My Monday morning hikes

Today I got to do my first regular Monday morning hike of the spring. Back before we turned our lives upside-down, I worked three days a week. Friday was always B-Mommy Super-Fun Day, and Monday was always my home-work day. But before I got down to my gardening, housecleaning, grocery shopping, etc., I often took a hike with Kenai. We are lucky to have an open space mountain park practically in our backyard (there's a trailhead 2 blocks from the house), so it's easy to head out on foot from home and within minutes, be away from it all.

Well, my maternity leave has come to an end, and I went back to work last week. I'm still doing the three-day-a-week thing, but didn't get "my" Monday last week because Z was home sick with me (she's all better now). So today was the first normal Monday I've had in months. We took my current favorite hike. It's a trail I discovered about halfway through last summer. I have to walk about half an hour to get to it, with this view of Table Mountain to keep me company as I go:

Then I take a hard left onto a trail that cuts up a deep ravine, cool and shady, with a stream running along the bottom. This is a rare thing on this mountain. It's a very hot and dry place most of the time, with very little in the way of trees to shade you on a hike. I was amazed when I first came across this ravine, and I call it my "secret trail." Looking up the ravine:

Looking back down the ravine at where we came from:

Kenai paused for a nice roll in the grass:

And a drink of water followed by a little rest in the shade.

This is a lonely part of the mountain. I've never seen another person on this trail. That's saying a lot, since the trail across the top of the mountain is practically a super highway on the weekend, wall-to-wall mountain bikers and hikers. Our only company today was the birds, the butterflies, a bunny that was not very happy to see big black Kenai come around a curve in the trail, and a few airplanes way overhead. I couldn't even hear the traffic on I-70 most of the time.

At the top of the ravine, the trail turns west and enters the bottom of a lovely meadow with steep, grassy sides. The hillside near the top of this meadow will be carpeted with wildflowers in another few weeks.

The wildflowers are really just getting started, and won't peak for another two or three weeks. Among the early few we saw today:

At the top of this meadow, you reach a trail that skirts the summit of the mountain. We walked along that a ways, then crossed over to the fire road that runs across the top. Here's a view to the southwest, where I could see the snow-covered top of Pikes Peak in the distance (the haze and my crummy camera won't let you see it though):

And turning back to look west, here's the top of our backyard mountain:

And snow-covered Mt. Evans not too far behind it:

A quick walk across the top takes you to the east side of the mountain, where you can look down and see the roof of our house below (I can't even begin to tell you which one it is, but trust me, it's in here):

Slide and stumble down the steep, rocky east face, walk a couple blocks through the neighborhood, and it's home sweet home.

Now if you'll excuse me, my gardens are calling my name, and then I really should at least make a quick pass through the house with the feather duster so I can say I did some cleaning. I hope your Monday is as peaceful and pleasant as mine.