BY TYNIN FRIES, TFRIES@DENVERPOST.COM

Howdy, friends! 

It's a beautiful time of year in Colorado. While leaf peeping season may be coming to an end, there's plenty of fall adventures out there from pumpkin patches and corn mazes to festivals and haunted houses. 

Heads up

Fingers crossed that this week is our last with temperatures in the 80s. Next week is looking much cooler, including in the mountains. 

Visitors walk through the Ice Castle while visiting town during the Cripple Creek Ice Festival on Feb. 20, 2024, in Cripple Creek, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)

Your Weekly 5:

1. Cripple Creek’s Ice Castles canceled over high temps, water issues
2. Silverthorne opens new playground honoring Summit County’s mining history
3. OpenSnow forecasters say El Niño is increasing odds of a snowy winter
4. Colorado’s bears are feasting on porch pumpkins this fall, CPW warns
5. New bike trail nears completion in Oak Creek

Worth Your Time

Danny Showers, with Colorado Forestry and Fire Mitigation, uses a self-loading log trailer with grapples to pick up large logs taken down during a fire mitigation and fuel management program at Meyer Ranch Park on Sept. 20, 2022, in Morrison, Colorado. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Jeffco’s Meyer Ranch to lose 50%-70% of its trees during long fire mitigation closure

Get Yourself Outdoors

“Ciugaboc,” by artist Joe Scolari, features a Rube Goldberg-like device with wooden marbles on a track in Breckenridge. (Provided by Breck Create)

Easy Colorado hikes with playful surprises, unexpected artwork

Looking for whimsy? Try these easy hikes in Breckenridge, Victor, Snowmass, Green Mountain Falls and more. 

MORE HEADLINES

• A heritage worth protecting. Why the right to hunt and fish belongs in our Constitution (Opinion)
• This Estes Park resident has made it his mission to keep bears out of the trash
• Proposition 137 would set aside $175 million in sales taxes for conservation, wildfire prevention

DOG OF THE WEEK

"This is our (almost) three-year-old part boxer, part cattle hound mix, Luka. Hailing from New Mexico, he has adapted to the Colorado lifestyle and loves basking in the sunshine and frolicking in the mountains," writes owner Sophie Schroeder.

If you want your pup (or cat) featured, email a photo and short description to cricciardi@denverpost.com.