Green and North Table Mountains (March 2012)

Written by ceddammit

What would you do if you could travel through time? Would you go back and kill Hitler? Would you go into the future to bring back a cure for Parkinson’s? Me? I’d bring people to witness hikes I went on several years ago. And I just got my T.U.R.D.I.S. (Time Und Relative Dimensions In Space) working again, so let’s head on back to March of 2012. It appears this was an unusually warm and snow-free March in the Denver metro area. But let’s play it safe and not go any farther than the western edge of the suburbs.

We’ll start with Green Mountain, because it’s within walking distance of my home at the time (but I drove to the trailhead anyway). Green Mountain is not actually named for its vegetation, but for some dude whose last name was Green. No, his first name wasn’t Lorne. And no, that wasn’t a misspelling of Lenore. Now get out of that TURDIS and let’s head on up the trail…

Downtown Denver as seen through the shrubbery on Green Mountain.
Look closely at the horizon. You can see Denver’s infamous “brown cloud”.
Brown grass, brown cloud, white cloud, Green Mountain
Not sure what the purpose of this is, but it’s clearly the work of humans.
The many colors of dead grass
Looking south down the front range
Mount Evans in the distance
Red Rocks and Mount Morrison
A snowy Mount Evans in the back
Red Rocks and Mount Morrison
Looking north along the front range.
Longs Peak is peakin’ through. GET IT?
Looking north along the front range.
Longs Peak, North & South Table Mountains, and the Boulder Flatirons
Red Rocks. Yup, the same Red Rocks we visited up close last week.
Old coal mine
“The rock cut” where Interstate 70 penetrates the Rockies
My neighborhood (at the time), as seen from the top of Green Mountain
Golden’s North (our next destination) and South Table Mountains at center
Dinosaur Ridge has been mightily scarred by humans over the years.
Another view of Red Rocks
A forest of mullein
A forest of Verbascum thapsus
Mount Morrison
I saved the most colorful for last.
Green Mountain, Lakewood, Colorado (photographed March 17, 2012)

Whew! That was a LOT of pics. Whenever I unload that many photos in a single set, I feel like I’m oversharing. What do you think? Is it too much? Let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I’ll break the following hike into smaller chunks.

You may have noticed that the above set of photos includes multiple pics of North and South Table Mountains. Well, just six days earlier, I was on top of North Table Mountain (NTM). NTM is almost completely surrounded by the city of Golden, Colorado. You know…the Coors place. Golden is not actually named for its connection to the Colorado Gold Rush, but for some dude whose last name was Golden. If I recall correctly, he was a vegetable farmer. Seriously. Now, the hike. North Table Mountain has multiple trails strewn about its flat top. On this visit, I hiked on four of those trails. Let’s start with the trail known as North Table Loop:

Good Gravy Train! What was my fixation with mullein at that time?
The trail up from the parking lot
The “rim” of North Table Mountain is composed of an ancient lava flow.
This MUST be seen in person. The photo gives no sense of scale.

Switching from North Table Loop to Tilting Mesa Trail…

An abandoned quarry on top of North Table Mountain.
This is Lichen Peak. Yes, a named peak on top of a named mesa.
Lichen Peak again

Another intersection o’ trails, and we’re now on Rim Rock Trail. Not to be confused with Rim Rock Road, which is on the other side of the state.

City o’ Denver, as seen from North Table Mountain.
LOOK OUT!! CLIFF!!

And we wrap up this hike with a walk along Mesa Top Trail:

Interestin’ cloud formation
The white scar on the foothill is an early 20th century coal mine.
Transmission lines mounting north rim of North Table Mountains.
Clouds smilin’ down on mountains. This was NOT Photoshopped.

All right, that’s it! Smilin’ clouds are where I draw the line. I’m gettin’ outta here!

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