Castle Rock Douglas County

Castle Rock is the county seat of Douglas County, Colorado, United States, and is the most populous municipality in the county. Castle Rock is within the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. The town is named for the prominent, castle-shaped butte near the center of town. The town is in the Colorado Foothills Life Zone. It has a total area of 21,946 acres (88.811 km2), all of it land.

Castle Rock is located in central Colorado at the junction of Interstate 25 and State Highway 86, 28 miles south of Denver and 37 miles north of Colorado Springs. Located on the western edge of the Great Plains, the town is a few miles east of the Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains. Castle Rock, the butte for which the town is named, is just north of the center of town. Castle Rock is also visible from Dawson Butte, Devils Head, Mount Evans, and Pikes Peak.

East Plum Creek flows generally north through Castle Rock within the South Platte River watershed. Hangman’s Gulch, which runs northwest then west around the north side of the town center, drains into East Plum Creek as do other gulches in the south and west. The McMurdo Gulch and Mitchell Gulch flow through eastern Castle Rock and drain into Cherry Creek east of town.

Within the Front Range Urban Corridor, the town is part of the greater Denver metropolitan area. From west to east, Castle Rock is bordered by Castle Pines Village, Castle Pines City, and The Pinery. Franktown lies to the east, Larkspur lies to the south, Perry Park lies to the southwest, and Sedalia lies to the northwest.

Interstate 25 and U.S. Route 87 run concurrently north-south through Castle Rock. U.S. Route 85, also a north-south route, enters the town from the northwest, meeting I-25 at Exit 184; south of the exit, U.S. 87 runs concurrently with I-25. The east-west route, Colorado State Highway 86, enters Castle Rock from the east, and then turns north and west as Founders Parkway, terminating at the intersection with Interstate 25 at Exit 184.

Castle Rock’s location between Denver and its inner suburbs, as well as Colorado Springs, allows many residents to commute nearly twenty miles to northern Colorado Springs or the Denver Technological Center, or DTC, which is 18 miles north on I-25, with Downtown Denver about 30 miles north, and Denver International Airport about 45 miles north.

Philip S. Miller Park is the largest park project in Castle Rock. “Phase One” of the park was opened to the public on October 25, 2014. It remains under construction. The park is named after a local banker and philanthropist who, with his wife, Jerry, left trust monies to Castle Rock in the mid-1990s. The Phillip S. Miller Activity Center is included in the park’s 300 acres. The Castle Rock Historical Museum is in the former Denver and Rio Grande Railway depot building on Elbert Street. This building is purported to have been built in 1875. It is made of rhyolite taken from local quarries. The museum depicts how Castle Rock has changed over the years.