Sunday Morning Hike Up North Table Mountain

Waking up and getting out of bed early on a Sunday seems like a travesty at times, but it's something I have been doing with regularity lately.

This Sunday I decided to make constructive use of the early wake up and hike the North Table Mountain trail in Golden. It's something I've been wanting to do for well over a decade.

Handy map for trail users 

North Table Mountain is one of two mesas in Golden - the other one is to the south of North Table Mountain and is cleverly named South Table Mountain. They were both formed by lava flows sixty million years ago and are both topped by volcanic rock with columnar basalt formations encircling the caps of both mesas.

As the North Table Loop trail does, as it's name implies, make a circuit around the entire mesa, you can chose to either take the trail to the southeast that requires a somewhat rigorous hike uphill for the first few thousand feet of the trail, or the easier, more gradual northwest trail that increases in altitude over the course of a few miles of casual hiking.

 It's not quite a long way to the top

I always chose to eat the frog first thing, so I went with the initially more challenging hike, which leads right up to the quarry site and the sea cliffs.

                                           If you brought gear, feel free to rock climb

                       That's about as close to a loose, shale-like rock cliff face as I prefer to get

Beautiful Golden Colorado, home to Coors Beer and The Colorado School of Mines

After taking in the beautiful views, I followed the North Table Loop trail east, which gives one a wonderful panoramic view of the metro Denver area.

 View to the east - downtown Denver and the plains

Once you have made it to the east side one of the more interesting man-made sites comes into view. That is the Coors Brewery, the largest single brewing facility in the world, and it is quite impressive to see in it's entirety. It stretches from Arvada to Golden.

                                                     The west end of the Coors Brewery

   The middle section of the Coors brewery - that's South Table Mountain right behind the facility

                                                   The east end of the Coors Brewery

If you set out in the morning on this hike, once you are on the east face of the mesa the sun will be bathing you and everything else on the trail.

And by everything else, I mean snakes. Big ol' sunbathing snakes. I nearly walked into this one that seemed to be stretched out after a morning meal. At first I wasn't too sure if the snake was a threat or not, as rattlesnakes do inhabit the mesa. I was able to determine it was a Bull Snake and made my way past just as the snake decided it was time to head further up the mesa.

   See the bands on the tail? That's a Bull Snake - basically, a large gopher snake, not a threat

         Wanting some time out of the spotlight, the snake slithered away as I passed

Handy tip: If you are in doubt about whether the snake on the trail is a viper or not, get the hell away from it ASAP. Better to be safe than sorry.

The North Table Loop trail is great for hiking, but it is also used by other outdoor sports lunatics enthusiasts such as Joggers and Mountain Bikers. Everybody using the trail in my experience was polite, giving adequate (twenty paces) warning before they passed with a hearty "On your left" (or right, depending).

   The Sunday Morning Ladies Mountain Biking Club makes it's way around North Table Mountain

Just about everybody exchanged "Good Mornings", too.

                                             At every turn the trail held little surprises

      Hell bent, or some such description indicating a mountain biker racing recklessly downhill

As I rounded the east face and made it to the north side of the mesa I was surprised to find that the trail was now skirting the southern limits of the city of Arvada. I hadn't looked at the total distance of the North Table Loop trail when I set out, assuming that it was probably close to that of the Green Mountain trail, but as I checked the time when I was on the north side of the trail, I realized I'd been hiking for over two hours, which was how long it took to hike the entire Green Mountain trail.

                                                         Heading into the northwest turn

Being on the southern limits of Arvada, I knew I was at least two miles from the trailhead in Golden. I had to get moving in order to get off the trail and back home to prepare for work.

                        I think I may have stumbled across a super-villain's lair

The south side of North Table Mountain Park abuts a number of mini ranches, complete with horses and stables. There is an equestrian center near the northwestern corner of the park, and as I neared it I caught sight of a number of equestrians out and about.

An Equestrian out for a ride

I love horses, but I'm not a big fan of their trail markings, which were well in evidence all along the trail until it branched off, one fork toward the equestrian center and the other continuing as the North Table Loop trail.

                             The columnary basalt cliffs that encircle the mountaintop

Finally back on the west face of North Table Mountain, I kicked it into gear a bit. I covered the last couple of miles in just a bit over twenty minutes.

                       It was getting close to 11:00am - the trail was getting crowded

It was a great hike, and though I was a little tired and my feet hurt a bit, I enjoyed the overall experience and recommend it to one and all.

                       How come nothing this beautiful grows wild in my backyard?

Just be careful of the snakes.

Later that day I looked up the the total trail distance on the jeffco.us/openspace website - 8.5 miles. No wonder my feet were sore!