Alderfer/Three Sisters Park East Trailhead — Attraction in Evergreen

This used to be my favorite local park to hike. The most scenic of the mountain parks around Evergreen and the short trails can be hiked in a loop to make for interesting quick outings.

Now this place has been rendered unrecognizable with near clearcutting especially along the best trails. You will be looking at tree stumps and debris instead of hiking through a beautiful shady forest.

In my first visit after some trails have reopened I encountered a very defensive ranger after complaining about the destruction Jeffco has caused. Coming at me with claims of a red zone and fire danger when clearly in the big picture this makes no sense. All you have to do is have a look around. In the hills surrounding the heart of Evergreen hundreds of homes have been built usually accessible only by single steep roads and surrounded by thick forest. Denuding a few open space parks of trees is not going to make a dent in managing fire risk. One day there will be a big fire that will not be stopped until dozens of homes are gone, it's only a question of time. Meanwhile, you've all but destroyed a wonderful park.

The single trees left will be vulnerable to high wind events. Many large trees have already been downed at Elk Meadow after the clearcutting there. It will take years to grow back some cover and decades to return to a more normal state. I won't be back for a long time. I just can't...

We really enjoyed our hike at Three Sisters Park, we arrived around 1pm on a Saturday that happened to be Father's Day. We easily found parking and it wasn't too crowded, we probably passed 15 people during our two hours.

We hiked the Sisters Trail, Brothers Trail, and Ponderosa Trail. The views were breathtaking! There was ample opportunity to leave the trail and climb some boulders to get to better vantage points. But I would add a word of caution as we had a hiker fall behind us and hurt their leg. Proceed with caution on any Boulder climbing and know your skill level.

There are a restroom facilities, 2 stalls, at the parking lot which...

This used to be my favorite park in Jeffco Open Space, and it is still beautiful, but the tree "mitigation" has devastated parts of the forest here. Besides almost clear cutting and leaving debris all over the ground in some areas, they also sculpted and changed several trails to make them smooth dirt paths and eliminated technical mountain biking and hiking trails. I like walking and biking in the woods with some natural elements on the ground, not dusty dirt. Some areas have remained untouched by the recent mitigation and are still amazing. And admittedly, some of the clear cutting opened up views that didn't...