Flatirons - Mountain Hike

On Thursday, my son Greg and I went hiking up the Flatirons. Although we found out halfway up the climb that the trail to the summit was closed due to erosion, the hike was still amazing and with high 90 degrees temps and no breeze, pretty strenuous!

That's Greg, forging ahead...

At the main trailhead

The Meadow Climb

Although this section looked easy - it was non-stop steep uphill and the sun was pounding on us without a breeze. I was huffing and puffing and needed a few rest stops but good ole Greg was patient with his Dad and waited.

He refused to pose!

Oops - A Wrong Turn

We got up to the rocky and wooded area and the hiking was much better and much more interesting. But... the "Attention Visitors" post confused us. We made a hard left and hiked downhill for quite a bit until we realized we were going the wrong way.

But it must have been "pre-ordained" :-) as right where we stopped,  Greg noticed a dead animal hanging on a branch. Wow!

Dead Animal in tree

Our Detour

Back to the Trail Sign to Correct our Path

The zig zag trail up to the summit was closed so we had to ascend more...

There's the Flatiron!

 Another Junction

Parts of the next section were pretty crazy!

We gingerly made our way across this rock fall

The trail got more and more picturesque

 At the Cliff

As we looked up at this cliff, Greg casually informed me he rappelled one of the Flatirons previously (he just wasn't sure which one!). These casual confessions both impressed me and freaked me out  :-) I raised a wild man adventurer! That must be from the great fun we had mountain biking together at an early age...

looking down below the cliff

Yeah - this is a great trail!

Whoo-ee - this next section was amazing!

This winding descent thru great boulders and rocks was magical!

Yep  - not to shabby!

Last Descent

We finally made it to another meadowy section and a breeze picked up. It was still super hot and sunny but beautiful!

The two photos below are actually a two-part panorama overlooking Boulder. The white-roofed large building nestled in the pine trees is the Chautauqua Auditorium. The large array of red buildings further out is the college (University of Colorado - Boulder)

 

Next - I made a quick visit to the Chautauqua facilities...