Green Mountain

On Monday afternoon I decided to go see if there were any early migrants that had dropped into the Boulder hot-spot Gregory Canyon. It has been a breeding site for Scarlet Tanagers for at least the past two years and has been visited by many other unusual migrants as well. I hadn't seen it on any of the lists, so I decided to see if anything was about.


Perhaps there is a reason Gregory Canyon hasn't been getting much birding press yet - it was very thin on birds. The Mourning Cloak butterfly hung out on a few trail side branches, allowing me a couple of close ups, but the birds were few, and far between. Because there wasn't much to photograph in the canyon proper I decided to take a connecting trail on up Green Mountain, as I hadn't been that way before. I was pleasantly surprised when I rounded the first bend and found this fairy-tail like cabin poking out of the woods.

It is a cool little spot, the picture didn't do it justice. Even as I climbed the signs of spring were still there to be found. Although the higher I climbed the less springlike it became.

Ultimately, the climb ended just short of the summit. I was dressed in a cotton t-shirt, and had climbed roughly 2500ft, so the breezes up top were a bit more than I was dressed for. Responsibility probably wouldn't have won out, but the trail became snowed over, so I turned back. I really didn't want to risk an incident close to sunset on a day when I had planned to stay in the canyon itself, there will be plenty more hikes in the months to come, and I hope that a loop over Green Mountain's summit is one of the early ones.

Even without making it to the top the view of the first row of foothills extending north from Boulder was worth the effort.