My friends and I were out on hiking expeditions southwest of Denver, and we stopped at Hildebrand Park. It's very close to the botanical gardens south of the metro. The park is grassy open spaces, in contrast to the other parks we'd driven through, with some gentle sloping hills. There are trails of varying lengths; because it was late in the afternoon, we opted for a shorter loop. As we walked, we came upon a prairie dog town, and my hiking companions were entranced; they were from the East Coast and had never seen them in the wild! They were adorable, and we stood for a while watching them. They had their sentries with the high-pitched whistles to tell the rest of the community we were there, but we were still able to get close enough to some of them to get good photos. It was a lovely way to end our day of hiking, just outside the Denver metro area. We'll definitely be back! read more