The thing about hiking in your backyard is that you can improvise. Instead of taking the direct Gregory canyon route up Green Mountain I circled around. From Chautauqua park I took the Mesa trail south past NCAR, then turned west on the Bear canyon trail, and finally headed back north toward Green Mountain on the Green-Bear trail. This was my first time on GB, which I can now say is one of the nicer trails in the Boulder mountain parks. It's more secluded than the trails that directly connect to Mesa; it has lots of shade; and because it's above the steep canyons it doesn't show signs of flood damage. Along the trail the ground is covered with kinnikinnick.
Eventually the GB trail intersects Green Mountain west ridge, which continues to the summit. Lots of rock steps to reach the top, but the reward is a great view... and a cool breeze. To descend I took the Greenman trail (trail I came up a few weeks ago), then continued on the Saddle Rock trail. A short section of this trail was taken out by the floods, so a steel ladder was installed to climb out of the deep gully. The last part of my descent was on the Amphitheater trail, which leads to a popular rock climbing area. Then a short walk through Chautauqua to my car. In all 9.5 miles and 2700' elevation gain.
No comments:
Post a Comment