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High Line Canal

While jogging during a visit to Denver, I stumbled across the High Line Canal, a 66-mile irrigation canal which opened in 1883 to bring water from a diversion dam on the South Platte River to agricultural land in areas south and east of Denver. Although Denver Water indicates that it has a capacity of 600 cubic feet per second, it did not appear to have been used in the recent past. It was taken over by Denver Water in 1924 and the recreational path was opened to the public in 1970. I photographed the section of the canal that ran between North Sable Boulevard and under I-255 to the West.

Just to the north of the canal sat a prairie dog colony - this time being watched over by a bird of prey.

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