My hike today is known as Guardians of the Flatirons, and it involves summiting all three of the 8000' peaks in the Boulder mountain parks. Per usual I started at Chautauqua park
... but instead of heading up the nearest peak (Green mountain) I hiked the Mesa trail south toward the S Mesa trail head. Some critters were out this morning, including several mule deer and a red fox. The wildflowers were comparable to last weekend. While the irises were fading some new flowers were coming online, including the spiny yucca (also called soapweed)
In about 2 hours I reached the far end of the Mesa trail, so time to turn around and head for the hills!
For the third weekend in a row I climbed the steep trail up Shadow canyon, reaching the saddle between S Boulder peak and Bear peak shortly before 11:00 am. First stop was S Boulder peak, from where I took a photo of Bear peak.
By the way since I knew that I would be out in the sun all day I was wearing my white hiking cap, which has a detachable mesh neck shade. I have never thought of this cap as being fashionable, but as I hiked down from S Boulder a trail runner said, "Your hat is awesomeness!"
After returning to the saddle I did the short and easy hike up Bear peak, followed by the long and rocky descent down Bear peak's west ridge to the Green-Bear trail. The GB trail eventually connects to a short but steep trail to Green mountain's summit. Several hiking groups were on top -- in fact it felt almost festive. Then down the Ranger trail, down the Gregory canyon trail, and lastly a short walk through Chautauqua to my car. En route I saw one interesting wildflower and one not-so-wild flower.
In all today's three-peak hike was about 16 miles and over 5000' elevation gain. That's comparable to climbing Long's peak, except not really coz Long's is a completely different animal.
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