Littleton, CO

I went into Littleton, Colorado with high hopes. I so badly wanted to say "the Littles from Littleton." Plus, my really good friend's sister lives there, which seemed like a promising omen. Littleton lies about 30 minutes south of Denver, and is relatively close to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It's touted as a family-friendly option for those who need to be near the Denver area.

Cameron and I spent a day there on our own working and meandering. We started in downtown, having a light lunch and bubble tea at iN-TEA, then moved over to the Edward A. Bemis Public Library. After I finished my work obligations, I walked through Gallup and Ketring Parks, passed the Littleton Museum (closed on Mondays), and read by the Gallup Reservoir. We finished the evening with a great meal (and beer) at Breckenridge Brewery's Farm House and a short trail walk along the South Platte River. 

Although Cameron couldn't join, I returned to Littleton a few days later with said friend's sister, Rachel. She showed me the (free) Hudson Gardens and then took me on a driving tour of Littleton's neighborhoods. It was really nice to have the inside scoop on the practicalities of living in Littleton and the low-down on why someone might choose a particular part of town to live in.

The Good

• Cute downtown with a nice mix of restaurants and shops.
• Light rail stop downtown with lots of free park-and-ride parking, allowing easy public transportation access in to Denver.
• Good number of parks and nature walk areas. The river trail goes for 16+ miles and goes all the way to Denver.
• Views of nearby mountains.
• Good community and family-friendly (per Rachel).

The Bad

• When driving, Littleton does not feel distinct from Denver and it's other rolling suburbs.
• Traffic between Littleton and Denver.
• The downtown's main road feels like a blip along a commuter street.
• Unless you live downtown, the neighborhoods are pretty bland looking. Most are just fenced off blocks of properties with no binding factor, other than a nearby strip mall. 
• Public transportation is very limited outside of downtown (per Rachel); everyone is very car-dependent.

The Verdict

Nah. I want a community that is stand-alone and cute all over. In some ways, I felt like Littleton was designed to be a rich, white, commuter community from the get-go, and was specifically built to meet families' wish lists, rather than growing organically. Had the downtown vibes extended into the neighborhoods I probably could have stayed interested, but I found the neighborhood layouts and car-dependent living to be very unappealing.

The Hudson Gardens were by far my favorite place in Littleton. The space was rather large and clearly an ideal venue for weddings.

iN-TEA was also a nice treat. You can see on their wall that they were prepared to supply virtually any tea variety and flavor you could think of.

Perhaps if we had just seen downtown, I might have been more keen to keep Littleton as a contender. I really appreciated this map showing the walking radius from the downtown park-and-ride.

Littleton was clearly family-focused. Nearby the library there was a park with a "story walk;" the path led you down a page-by-page tour of a nice little garden and pond.

Gallup Reservoir attracted lots of folks and birdlife.

Breckenridge Brewery had some of the best pub food I've eaten. Plus I really liked their peach beer.

The river was another main attraction, although I imaging it gets rather busy in the summer. There were signs at regular intervals along the nearby trail guiding visitors on where to put in and take out their inner tubes. 

I expect there are plenty of people who chose to bike into Denver, rather than suffer through a driving commute.