Aurora may be Colorado’s third-largest city, but there are plenty of outdoor spaces to enjoy, including fabulous parks and other green spaces.
If you’re planning on moving into one of the Aurora apartments or you’ve been here a while and are looking for something new, there’s sure to be a perfect spot on this list to get you outside and taking advantage of the area’s famously beautiful scenery.
Cherry Creek State Park
Cherry Creek State Park is one of the most popular parks in the Denver Metro Area. Located about 10 miles south of downtown Aurora, it offers vast natural prairie land and nearly 50 miles of paved and multi-use trails for hiking, running, biking, and horseback riding. When there’s enough snow during the wintertime the trails are ideal for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
The 850-acre reservoir is popular for swimming, fishing, boating, and all sorts of paddling sports during the warmer months of the year, with launches on both the west and east side. There’s a full-concession marina where you can pick up bait or even take boating lessons, a campground, and a model airplane field with two paved runways.
Great Plains Park
Located in the eastern part of Aurora just west of E-470, 54.5-acre Great Plains Park offers lots when it comes to recreational activities and is a great place for kids to cool off in the summer with an outdoor water playground.
It hosts a traditional playground too along with walking trails and ponds, picnic shelters with tables, a softball diamond, a half-court basketball court, an amphitheater, and lots of wildlife to watch, including deer, rabbits, coyotes, squirrels, geese, and a host of other birds.
Mission Viejo Park
Esat of Cherry Creek State Park about 12 miles southeast of downtown Aurora, Mission Viejo Park offers 22 acres of parkland with multiple baseball fields, tennis courts, a playground, paths for walking and biking, and covered areas for picnicking.
What makes it a standout are the rock formations with a solar system theme where the kids can learn all about the solar system, and others that reveal information about the Smoky Hill trail, running along an approximately quarter-mile loop. There are also special events here like Park Lights and Movie Nights which hosts family-friendly movies and food trucks. You can bring your own picnic food if you wish, just don’t forget the blanket.
Aurora Reservoir
Located at the eastern edge of the city, about a 30-minute drive from downtown Aurora, the over 800-acre Aurora Reservoir is located in more than 30,000 acres of plains territory as one of the largest parks in the area. There’s an 8.8-mile-long trail that encircles the water, ideal for walking, running, or cycling.
In the reservoir itself, visitors can enjoy non-motorized boating, swimming, and fishing for rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, catfish, and walleye. It’s a great place for birdwatchers too, thanks to the reservoir and native prairie habitat, with a wide variety of waterfowl here from fall through spring. During the winter you can spot raptors along with the occasional horned larks, lark buntings, and lapland longspurs.
Bluff Lake Nature Center
Located just over a 5-minute drive north of downtown Aurora, the Bluff Lake Nature Center is a 123-acre wildlife park that includes a 1.4-mile-long loop for walking and wildlife watching. Bicycles and motorized vehicles aren’t allowed, preserving the tranquility.
Despite being so close to the heart of the city, you’ll feel as if you’re miles away, deep in the wetlands. Enjoy the peace, quiet, and wildlife, with plenty of prairie dogs and other burrowing animals, frogs, rabbits, and numerous bird species.
Cover image: Sand Creek in Aurora, Colorado. The location is in Sand Creek Park near a series of small barrages north of the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. Photo by Jeffrey Beall, via Wikimedia
