In my job as a Realtor I am out driving around Boulder County every day. Most of the time I’m on a tight schedule and am running from one thing to the next. Recently, I was driving to Nederland to take photos of my new land listing at 79 Wildewood Drive and I passed the sign for Boulder Falls and realized that I had never stopped to see it. I am a Boulder native so that means many missed opportunities. So I stopped and shot a few photos and this video.
Near the end of the video a person stands just to the left of the top of the falls. This gives a good perspective of the size of the falls. Hiking of the trail is strictly prohibited so don’t do what this guy was doing.
Here is some information on the falls from the City of Boulder website:
Boulder Falls Trail is closed from November 1 through April 30.
Boulder Falls is located 11 miles west of Boulder, on the north side of Boulder Canyon Drive (SR 119) between Boulder and Nederland. It consists of five acres of mining claims that were given to the City of Boulder by Charles G. Buckingham, president and co-founder of Buckingham Brothers Bank (now Norwest Bank). Buckingham had held a U.S. Patent since 1881 on the American Mill site that included the Falls. He donated it to the City of Boulder for recreational purposes in 1914, hence “saving this beautiful spot from the encroachment of the great tungsten boom.”
For many years the Boulder Falls (sometimes referred to as the “Yosemite of Boulder Canyon”), was the popular destination for picnic groups. Carryalls brought visitors up for a visit to the Falls, especially after the narrow gauge railroad washed out in the great flood of 1894. When the railroad was rebuilt four years later, stage and tourist travel was diverted and the popularity of Boulder Falls declined.
Today, Boulder Falls receives heavy visitation by tourists heading to the high country from Boulder. Boulder Falls is quite lovely and well worth the brief stop for a look at the cascading water. There is a large parking area just across SR 119 from the Falls; please cross the road with care to access the short trail that leads to a viewing area. Visitors are required to stay on the main path that ends at a viewpoint just below the falls. Here you will have an excellent view of the Falls, forming where North Boulder Creek plunges approximately 70 feet to enter Middle Boulder Creek. For your safety, the area beyond the viewpoint has been closed. The rocks and water past this point are deceptively dangerous, and several people have been killed while scrambling around the falls.
“Picture Rock” is a large gray boulder located just next to the road at Boulder Falls, appropriately named for the large round hole which has framed the faces of countless visitors as they posed for photographs here. The rock eroded naturally to produce the hole and was hauled up from Boulder Creek when the “new” highway was built in the 1940s.
Money Magazine has once again named Louisville Colorado the top ranked place to live in its annual survey of small towns. Their criteria includes, housing, income, employment statistics, education, crime statistics, weather, quality of life measures and cultural opportunities.
Louisville has been the steadiest market in Boulder County over the last decade. Typically, there are not very many homes on the market and because of this scarcity the prices have held steady. The study noted that home prices had remained stable since 2005. Currently in Louisville there are 99 residential properties for sale, 28 of which are under contract. Over the last year 222 properties have sold. This means that there is currently a 5 month supply of homes on the market. In all of Boulder County the percentage of homes that are under contract is 15% as opposed to 28% and the absorption rate is 9.5 months.
One of the great things about living in Colorado is the excellent golf courses available to the public. We are blessed with good weather and most years golf can be played year around. January golf is not for the fair weathered golfer but I’m just saying that it is possible. Here is a list of the golf courses in Boulder County. See you on the links!
Public Courses:
COAL CREEK GOLF COURSE
585 W. Dillon Road, Louisville, 303-666-7888 website $35 – $43
Eighteen-hole, 7,028-yard championship course with driving range and putting and chipping greens.
Nine-hole, 2,876-yard course with putting and chipping greens.
TWIN PEAKS MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE
1200 Cornell Drive, Longmont, 303-651-8401 website
Eighteen-hole, 6,810-yard course with grass driving range and putting and chipping greens.
UTE CREEK AT SPRING VALLEY GOLF COURSE
2000 Ute Creek Drive, Longmont, 303-774-4342 website
Eighteen-hole, 7,200-yard championship Robert Trent Jones II course with driving range and putting and chipping greens.
Private Courses:
BOULDER COUNTRY CLUB
7350 Clubhouse Road Boulder, 303-530-2226 website
Eighteen-hole, 7,002-yard championship course with all facilites expected at a nice private country club. This course has plenty of trees that can alter your shots. The greens are fast, undulating, and well maintained. An excellent view of the mountains can be seen in the backdrop, plus water hazards (two streams and four lakes) come into play on a number of the holes.
LAKE VALLEY GOLF CLUB
4400 Lake Valley Drive, Niwot 303-444-2114 website
Eighteen-hole, 6,725-yard championship course. Rural feeling, more wide open than many other front range courses. Nice golf only facility.
A Gallup poll on overall well being has named Boulder as the number 1 city in the United States! The index is based on the polling of 365,000 US citizens a year since 2008. The video above is a CBS Sunday Morning feature on Boulder, the number 1 town for overall happiness and Huntington West Virginia which came in last in the index. The video features a true local and an old friend Dave Query.
The index includes health statistics and hard to measure happiness or optimism statistics. The overall score for Boulder was 73.7 a full point above Lincoln Nebraska and Ft. Collins Colorado. It’s hard to say what is so special about Boulder but this starts to quantify it. Ready to move here? There is room for a few more. Give me a call and we can get started.
Location, Location, Location is a well known rule in real estate. In some areas the prime locations migrate over time. Following the latest and best development. A good part of town is blighted 25 years later or the opposite, a blighted area of town gets revitalized. In Boulder Colorado where our development and growth are limited and enhanced by the natural beauty it has been more of a constant. This is even more true since Boulder is surrounded by nearly 100,000 acres of public open space. Backing to open space is a great location and many buyers are willing to pay premium prices for proximity to public open space. In Boulder this is not just limited to one section of town.
There is open space literally on every side of Boulder. Below I have taken a portion of the Boulder County comprehensive open space map (impressive!) showing just that portion around the City of Boulder. Every colored section is public land of some sort and everything colored green on the map is open space. This means that there are many homes backing to open space in and around Boulder Colorado. This provides a unique marketing opportunity and a lasting value for the buyer of such properties. Open space is not limited to homes backing to the mountains but includes homes backing to farmland, native prairie and riparian areas.
As you look around at property listings you will see the subtle distinction of “open space” vs. “open land”. Same thing, right? Wrong! The great selling feature about open space is that a commitment has been made for the preservation of the land in its current state. Unless something dramatically changes in our government, what you see is what you get. Open land on the other hand can be a little more tricky. What looks good now can change. “Open land” is privately owned land and it’s use is subject to change. These changes usually take place slowly but what you see now is not necessarily what you will see in the future. Do your research with the city or county in which the parcel sits and check the zoning and master plan. Many times the open land cannot be changed under current use and in Boulder County it is notoriously difficult to change land use.
I did a quick search of listings in the City of Boulder with the keywords “open space”. My search came up with 99 current listings. After sorting through the listings it turned out that there are just 27 listings that I considered adjacent to open space. The others were, “near open space”, “a short walk to open space”, etc. Follow this link to see all of the listings on open space in Boulder. Incidentally, when I performed the search for all of Boulder County 364 homes matched the “open space” criteria.
I am the co-listor of, what I think to be one of the premier properties in the Boulder area if you are looking for a feeling of seclusion, quiet and a great view. The property is located at 1397 S. Cherryvale Rd and is listed for $2,800,000. It has 4.5 acres and is located in a small neighborhood of similar homes which is surrounded by a mix of public open space, private open space (owned collectively by the neighborhood) and farmland. Here is a photo from the backyard. To learn more about this property visit its website at www.WildflowerEstate.net
Chautauqua Park is definitely one of Boulder’s jewels. Located directly below the Flatirons, Chautauqua has been a premier destination for over 110 years. Most people know Chautauqua as a great place for a hike or a picnic but it is so much more. If you ever wanted to learn more about Chautauqua here is your chance.
On July 4, 1898, over 4,000 people gathered for the opening day of the Colorado Chautauqua. Boulder civic leaders and Texas educators had joined together to create a cultural and educational summer retreat. Today, the Colorado Chautauqua is one of three remaining Chautauquas in the United States, and the only site west of the Mississippi River, in continuous operation, with its original structures intact.
Before radio and television, the Chautauqua Movement united millions in common cultural and educational experiences. Orators, performers, and educators traveled a national Chautauqua circuit of more than 12,000 sites bringing lectures, performances, concerts, classes, and exhibitions to thousands of people in small towns and cities. Theodore Roosevelt called Chautauquas, “the most American thing in America.”
Located at the base of Boulder’s Flatirons, Chautauqua Park is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a local landmark. The Colorado Chautauqua Association, a 501 (c) (3) organization, leases twenty-six acres of land from the City of Boulder, on which are situated:
The Auditorium (1898) included on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been voted one of the top ten places artists love to play because of its superior acoustics and intimate feel.
The Dining Hall (1898) is now open all year, offering excellent cuisine.
The Academic Hall (1900) houses Chautauqua’s administrative offices and housed the first collegiate-level summer school in Colorado.
The Community House (1918) is a stunning example of Arts and Crafts architecture and has been winterized and renovated.
Chautauqua is not just a park with a few community buildings in which to eat, meet or enjoy a concert. Chautauqua is a collection of charming cottages set apart from the rest of the city. There are 100 cottages. 60 are owned by the Colorado Chautauqua Association and 40 are privately owned, many by the same family’s who built them five generations ago.
Activities and Programs
The founders of our Chautauqua were a group of educators from Texas. They came for the summer to enjoy the mountain climate (pre-air-conditioning) and engage in a program of art, exercise and cultural events (pre-TV).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6d_ZTAz9J0?rel=0]There are three remaining Chautauqua’s in the United States and ours is the only one that is active all year long. The program schedule definitely peaks during the summer months but there are activities all year long. The highlights of the year, in my opinion, are the summer concerts and movies in the wonderful Chautauqua Auditorium. This wonderful building has not been noticeably improved since it was built. I remember as a kid that part of the fun of going to a movie there was to see the bats fly in front of the screen. Events and programs have a wide variety and include, classical music, folk music, popular music, films, ecology talks, current issue forums and much more.
Location
Chautauqua is a park, it is a trailhead, it is a destination, it is a trailhead. It is located on the farwestern part of Baseline Road (40th parallel) at 9th Street. It is adjacent to the University Hill neighborhood to the North and the Bluebell or Chautauqua neighborhood to the East. To the west you will find The Flatirons which is the unique rock formation that can be seen on most postcards. To the south you will find hiking trails which are part of the Boulder Mountain Parks system.
Trails
I would say the Chautauqua trailhead is the busiest in the area. No matter the time of year you will find walkers, hikers, climbers and photographers taking advantage of trail system which starts in Chautauqua Meadow. The beauty is that you can take a 15 minute stroll or a 15 mile hike and start off in the same spot. There are trails along the base of the Flatirons (these tend to be easier) and there are those that go vertical and end up above the them. Choose your level of commitment and go for it.
