Denver's got the best trails parks

I wrote a lot about Denver's fabulous parks and trails in my Moon Denver guidebook and now they've been recognized as the best in the country:

The July 2009 edition of Parks and Recreation, the official publication of the National Recreation and Parks Association, has named Denver as Best Trail Parks in the United States. The honor comes during National Parks and Recreation month.

“If a city is a great tourist destination, you want its parks to be a part of that,” says Peter Harnik, director of the Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence in the article. “Parks have so many components, and people love parks for so many different reasons. From natural ambiance to recreational opportunities to the unexpected things that just happen there when strangers interact.”

Denver has one of the biggest biking, hiking and jogging trail systems in the nation, a network of 100 miles of paved, off-road trails that cross the City. The paved bike trails connect to hundreds of additional miles of dirt trails, many of which head up into the mountains and offer mountain biking adventures and scenic views. (from www.denvergov.org)