One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 25, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1986_0905-07_ElDientePeak.htm)
One Friday I took my daughter, Megan Silverstein, up Green Mountain west of Boulder. It was the main peak at the right-hand end of the long ridge above and behind the Flatirons, above NCAR. Apparently you could hike it from the "front" (east) side, via Gregory Canyon(?), but that cost 3000-4000', a rather long climb. As my daughter was almost 4 and weighed about 36 lbs, and I knew I'd end up carrying her... We went up the back way, which required gaining only about 1240' vertical feet.
The trailhead was behind the peak, about 63 miles from Fort Collins. It was 10 miles up from where Baseline Road became the Flagstaff Mountain Road, three of those miles beyond pavement; a slow, windy, twisty drive. It was not very well marked. I found it the first time by searching with a USGS topo map.
We got a very late start at about 1630. Megan had fun climbing down from 7440' to about 7200', postholing in deep snow under trees. We had to drop a little bit down to a creek. After crossing the creek there wasn't a clear trail to the summit, but it was straightforward to cross-country up the steep hillside since we had a map. Of course I had to carry Megan and my daypack from that point!
As it was late and I was out for exercise anyway, I huffed and puffed and pushed on, east and then north, to the summit of Green Mountain at 1833 -- it took about two hours to get there. We hit some more deep snow on the back side of the summit ridge, and had to drop and skirt some boulders a couple of times before finding ourselves below the top.
The peak was rather tree-covered, but we could find gaps to look down at Boulder, quite a sight. Also there was a nice view of Bear Peak and South Boulder Peak, a little higher and a couple of miles to the south.
On the summit there was a tapered cylindrical cairn about 10' high and 2' in diameter... I wondered who lugged up the concrete to build it?
We hung around for a half hour watching the lengthening shadows on the plains. I was a bit concerned about how late it was getting, but I needed a break! Naturally my fearless daughter scampered around on the steep rocks and didn't even want to sit still for a picture.
We started down directly west on a trail. I don't know where it eventually led because we had to cut off to the southwest and back down to the creek. As you might guess I had to carry Megan all the way down, and then back up the snow-covered trail. Man was I exhausted when we finally got back to the car, just as it was getting too dark to see.
Green Mountain was a nice spring or fall hike -- if you didn't mind the bit of snow in the spring that is. The terrain was lovely and the view down 3000' to Boulder was enjoyable. It would be a fun place to spend a whole leisurely day exploring the summit ridge and moseying over to the top of the Flatirons.
(Next trip report: 1987_0509_14erFlight2.htm)