling off-trail incursions.
The paved trail is over a mile in length and easily accessible from various points. As such, it serves as a pedestrian and cycling pathway for recreational use by runners, walkers, and cyclists and connects South Golden neighborhoods with two Golden City Parks near downtown. The trail is wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs, though there are some steeper sections that would require human or motorized assistance.
Much of the trail is separated from the noise of highway traffic by a hogback ridge which provides a quiet, peaceful, and even contemplative and restorative environment for users. There is also an abundant opportunity for wildlife viewing, as discussed below in greater detail. Stewards of Golden Open Space and the Audubon Society conduct Birding Tours there each spring.
The Kinney Run Open Space is a small verdant basin that is formed by a subtle watershed divide separating natural run-off between Apex Gulch (at the southern end of Kinney Run Trail) and “Kinney Run Gulch” itself. The water that flows through the Kinney Run Gulch (a defined waterway that collects and channels the natural run-off) finds its way to Clear Creek near the Miller-Coors Brewery. Along its course, it provides a water source for wildlife and the mature vegetation that lines its banks and provides much of the scenic beauty of this space.
Along the east side of Kinney Run Trail is a steep ridge that includes cliffs of white Lyons Formation sandstone formed by ancient rivers approximately 290 million years ago.
The Lykins Formation is mostly shale formed from clay settling to the bottom of the inland sea that once covered this area. It contains thin layers of white, crinkly limestone made of fossilized bacteria that was mined for mortar. While much of the surface of this ridge is covered with some level of vegetation and thin, crumbly soils, the surface is very fragile and easily eroded by and severely damaged by foot traffic which should be actively discouraged.
West of the Kinney Run Trail the small basin contains the red Fountain Formation, composed of sandstone and mudstone deposited by rivers about three hundred million years ago but now mostly covered by the homes of the Stonebridge at Eagle Ridge neighborhood. Where exposed a few miles further south, this same Fountain Formation creates the beauty of the Red Rocks amphitheater. (1)
Traveling Kinney Run Trail in the direction of downtown Golden and crossing under Eagle Ridge Drive, there is another prominent ridge on the right with power lines commonly known as “Eagle Ridge.”
Geologically speaking this is part of the Dakota Ridge Formation and disappears abruptly, only to re-emerge in north Golden. This is the result of a long dormant geological fault. To the south of I-70, the Dakota Ridge Formation reappears and is known as “Dinosaur Ridge,” as it contains fossil dinosaur footprints of international renown. It is not known whether the Dakota Ridge section of Kinney Run includes fossil footprints as this area has not yet been explored. Today Eagle Ridge contains the abandoned Santa Fe clay mine – evidenced by the white “trenches” now only visible from the Highway 6 side of Eagle Ridge. (2)
From the late 1850’s to about the mid 1870’s Kinney Run Open Space was home to a secondary north-south wagon road that served to connect the town of Apex to Golden City.
The geology surrounding the Kinney Run Trail provided natural materials such as limestone and clays that were used in production of bricks and ceramics by factories in Golden. Bricks were used extensively by the local mining industry for both structural and metallurgical processing and to rebuild the City of Denver after the fire of 1863. The better-quality clays were used to produce fine ceramics for dinnerware.
The presence of these high-quality clay deposits here and elsewhere in Golden led to the founding of the Herold China Company that later became CoorsTek, currently one of the world’s leading providers of high-performance ceramic components applied across a wide range of industries. (3)
The paved Kinney Run Trail runs right past the Cambria Lime Kiln built in 1879 which was restored by the City of Golden and the Golden Civic Foundation in 2009.
This is the last remaining lime kiln in Jefferson County and was used to process limestone mined at the top of the ridge immediately behind the kiln to produce quicklime which was an essential ingredient for mortar, plaster, and stucco. A spur (long since dismantled) of the Golden City and South Platte Railroad was built alongside the then existing wagon road to connect the kiln with the former Cambria Brick Works facility in downtown Golden. (4)
As a result of the generally steady water source, shading provided by the steep ridges and the foothills, the mix of mature vegetation, the separation from automobile traffic activity, and the controlled human access provided by the paved trail, many parts of the Kinney Run valley are rich in wildlife that can be viewed easily from the paved trail.
Common wildlife reported include elk and deer. Bobcats and foxes are known to have dens in the area and coyotes are often seen throughout the year.
The rich vegetation serves as both an early spring and extended autumn food source for the local Elk herd. Mating ritual competitions can often be observed here in the fall, and the area has been a consistent elk calving ground because of the dense brush thickets.
Kinney Run is an official “eBird Hotspot” (ebird.org/hotspot/L3664908) with well over 100 species identified by observation. eBird is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, with more than one hundred million bird sightings contributed each year by eBird contributors around the world.
See the 2023 bird walk photos in the photo gallery below. They were all photographed by Laura Sheets Photography.
The vegetation of the Kinney Run Open Space is a mosaic of Foothills Shrubland and Riparian, with some remnant Mixed-Grass Prairie. The blooming season starts in early April with sun sedge and creeping barberry and continues through August and September when rabbitbrush and the sagebrush bloom. Importantly about two-thirds of the plants in Kinney Run are native.
This mix of vegetation, particularly the Riparian, provides a sustaining food source and shelter for the local wildlife.
Plants often cross over from one vegetation type to another, but the kinds of plants found in Kinney Run that are typical of Foothills Shrubland are mountain mahogany, golden currant, wax currant, skunk bush sumac, and American plum. Cottonwoods and willows occupy the riparian zone with varieties of bulrushes and cattails.
Mixed-grass prairie is a mixture of grasses, small shrubs, and forbs. Needle and thread, green needle grass, and June grass are common cool season grasses that have been found in Kinney Run. In the warm season these are replaced by big and little bluestem. Forbs are perennial plants that do not form woody tissue. Kinney Run has a selection of common prairie forbs such as blanket flower, prairie coneflower, goldenrod, roundtip twinpod, prickly poppy, a locoweed, a couple milk vetches, and several different penstemons.
There are non-native weeds, including Colorado-listed noxious weeds, in Kinney Run. Some are currently managed by the City of Golden. However, overtime it will be important to increase the level of active management to better preserve the current vegetation mix. (5)
As contemplated by the original City of Golden Resolution, that created this area, the Kinney Run Open Space offers a range of opportunities for educational experience. As noted above, the bird concentration and variety are nationally recognized and elk, deer and small wildlife are often present.
The paved pathway follows what was a wagon trail in early Golden history and provides viewing access to the Cambria Lime Kiln constructed in 1879.
The trail offers easy, close viewing of the geology and the critical watersheds that form the basin. Colorado School of Mines takes advantage of these attributes by using the area for class field work and Stewards of Golden Open Space conduct History and Geology Tours there as well.
Greater use of the educational opportunities present in this space could be made. Shelton Elementary is within easy walking distance of the paved path and provides immediate opportunity for expanded programs.
(1) For geological information, see: Anderson, Donna S and Paul B. Haseman. (2021) Golden Rocks:
The Geology and Mining History of Golden, Colorado, pub. Golden, Colorado, p. 8 (download a free copy at the bottom of the "Accomplishments" page)
(2) Anderson and Haseman, p. 13
(3) Information on clays and ceramics, see, Anderson and Haseman, p. 72
(4) Anderson and Haseman, pp. 78-79
(5) “Biological Survey of Golden Open Space Property, Jefferson County.” (See the “Accomplishments" page, 2021 for access to the report. )
Photo Gallery
Western Kingbird
Downloads
See Stewards’ "Golden Open Space Map" and Map Index downloads below.
The above discussion includes the following locations on the map:
Kinney Run Prairie - number 98 on map and index
Eagle Ridge - number 96 on map and index
Kinney Run and Kinney Run North - numbers 93 and 97 on map and index
In total, four parcels and approximately seventy-eight acres.
Copyright © 2019 Stewards of Golden Open Space - All Rights Reserved.