I went hiking down in Boulder for a change today. With so many places to see, it's hard to choose which old favorite to visit. I decided to visit our "Happy Place" and do the Springbrook and Goshawk Ridge loops from Dowdy Draw. The flowers had been incredible when I did the loop last year, and although I saw plenty, the highest meadow still has a week or two to go. The lower part of the trail is covered in yucca, lupine, and mariposa lilies. Also blooming were narrowleaf puccoon, white larkspur, salsify, golden smoke, indian paintbrush, yarrow, tall penstemon, spiderwort, flax.

One of the many Mariposa Lilies on the trail

Narrowleaf Puccoon

Perfect day for a flower ramble with Zelma at Highlands Camp in Allenspark. We slowly hiked along the nature trail, taking time to identify all the flowers we saw - more than 70 different species. Saw this little pygmy bitteroot near the end of the trail. I was also happy to identify two species that I've been seeing on my hikes but had no idea what they were - baneberry and fendler's waterleaf.

I was lucky to have this Western Tiger Swallowtail land on a dandelion right in front of me today.

We hiked to an area of Rocky Mountain National Park that we had never visited. Hard to believe that after 25 years of hiking, we could find a new trail in the area. The North Fork trail is just past Glenhaven, and follows the North Fork of the Big Thompson. You can follow it about 3 miles to Deserted Village, or continue on for miles and miles. We went as far as Lost Falls, about 8 miles in. Two miles further would have taken us to Lost Lake. We'll get back here one day, but most likely with backpacks so we can explore the lakes that are even farther than Lost Lake.




Flowers were beautiful on this trip - marsh marigold, globeflower, columbine, calypso orchid, golden smoke, penstamen, chiming bells, miner's candle, golden banner, purple fringe, among others.


Lost Falls (we found them for you)

Perfect day for a hike - sunny, not too hot, a little breeze to keep you cool. Today was the first hike up to Mills Lake for the season. The snow has melted out almost completely to the lake, but heard stories that it is still pretty snowy if you continue on to Black Lake. New snow is present on the high mountains after the weekend of rain down below.

We were also lucky enough to spy a tiny clump of Calypso Orchids on the fire trail as we returned from the lake.

Today we headed up to Bridal Veil Falls from the Cow Creek trailhead. A total of four made for a nice sized group and an easy going pace. Flowers are abundant along the trail - golden banner, mouse-eared chickweed, larkspur, skullcap, chiming bells, lupine, cinquefoil, wallflower, and about a dozen others ready to pop into color. Cow Creek has more water in it than I've ever seen and the falls are spraying high.

The HERA foundation Climb for Life. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, so we climbed at one of the local indoor climbing gyms. But our guide, Mark, kept us busy learning how to tackle cracks, staging relay races up the wall, and blindfolding us so we could climb with interpreted instructions from a teammate. The foundation raised about $30,000 at this event.

The Big Thompson is flowing at records levels. Where it normally meanders in loops through Moraine Park, the grassy banks have been overrun in the last few days.


Tent caterpillars coming out for the spring.

Today I hiked up to Emerald Mountain just off the Y grounds with Nancy. I had forgotten how beautiful the view is from the top. You can see Longs Peak and the surrounding mountains of the Front Range. All the "tops" - Thatchtop, Flattop, Notchtop, Knobtop, Gabletop, and further north into the mountains of the Mummy range. Recently leafed out aspen stand out so sharply against the darker conifers. The snow is still abundant, but much less than last week. This view shows McHenrys, Thatchtop, Taylor, Otis, Hallet, and Flattop.

And Happy 21st Birthday to Erin!

Just a short hike to "Little Lookout" today with Richard. Started up the Sandbeach Lake trail and then bushwhacked to a beautiful rock overlooking the Copeland Moraines. You could see east down to the wild part of the North St Vrain; west toward the peaks of Wild Basin; south to Meadow Mountain and St Vrain Mountain, and down to the river meandering through willows and beaver ponds.

Today I went on a beautiful hike to check what the snow levels were doing in Rocky Mountain National Park with fellow hikemasters Scott and Ritchie. We left from the Fern Lake trailhead. Flowers are beginning to be plentiful on the south facing slope on the right in the first mile; Britton's skullcap dotting the hillside in places. Water in the Big Thompson is definitely in full spring runoff. The Pool was boiling with all the snow that is finally melting. Fern Falls was deafening in its pounding. Only a slight bit of snow on the way to Fern Lake, but the lake is still frozen in spots. The interesting part of the hike was from Fern Lake to Odessa. Snow was deep and getting soft, so after post-holing numerous times, we opted for snowshoes. The trail is under quite a bit of snow and traverses quite a slope, so we opted to bushwhack a little higher up to some flatter terrain. Coming back down off the higher terrain proved to be interesting - sliding on snowshoes while grabbing onto trees to stop us from crashing through the snow bridge and into the river. Finally made it to a frozen Lake Odessa and a beautiful view of the snow covered peaks behind.

Snow bridge on outlet from Odessa Lake

Perfect day for a hike to Gem Lake. Early in the season the sun is not baking down on the rocks like it will be in mid summer. Aspens have all come out in the last week. Pasque flowers have given way to clematis vines.