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Mountain Hikingby Harold SearsHike Home | Site Home | Search Site |
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Bald Mountain, A Winter RefugeOn top of Bald Mountain, up Sunshine Canyon, a bit northwest of Boulder, there are few trees (of course) and a well-placed bench with wide views. On a recent afternoon, I climbed up and sat back. All around, were hills, ridges, and valleys like a crumpled bed quilt but not so warm this time of year. There were dark green ponderosa pines against new white snow that sparkled in the setting sun. Sugarloaf Mountain rose smooth, white, and conical.Our "bald" peaks have thin soil that grip roots weakly, steep slopes that draw the ground water down and away from any plants on top, and steady winds that keep the tops even drier. It's easy to feel King Of the Mountain, sovereign of all we survey. Far and wide, no one else was there. There were views of the western slopes of our “local three” — Green Mountain and Bear and South Boulder Peaks. We often get to admire these three from the east, as we go about our town business, so this more hidden back view becomes a little special — more personal, more intimate.
Just beyond the Front Range, the Boulder Turnpike stretches in a straight line toward Denver, a tiny cluster of towers like Lego blocks in a gray-white haze. I knew it wouldn’t last, but just then, the plains were dusted with white all the way to the horizon, with the tans and browns of grasses showing through. On the way up, I had passed a dozen or so folks on saucers and toboggans. They were climbing up and sliding down, packing faster and faster runs down an open slope to the pines below. There was calling and exuberance, bouncing back and forth, alive and active. On my way back down, they had gone, and all was quiet. There was no breeze on this east side of the mountain — still, silent. Well, if you listen, there is always a song — the high tweets of the chickadees, a somewhat different twitter, the lone call of a raven. There were twisted pines — angles and S-curves — tortured by
nature’s abuse. No, it isn’t really abuse. It is relatively even give
and take. She blows from the west, and the pine eases himself more to
the east. She drops a dead trunk against a branch, and he works around
and up again. There were scattered picnic tables, all empty now. Of
course, the area is busier during the summer, but Bald Mountain is
worth visiting in any season.
A version originally published in
Boulder
Open Space Trail Map (PDF).
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