The foothills west of Denver had long been a popular destination. In 1890, landscape architect Frederic Law Olmsted, who designed New York’s Central Park, was hired by local developers to design a resort in this area, but three years later the project was canceled because of financial problems. In 1911, a group of Denver citizens began planning a system of parks in the foothills, an unprecedented idea because it placed a city-maintained park system more than 12 miles beyond the city’s limits. They envisioned it as an automobile touring destination that would serve Denver residents while attracting millions of tourist dollars. Twenty years after Olmsted’s first development effort, his son Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. was hired to design the system. In 1912, Denver voters approved a plan to establish the Denver Mountain Parks system, and in 1913 Lookout Mountain Park and the Lariat Loop road were created. Soon afterward Buffalo Bill visited the park and asked to be buried there. Over time the system grew to 14,000 acres in 46 park parcels across three counties in the front-range Denver metropolitan area, including well-known parks such as Red Rocks, Genesee, and Echo Lake, all maintained by the City of Denver Parks and Recreation Department. The Lariat Loop connects Morrison, Golden, Evergreen, Lookout Mountain, and Genesee along one of the West’s most scenic and historic drives.