Photo rendering of proposed trail and converted bluegrass areas

Barnum South Park is located on a unique and beautiful site - situated up on a hill above the Platte River with dramatic views east to downtown. It is a small park containing diverse program elements, including a recreation center, a playground, public restrooms, three undersized soccer fields, a dog park and a picnic area that are each carved into the side of a hill covered with bluegrass. A small lake that also serves as regional peak reduction flood control lies at the bottom of the hill. Bluegrass predominates in spite of the sloping contours and, while the park is well used by both the neighborhood and the community at large, there is a sense of all these things having been added in an ad hoc phasing that fails to take advantage of what makes this site unique and memorable.

Parks & Gardens was asked by City and County of Denver Parks and Recreation to prepare a plan for converting a significant percentage of the park acreage of bluegrass to species that are less demanding in terms of water conservation and maintenance. The plan will convert over five acres of hillside landscape from bluegrass to native wheatgrasses. A trail delineates the remaining bluegrass from the new, native species and completes a link in the Weir Gulch Regional Greenway. The composition unifies the park by directing users to a specific location that allows them to focus on the views to Downtown (including the Capital Building) with the lake in the foreground and the prairie sky beyond.

A significant section of the Weir Gulch Regional Greenway connects through Barnum Park

Over 5 acres of bluegrass will be converted into native upland seed