This past weekend I had a meeting I had to attend at 11AM on Saturday and to be honest I figured we would just hike on Sunday. Then this wicked storm was predicted to hit on Sunday, it started out not being so bad and moved to a couple of feet in the mountains several inches on the Front Range. Given this impending weather wrinkle we decided to get the best bang for our late start buck by hitting something close but challenging, yay Mt. Falcon ( Hike Details here)! Unfortunately the weather forecast continued to change dramatically even between Friday and Saturday morning, so our day of beautiful sunshine turned into breaks between rain during our hiking window. The worst rain shower actually hit before we started hiking when we first pulled up, nothing like a rain storm to make you question if you should go or not. We decided we had enough gear to risk it and fortunately the rest of the hike ended up being pretty tame weather wise.
The best part of the hike was the flowers, they were everywhere and just lovely! It was also obvious that Jefferson County had some trail work done on the bottom half of the trail to repair damage from the floods last fall, it was all leveled out at the bottom of Turkey trot and then nicely packed as it wound up to the trail break with Castle view. The volunteers did a great job fixing it up!
Because of the rain, this normally high traffic trail was decidedly pretty empty on Saturday which was a nice change. We also were coming down late enough in the afternoon that we could hear music from Red Rocks coming over to the trail, it was kinda cool.
I keep forgetting how fickle May is for high altitude hiking, all the snow that hit on Sunday is still lingering as low as 7ooo ft. Plus the mountains have been getting hit once a day with snow/rain since Sunday and I don’t know if I have mentioned it yet, but I am kinda done with the snow! I know we have been trudging around in it for months, but spring snow is different you can’t float on it in snowshoes and you are guaranteed postholing anytime after 10AM when the sun starts really to ramp up. I am not a fan of postholing.
I am struggling to find a hike for tomorrow and praying that inspiration hits me sometime tonight! Wish me luck!
I hope where ever you are, you find time to get out and hike soon!
hiking to healthy 
Great pictures! I’ve done this one three times myself. That and Myers Ranch NEVER disappoint. 🙂
Beautiful area. We are so lucky to live in Colorado.
We really are!!!!
Beautiful deer, you have to be very lucky to get so close to them!
We were so surprised, all the sudden they were there! It was good luck and bad weather…… oh and probably the fact this is a busy trail with lots of traffic, none of which are hunters.
Looks like some great flowers blooming!
There really were! I was so surprised there were so many but I am sure it is because of all the snow! We saw a ton this morning too!
I love your photos. I can’t wait to hit the trails again – hopefully will do some hiking in New Mexico over Memorial Day.
Thank you so much! It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with where I am at…. it is beautiful! I want to hike in New Mexico soon! I hope you post about your trip and that you thrive and hike while you are there. Take care and THRIVE!
It is beautiful, but you have to get there to see it – and you are! I will post photos of NM for sure.
It’s fun to see the different types of flowers on the trails in your area.
It gets so hot and dry here so quickly, I always feel like I won the lottery when we encounter flowers especially on these lower elevation hikes. Thanks for checking out the post!