This morning, we took the kids on a short drive up to Meyer Ranch Park near Conifer. From Denver, all you need to do is take 285 south to S Turkey Creek Road. When you exit the highway, there is a parking lot just on the south side of the highway. We parked there and hiked with the kids for about a mile (mostly uphill). We stopped when we finally spotted some of the wild raspberries.
I read the first week of August is usually the best time for wild raspberries, but Andrew and I are busy all next weekend, so we decided to check it out today. I'm glad we did! There were enough ripe raspberries right off the trail to keep us busy for 15-20 minutes. We saw even more raspberries that weren't ripe yet, so next weekend should be a great time for others to pick.
The hike up was difficult because we had to carry the kids much of the way. If we go again, we might try out a stroller next time because the (unpaved) path was pretty smooth most of the way up!
I read the first week of August is usually the best time for wild raspberries, but Andrew and I are busy all next weekend, so we decided to check it out today. I'm glad we did! There were enough ripe raspberries right off the trail to keep us busy for 15-20 minutes. We saw even more raspberries that weren't ripe yet, so next weekend should be a great time for others to pick.
The hike up was difficult because we had to carry the kids much of the way. If we go again, we might try out a stroller next time because the (unpaved) path was pretty smooth most of the way up!
There were a few forks in the path. We mostly stayed south and west at the forks. When we turned onto the Lodgepole Loop trail, we finally spotted raspberries! Andrew said there are many more off the trail, but we didn't want to venture too far from the trail with the kiddos. So, we picked the ones right on the edge of the path.
Jo wasn't so sure about trying the raspberries at first.
Oliver, who had been grumpy about the hike, immediately perked up when we found berries to pick!
You can see the Foxloop Trail behind Andrew. So, we didn't need to go off the beaten path really at all to get raspberries!
After finally trying the raspberries, Joanna couldn't get enough! She wasn't too keen on picking them for herself, but she eagerly ate the ones we gave her. "More!" she said with mouthfuls of raspberries.
At first, Oliver just ate them all. I finally convinced him to save some, and he kept talking about how he wanted to show "Baby Sawyer" the raspberries he picked.
This part of the trail was nice and forested and shady.
Me and my berry picker!
Check out his loot!
Oliver was so happy from berry picking that he ran the entire way back to the car! Going back down the trail and not carrying kids was a lot easier than going up!
My berry-pickin' family.
This was my first time ever picking wild fruit. It was fun! Sure, hiking uphill for a mile while holding 25 pounds wasn't easy, but it was worth it once we started picking.
2 comments:
aww that is so much fun!! we went strawberry picking at a u-pick farm recently and had a lot of fun! and i did what you did, dressed the LO in white..... let's say his shirt was red before we went home LOL
I had to dab bleach on parts of her dress when we got back! I thought it was kind of cute because you could see along the neckline of her dress where the berries had burst when she bit them. This was so much fun! I want to try to do something like this every year. I would like strawberry picking even more... I love strawberries! I'm kind of "meh" on raspberries.
We did the U-Pick at an apple orchard last fall. We had a great time doing that, too! I put my name in to hopefully get picked again this year. We'll see!
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