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Recommends... Best Easy Day Hikes - Denver (FalconGuide) - A safe bet and very cheap ($6.25). There are great rocks and open spaces in the foothills west of Denver. A book like this will help you choose. |
Legault Mountain
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| Summary | Image Gallery | Trip Map
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Are 5 mile dayhikes within eyeshot of Denver adventures? Yes! Life is an adventure! OK, to be honest, this wasn't much of adventure, but it was a nice fall morning bit of exercise. I had been a bit sick in the days leading up to November 5, so I wanted to get some fresh air without really taxing myself. Besides, a winter storm was forecast for the afternoon, so I wanted to be out of the mountains long before noon.
I searched the web for "colorado dayhikes" and came across Steve Nyberg's page. I was impressed. Steve really has his priorities straight - trip reports for dayhikes right next to those for 14'ers. To honor Steve, I decided to climb Legault Mountain. Unfortunately, his trip report was a bit vague. Questions like where do I park? went unanswered until I performed more web searches.
The weather was warm (35-40 degrees F) and mostly cloudy when I left Littleton, but as I penetrated deeper into the mountains, the clouds thickened. I reached the Meyer Park Ranch parking area (intersection of Turkey Creek Road and U.S. 285, 1-2 miles on the Denver side of Aspen Park) around 7:45 a.m. and set forth without haste. I wound my way through a network of well-beaten trails, climbing steadily. Snow cover on the trail increased from nothing at 7800' to one inch around 8500'.
At some point, the snow started falling. Nothing troublesome -- a very autumn-like snow, I must say. Not much on the ground, trees newly naked, brownish-yellow aspen leaves covering the forest floor, crisp air, the smell of burning wood and leaves. I followed the marked trail to the 8600-8700' level, then broke to the east to intercept Legault Mountain, which at a mere 9074' was not a prominent summit to pick out through the thick forest. Before I knew it, I was on some kind of summit. I never actually found the USGS benchmark, but I was definitely on a summit. Steve Nyberg called it a scramble, but I believe we have different definitions of the word! This was a definite walk-up. I'd be surprised if the slope ever exceeded 25 degrees. The view to the west was soupy, even more than before. I figured that my elevation gain caused this - not an impending storm.
The view to the east was quite nice. Morning sunshine percolated through the sparse openings in the thick grey stratus clouds that seemed to fill the northern sky. I snapped a couple pictures [ one | two ], put my packs back on and turned around to go. I was amazed to see very heavy snowfall starting! In 15 seconds, the conditions went from snow-free to literally blizzard conditions. In the 15 minutes it took me to get back to the trail, at least 1/2 inch of fresh snow had accumulated. I have done enough hiking in snow to understand just how disorienting and unnerving heavy snowfall can make even a simple hike like this one.
On the trail I met a dark brown squirrel. This squirrel distinguished itself in its overwhelming negative reaction to my presence, its dark brown fur, and lastly, in the width of its head! As if I needed the squirrel to remind me of what it thought of me, it let out a blood-curdling screech that lasted roughly 15 seconds. I could hear the poor bugger's voice wavering by the end of that song.
A pleasant guy and his two dogs (Norwegian Elkhound and Husky) greeted me as I shook off the snow under a nice shelter provided by Jefferson County. Some people like to tell you what they know, and this dude fell under that category. Luckily, I was interested in his opinions. The subject of our conversation: dogs. Norwegian Elkhounds are affectionate and loyal, but they tend to nip at your heels when you run with them. This is how they would bring down Elk. Huskies are more distant, or more independent, as he said (Are they dumb? Morgan wonders...). If you walk your dog at Red Rocks and get caught, it is a $499 fine. He lets his dogs pull him uphill on his backcountry skis. Dogs are a lot of responsibility - a lot like kids. If you have one, you might as well get the other. Kids and dogs fall into a symbiotic relationship whereby they occupy each other and stay out of your hair.
Eager to get on the road before the still-falling snow made chains mandatory, I parted ways with dog-man and jogged to the truck. The time was 09:45. In the two hours since I arrived, and inch of new snow was on the ground. I opted for 285, since the plows were already active, and had an uneventful drive home.
This was a nice hike. I'm disappointed that I didn't get the great views of
the big mountains that Steve Nyberg had. Still, this hike doesn't compare to
our favorite Bay Area hikes.
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Department of Geophysics Stanford University |
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