Castle Rock

Just northeast of downtown Castle Rock, this Colorado neighborhood provides all the convenience of city living while having access to stunning natural green spaces. “Castle Highlands has a great location,” says Steve Thayer, a local Realtor who has been selling in the Castle Rock area for 15 years. “You are close to shopping and dining with some of the state’s best parks, and you’re part of a very nice community with a positive outlook.” Modestly sized single-family homes are snuggly lined on this neighborhood's curved streets and cul-de-sacs, giving it a suburban feel. “The houses are fairly newer, and most are 20 years old or less,” Thayer says, adding that ranch and two-story houses are most popular, and fenced-in backyards are common. New construction plans flaunt huge layouts with walkout ranch and modern farmhouse-inspired styles. Prices range from $555,000 to just under $1 million, but most real estate can be between $650,000 and $724,000. Students may attend schools within the Douglass County School District, ranked the fourth top best school in the Denver area by Niche. Kids start their academic journey at Clear Sky Elementary School and continue to Castle Rock Middle School, which both have a B rating or higher. At B-plus-graded Castle View High School, freshmen through seniors may enroll in four specialized academies focusing on Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Leadership and Global Studies, STEM, or Visual and Performing Arts. One of Castle Highland’s most notable highlights is the neighborhood’s proximity to Philip S Miller Park and its many exciting features. “The park is very popular and pulls a lot of traffic from all over the area,” Thayer says. The 300-acre regional park boasts ziplines and ropes courses, an 8-mile trail network, a splash pad, and the Adventure Playground with a 40-foot-long slide and play structures that blend with the landscape. Those looking to test their abilities head to the park’s most famous attraction: Challenge Hill. Rising 178 feet in elevation, the 200-step climbing incline is not for the faint of heart. But those who hold out are rewarded with a breathtaking view of the Colorado scenery. When the weather won’t allow outdoor play, head indoors to the Miller Activity Complex, which houses indoor turf fields, a functional fitness area, trampolines, and a swimming pool within its 64,443-square-foot recreational facility. “Easy access to I-25 and downtown Castle Rock is a draw for residents,” Thayer says. “Castle Highlands is only 5 minutes from most of the dining and shopping downtown or the north.” Restaurants serve up a variety of local fare downtown, with favorites including Scileppi’s, a family-owned Italian staple housed within a stone church dating to 1888. Breweries such as BURLY Brewing Company and Great Divide Brewing tempt residents with their craft beer assortment and trendy settings. After filling up, take a short walk to several small boutiques and stores like Mod Mountain Boutique and The Emporium to browse everything from clothing to home décor. Grocery and household necessities are available at supermarkets like Safeway and King Soopers, which is the largest in the state of Colorado. Castle Highlands beckons residents who seek proximity to natural amenities without letting go of city life. Recreational opportunities and outdoor spaces abound here, with shopping and dining just minutes away, all within a relaxed, suburban community.

Life is elevated in Plum Creek, literally. Sitting 1,000 feet higher than the nearby mile-high city of Denver, this neighborhood in Castle Rock offers mountainscapes from all vantage points. But this suburb thirty miles south of Denver also offers something low: taxes. "When Plum Creek was developed in 1985, we were far enough away from the city to avoid the taxes that come with being in the metro district,” says Liz Willoughby, a RE/MAX Alliance Realtor and local. A variety of postmodern and ranch homes, ranging from 2,500 to 4,000 square feet in size, line the long and narrow Plum Creek golf course. Many of these houses come with an attached garage and driveway, exposed or added-on brick siding, well-manicured lawns and fenced-in backyards in the $550,000 to $800,000 price range. Narrow sidewalks run through sections of the neighborhood, and the roads are nicely paved. Farther from the golf course, there are larger and newer postmodern builds in the 5,000 to 6,000 square foot range, displaying both green and rock landscaping. These homes boast sizeable back balconies and patios, great for entertaining with a view, and fall in the $800,000 to $1.2 million price range. Also in Plum Creek are duplex homes and town houses, some on the golf course, for around $550,000. And no matter where in the neighborhood you live, you’ll see the distant Rocky Mountains from your window. The public Plum Creek Golf Club offers 18 holes and beautiful mountain vistas, as well as a bar and restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. North of the neighborhood off Plum Creek Parkway, children and adults alike make use of the open green space of Baldwin Park. With a paved walking path and a nearby off-leash dog park, locals and furry friends can get active while enjoying the clean mountain air. To the west, spanning eight miles through Plum Creek, people ride bikes, jog and push strollers along the flat and winding East Plum Creek Trail, some using a bird checklist as they go. “The city is also working on a brand-new park off Emerald Drive that will have all the amenities, including pickleball courts, projected to be done in 2024,” Willoughby adds. Students living in Plum Creek can attend schools in the Douglas County School District, given an A-minus overall grade on Niche. Pre-K through 6th grade learners can go to South Ridge Elementary, an International Baccalaureate World School with a B-minus Niche grade. As they progress, students can attend Mesa Middle School, ranked among the Best Public Middle Schools in Colorado and receiving a B-plus Niche grade. Douglas County High School, which receives a B grade on Niche and is ranked among the Best High Schools for STEM in the state, serves the area’s older students. In the northern part of Plum Creek off Interstate 25, locals can grab groceries for the week and fill up on gas at the Safeway shopping plaza. At the southern edge of the neighborhood, people sip on Red Velvet lattes and other specialty brews at Oo-de-Lally Coffee, a tiny drive-thru coffee shop with seasonal decor. “People do most of their shopping in Castle Rock, just a mile up the highway, and there’s also more restaurants and brewery options,” says Willoughby. There, locals can dine on coconut chicken sandwiches and Jamaican-spiced sweet potatoes at Union, an American bistro with a rustic setting. A half-mile from Plum Creek is the Douglas County Fairgrounds, where people from all over the state come ride the Ferris wheel, indulge in tasty foods and watch the horses and cattle compete during the annual Douglas County Fair & Rodeo. Two miles east of Plum Creek, traveling campers and locals gather at McAwesome Ranch, a campground with a live music venue. Living in Plum Creek, you can quickly hop onto Interstate 25 and drive north to get to Denver in 45 minutes or south to get to Colorado Springs in 45 minutes. The central locale of this suburb 6,000 feet above sea level makes it a dream-worthy place for anyone looking for a home out of the city with picturesque mountain vistas.

On the foothills of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Range, Glover-Baldwin Park is a quiet, residential neighborhood with breathtaking, panoramic landscapes on every corner. “It seems that people who move into Glover-Baldwin Park stay for a long time,” says Steve Thayer, broker and owner of The Thayer Group with Keller Williams Action Realty, and for a good reason. Combined with a small-town charm, upscale dining, and nearby access to over 400 acres of natural beauty, casual afternoon walks turn into adventures filled with sunken canyons, rocky mountain peaks, green rolling hills and the occasional waterfall. Winding streets, draped in the shade of whispering aspens and pines, lead to a range of contemporary and traditional homes, from condominiums, town houses and single-family residences, often portraying stone facades and sunlit windows capturing the ever-changing shadows among the Rockies. “The homes here are more affordable than Castlewood Ranch or Castle Pines,” Thayer says. Prospective homebuyers can expect prices between the low 200,000s to the $300,000s for a one-to-two-bedroom condo, while town houses may start in the mid 300,000s to the mid $400,000s. Single-family homes also vastly range in price, from one-story ranchers listed in the high $400,000s to a two-story contemporary build in the low 700,000s. “There is also no HOA, which is rare around here,” Thayer says. While many high schools offer International Baccalaureate programs, Castle Rock provides an entire pipeline of IB World Schools, allowing students to complete the IB program from first to 12th grade. Here, children attend South Ridge Elementary School, which boasts a B-minus rating on Niche and offers the Primary Years Programme, which aims to teach students to become curious, knowledgeable and caring citizens. Students then attend B-plus-rated Mesa Middle School and B-rated Douglas County High School, also named IB World School programs. On the neighborhood’s edge, Baldwin Park serves as a small oasis where children’s laughter mingles with the rustle of leaves as they scamper around the playground, while next door, the family dog can freely run amongst the open, green fields at Douglas County Off-leash Area or stroll along the trail at Memmen Open Space, where the songs of bluebirds fill the air. Hiking enthusiasts can choose from moderate to rugged trails in Castlewood Canyon State Park or Gateway Mesa Open Space, offering vistas that shift from rolling hills to majestic mountain peaks. On the weekends, Plum Creek Golf Course is bustling with activity, while neighbors get their hands dirty harvesting potatoes at the Castle Rock Community Garden along South Gilbert Street. The community’s culinary scene comes alive as the sun dips beyond the summit. Quaint eateries and upscale restaurants dot the streets of downtown Castle Rock, from B&B Cafe serving homemade pies to boutique breweries like Iron Mule Brewery, where evenings filled with friends and fun slowly melt into nights. Those looking to whip up their own culinary delights can head to the local farmers market on Saturday mornings off Fairgrounds Drive and stock up on freshly baked focaccia bread and farm fresh eggs or drive 2 miles to Safeway for everyday ingredients. If that isn’t enough, Denver’s gourmet restaurants and nightlife are 30 miles away on Interstate 25. Downtown Castle Rock and Plum Creek shopping center offer various nail salons, retail stores and unique treasures. Locals can stop by Tractor Supply Co. for their frontier living necessities or check out The Emporium, a marketplace selling items from over 60 local businesses. What truly elevates Glover-Baldwin Park is its community spirit. In Castle Rock, life isn’t just lived. It’s cherished at community events such as the Summer Concert Series at Philip S. Miller Park, where neighbors exchange stories and dance together under the starry sky, with the background of the beautiful Rockies in the distance.

Steven Thayer and his wife just bought a house in Castle Rock's Craig and Gould neighborhood. "It's going to be a change of pace," said Thayer, the owner and managing broker of Keller Williams' Thayer Group in Castle Rock. "It's going to be fun and different." Named after two of the town's founders, John Craig and Jeremiah Gould, this neighborhood is a 16-block historic district just east of downtown Castle Rock. Thayer says most of the neighborhood's houses – a collection of smaller cottages, Craftsman bungalows, and four squares -- date back to the mid-1800s and the early 1900s. He says developers are buying these older houses, updating them, and putting them on the market, so you have a wide price variation. A small cottage that needs a lot of work recently sold for $300,000, while a newly refurbished four-square with all the bells and whistles of a brand-new house at the center of the neighborhood brought in $1.4 million. Generally speaking, though, the average house in the Craig and Gould neighborhood fetches between $600,000 and $800,000. These houses sit atop smaller, 6,000 to 8,000-square-foot lots with room for a small front yard full of native plants, a low fence at the front of the property, and a narrow driveway leading up to a garage someone added to the house after it was built. Streets in the neighborhood offer space for parallel parking, sidewalks line both sides of the street, and it's not uncommon to find a street tree planted between the sidewalk and the road when you walk down it. "It's a really different vibe," says Thayer, whose previous house was in the newer, suburban neighborhood of Meadowview. He says one of the neighborhood's biggest selling points is its walkability. Because you're so close to downtown, you can walk to restaurants like Schleppi's, an Italian restaurant built into an old stone church with a round stained-glass window above the front door. The Garlic and Spice Kitchen serves appetizers, sandwiches and flatbread pizzas, while Lost Coffee and The Castle Rock Collective will happily get you that morning caffeine fix. These last two restaurants are on Perry Street, which you can follow south to the Plum Creek Shopping Center's Safeway grocery store. If this isn't enough convenience, the center of Craig and Gould is less than a mile from two exits on a stretch of Interstate 25 that leads north to Denver and south to Colorado Springs. South Ridge Elementary School is also less than a mile from the heart of Craig and Gould, so it's possible to walk your children to school from kindergarten through the fifth grade. From here, they'll attend Mesa Middle School, which runs a school-wide behavior support program called ROAR that awards tickets in a monthly drawing to students who are responsible, open-minded, aware, and respectful. Neighborhood students will then graduate from Douglas County High School, which is about 1½ miles north of the neighborhood's center. Respectfully, these three schools received a B-minus, a B-plus, and a B from Niche. They're also part of the Douglas County School District, which the website said was the fourth-best of the Denver area's 20 public school districts. And while you could walk to Douglas County High School, you might want to think twice because the most direct route – Perry Street to Front Street – cuts between a pair of retaining walls that separate Castle Rock Butte from a set of railroad tracks and I-25. This 370-foot-tall butte, which the town of Castle Rock was named after, sits just north of the Craig and Gould neighborhood. You can follow a 1.4-mile trail to the rhyolite formations at the top of the peak or spend an afternoon letting your children roam free at Centennial Park's playground before catching live music at one of Festival Park's First Friday summer concerts. During the winter, you can head over to the partially covered Rink at the Rock to hopefully not fall while ice skating downtown or visit the Castle Rock History Museum to learn more about Castle Rock Butte and the historic neighborhood at its base.

Under the watchful eye of the millennia-old Castle Rock to the north, South Town provides ample opportunity for its residents to get outside on a daily basis. Homes in South Town primarily fall into the $400,000 to $600,000 range, with some near or on the mountainsides priced above $750,000. The lots tend to have large yards and mature trees standing tall amongst the homes. “It has a really great neighborhood feel and you see people walking up and down the streets,” says Jeff Samuelson, a commercial real estate broker for Realty ONE Group Premier. “The regular homes are mainly bi-levels, and you have some ranches with basements.” Ranch houses aren’t as common here as in other areas of Colorado, though, and South Town features many bi-level structures. Architecture in the area also sometimes features stonework and brickwork as part of the construction. Students attend Castle Rock Elementary School, scoring at a B with Niche, and Mesa Middle School, which Niche rates at a B+. They complete their education at Douglas County High School, which is given a B by Niche and offers clubs ranging from robotics to arts to photography. The trailhead of Rock Park, where Castle Rock towers above the surrounding landscape, is just to the north of South Town. Centennial Park boasts a public pool with a slide alongside football fields and playgrounds with swings for all ages, while Douglas County Park has multiple sports fields. Those include a football gridiron and baseball diamond, as well as playgrounds and dog parks. Festival Park is popular as well, which hosts live, free concerts on “First Fridays” to kick off each month. Plum Creek Trail is paved and accommodates both bikers and runners, winding for more than eight miles and connecting the fairgrounds, neighborhoods and downtown. Other frequent events in the area include Oktoberfest in the fall, hosted by Festival Park, and rodeos held at the fairgrounds. Though restaurants are few and far between within the neighborhoods, the downtown Castle Rock area is rife with eateries and bars, and South Town is situated less than two miles from its local fare. Block & Bottle, a newer establishment, is located in the Encore building and features two outdoor patios. “We have Tribe Restaurant at Riverwalk,” Samuelson says. “They have unique foods in there like an elk steak or a bison burger. All of their stuff is unique and made right there from scratch.” Other local favorites include the B&B Café, Great Divide Brewery and Wild Blue Yonder Brewery downtown, while Safeway is the most prominent grocery chain in South Town alongside the Castle Rock Farmers Market. The neighborhood has few shops or restaurants within its borders, but most eateries and retail establishments are in Castle Rock and its downtown area. South Town and the greater Castle Rock area also essentially serve as a midpoint between the hearts of Denver and Colorado Springs, which are each less than 45 minutes to the north and south, respectively. “I think we’re in a sweet spot between Denver and the Springs,” Samuelson says. “It’s a great place for people to live because of the family events and the family atmosphere. Every weekend, these parks fill up with people, and the biggest thing on the residential side is the walkability. Everything’s within a couple minutes from the neighborhoods, so that’s why people love being there.”

Traverse the trail leading to Downtown Castle Rock’s millennia-old namesake and take in the panoramic vista of the neighborhood from high above the city streets. The town derives its name from Castle Rock, a butte millions of years old rising more than 6,000 feet above sea level and situated within Rock Park. Rock Park itself is just outside the border of the city, but a hike up the trails to the base of the formation is rewarded with a view of the entirety of downtown Castle Rock, as well as Pikes Peak and more scenery of the area. The butte is also notable for the illuminated star at its peak, which is lit in a festival called Starlighting on the last Saturday before Thanksgiving each year. The beacon remains lit for the holiday season through the end of January, but that gets extended if the Denver Broncos make a deep run in the NFL playoffs. On average, homes are listed at around $600,000, and residences are commonly built in the ranch style or as two-story houses. Many of those are between 10 and 15 years old, and some of the more recently developed areas have been constructed around shopping centers and parks. Students attend South Ridge Elementary School, Mesa Middle School and Douglas County High School. All three score in the B range on Niche and provide International Baccalaureate programs, focusing on rigorous studies, in-depth learning and critical thinking. Rock Park isn’t the only place to get outdoors, though. “Festival Park is a newer park that was put in to draw a lot of people downtown,” says Steve Thayer, broker and owner of the Thayer Group with Keller Williams Action Realty. “There’s a big regional park that’s just outside of downtown that’s the regional draw – Philip S. Miller Park. It has ziplining, an amphitheater, a rec center, lots of playgrounds, fields, hiking trails and mountain biking trails.” Festival Park also features a band venue and provides a weekend draw. “The area’s really family-oriented,” says Jeff Samuelson, a commercial real estate broker for Realty ONE Group Premier. “Especially on the weekends, there’s tons of activities that go on – downtown, we’ve got the park and the farmer’s market every weekend.” A walkway at Festival Park connects to the paved Plum Creek Trail. “There’s miles of mountain bike trails and bike paths for kids and families that run along Plum Creek,” Samuelson says. “You can go all the way up through the fairgrounds, down through town and all the way to the outlets on these bike paths.” Local favorites range from restaurants like Courtyard Social and the B&B Café to shops like The Barn, an antique store. Coffee establishments, including Bearded Man Coffee and LostCoffee, are also popular, as are sports bars like The Office and breweries like Wild Blue Yonder Brewery. Chains, including Safeway, serve the public with general shopping needs. “Great Divide Brewery has been a big draw downtown as it’s been redeveloped,” Thayer says, “and there’s an older restaurant called Pegasus Restaurant, which is an old favorite to a lot of the people who have been in this town for a long time.” Downtown Castle Rock’s assortment of local fare means residents have plenty to choose from. “We probably have 22 bars and restaurants in a three-block radius downtown, so there’s lots of choices and opportunities to experience different things,” Samuelson says.