Betty Ford Alpine Garden

The naturalist setting of the Betty Ford Alpine Garden in Vail

The Betty Ford Alpine Garden near the ski resort of Vail, Colorado is a lovely place for an early morning or late afternoon stroll. Not interested in climbing Mt. Flora to see Moss Champion, a ground hugging tundra flower, you can do so at the garden with Fifi or an aged P in tow.  If you are of the fur coat, Lexus-with-a-bow set then lunch in Vail and you will have an outing.

The garden gift shop

The entrance to the Garden.  Like most great things in Colorado there is no entrance fee!

Trees, flowers and winding paths.  Each route reveals something new.

There are four main gardens constructed between 1989 and 2002.  Don't expect to see just Colorado flowers, however.  The garden have collected alpine and high-altitude plants from around the world.  Visitors can wander between the Mountain Perennial Garden, the serene Mountain Meditation Garden, the Alpine Rock Garden, and the latest Children's Garden.

Columbine actually comes in many colors.

Another path

This could be a shot of manicured path in Rocky Mountain National Park

I confess that botanical gardens can be overly neat for my tastes.  I once went on a vacation to Vancouver Island Canada and visited the Butchart Gardens.  The formality, rigidity and never ending structure of that garden were a harsh contrast to the wild, chaotic, moss-coated old growth forests north of the city.  The Alpine Garden has some of that and you won't think for a moment you are ogling the wildflowers on Shrine Mountain, but the organizers have done a good job of adding waterfalls, rough hewn steps, and large shrubs of I'll-grow-as-I-please Columbine...enough to give visiting New York socialites a  Disneyland-ish taste of wild Colorado.

Ok Alpine curators, what is this flower?

An American Red Squirrel was chattering away in the tree above this bench but declined to have his picture taken.

One of the many water accents

The garden is located at exit 176 in Vail near the Ford Amphitheater.  Follow the frontage road east  to a large parking lot near some baseball fields and tennis courts (Ford Park).  Follow the path that leads to the amphitheater, go past its entrance until you see a small green cottage.  The entrance to the garden will be on the right.

Several artistic tree trunks watch over visitors.

Looks like another type of Columbine

So, if you are in Vail or just passing through, stop for a moment for a breath of fresh mountain air and a dose of vibrant color at the Betty Ford Alpine Garden.  You will learn something about the unique adaptations plants make to high-altitude while soothing the soul.  If you are a hiker like me, remember that returning to civilization every once in a while is a good thing, so take a shower, put on something besides sweat stained hiking pants, and use the gardens as a means of easing yourself back into the real world.  It will be less jarring than the traffic through the Eisenhower tunnel!

Hopeless Aid Station...Leadville Trail 100

One of the first runners cresting Hope Pass
in the 2011 Leadville Trail 100

In August of 2011 I helped out at the Hopeless Aid Station just below 12,600 ft Hope Pass (see blog post of the hike itself).  This aid station is the most remote station on the 100 mile ultramarathon route and is so isolated that all tents, water purification, food, oxygen tanks, cooking equipment etc has to be transported in via llama.  The Hopeless Aid Crew have been doing this for over 20 years.  They are dedicated to the runners and to their llamas and are great group of people who are only slightly less certifiable than the runners themselves. 

The Leadville Trail 100  is a grueling, only-for-the-crazy, kind of event and it was amazing to watch from the vantage point of the most extreme point on the route.  The aid station is located at mile 45 on the outbound route and mile 55 on the inbound.  Hope Pass is traversed twice, a double wammy of sheer, painful oxygen deprivation.  I was surprised, however at just how bloody perky many of the runners were by the time they got to us, even for the second time.  I had heard tales from friends in the crazy-enough set who talked about hallucinations, hypothermia, and hypoglycemia. I can think of a few more words that start with an 'h', like "hypoxia" but I digress.  I was surprised therefore by the front runners who wore hardly any clothes and who were whooping with joy when they crested the pass.  Slower runners dressed in outlandish colors, which better complimented their more civilized pace.  Everyone had big smiles on their faces as if running 100 miles was like...fun!

Some runners of course were not so peachy by the time they reached us.  The medical tent had no vacancy at one point as runners were snuggled into plush sleeping bags and given effervescent doses of oxygen.  The race rules changed in 2011 and anyone accepting a quick trip to sea level via a nasal canular was automatically excluded from the race.  Many chose to take the trip anyway so they could finish the race, albiet unofficially.

The one-way elevation profile for the race.  The tall spike on the end is Hope Pass.

The cook and medical tents the day before the race.  The food tent will go up the day of.

My station was the water station.  It was pretty slow during the early part of the day, but by the time the runners and their pacers (folks in the crazy-enough set who run the last 50 miles back to help the main runners along) returned I was so busy I did not have time to blink let alone do anything useful like eat or drink.  The folks coming through were on a mission...run fast or be stranded in the dark on the trail up to Hope Pass.  My team and I opened water bottles, untwisted Camelbacks, and lugged around 5 gallon jugs of water.  After nine to ten hours of that I felt like I had run the race myself.  I had been kneeling on the ground the entire time and my quads were permanently contorted.  The folks in the medical tent were unsympathetic when I begged for an oxygen martini.  Imagine wanting to reserve it for the runners! The fact that I went and got the oxygen tanks from the clinic in town and put them on a llama should have given me insider privileges but no!  One final interesting note about the water.  All of the water used in the race was pumped from Little Willis Lake, run through a water purification system that looked like the innards of a nuclear reactor, and dragged over 300 ft up steep terrain throughout the event on the backs of llamas!

Looking back down the valley towards Leadville.  Imagine running that entire distance...twice!

Sunrise on race day.  The runners have been running for a while now.

I was coming down the slopes of Quail Mountain when one of the frontrunners crested the pass.  Just a dot in the wilderness, the elite athletes of the Leadville Trail 100 must train their psyches as much as their bodies.

Two of my friends worked in the cook tent all day.  The llamas brought up 300+ packages of Ramen noodles, which were prepared all day along with instant potatoes.  All this took several propane tanks, two cook stoves, numerous pots and more and more water from the nuclear reactor.  In the food dissemination tent, noodles, potatoes, pretzels, GU packs, bananas, orange slices, candy, and saltines made for a smorgasbord of easily digestible tidbits.  Uncarbonated Coke syrup was mixed with water from the nuclear reactor and paired with the edibles with as much attention to service as a wine dinner at the Palace Arms.  The Coke served to settle stomachs upset by their owner's total disregard for their digestive tract.  Unfortunately, like any all-you-can eat buffet, the choicest bits began to run out by the end of the day.   Still, the food tent felt more like a day at Ascot..."I can really have as many M & Ms as  I like, how very kind!" or "Where may I place my trash?"

The station in the early hours with only the first runners through.  The crowd on the right is the youngsters from the Golden High School Track Team, who run up the pass to help out.  Little, crazy Leadvilliers in vitro they are!

The food tent with just a few runners sampling the fare. 

It was well after dark when the last runners finally crested the pass. We could see their headlamps glowing in the dark as they trudged their way down to us.  With no hope of finishing on time, they hung out for a while by our raging fire, which also served as a literal beacon in the wilderness, before heading on.  The very last people through are two hardy souls on mountain bikes who cruised the route looking for the bodies of the fallen.  They were late in arriving because they had in fact ended up dragging a stricken runner back down the other side. 

The medical tent

The water station with the 5 gallon jugs of water.  The coolers contained an electrolyte brew.

The llamas on departure day.  I ended up leading the second string of fractious, overloaded, barn sour llamas down the steep path to the bottom.  Who knew I could move that fast!

As the hush ensued, the Hopeless Crew made a feast of pasta, cheese, summer sausage and wine some unknowing llama had trudged up the hill.  A celebratory vibe settled over the small group as the veterans regaled us novices with tales of years past.  All in all it was a phenomenal experience that very few Coloradans get to experience...that is unless you are just crazy enough to join the crew this year!

Westminster Hills Snowshoe

Distance: 3 mile loop
Elevation: 5,500 ft - 5,600 ft
Elevation Gain: 100 ft
Dogs: Off leash (Run baby run!!)
Bathroom at the trailhead: No

Two feet of snow covers the wide expanse of the Westminster Hills Dog Park.  All the pictures in this post were taken blindly (due to sun glare) with the camera on my phone.

Westminster Hills is an open space dog park near the Broomfield Airport.  I take Ginger, the hyper one, there at least 4 days a weeks because she can roam over the entire 400 + acres of prairie while I run the trails.  After the February 2012 dumper (24 inches and counting), the park was transformed into rolling hills of crystalline beauty.  I grabbed a pair of showshoes and left the normal trails to bushwhack in a fit of childish glee.  What is it about breaking the rules that feels so naughty?  As you can sense, I don't allow myself to do that often.

Route taken.  If you zoom in on the map you can see the dotted outline of some of the trails.  They have greatly expanded in the last few years.

The well tracked entrance to the park

Looking south to the southern plateau.  You can sense the snow depth.

Heading south to the top of the southern plateau.  This segment was along an official trail.

On the southern plateau looking southwest towards the hills

The open space consists of a large meadow bordered on either side by plateaus that rise around 100 feet higher than the surrounding area.  A gully travels between the two into a distant and deep field transected by power lines.  You can loop the meadow,  go "up the gut", take either of the plateau routes, head to the "back 40" or any combination of these.  When I run, I can loop around and get in 4 miles.  On this trip I ignored these established routes and tried to find the deepest snow.  The route turned out to be around 3 miles according to the GPS on my phone.

The trail across the southern plateau is around 0.75 miles long.  That is the Boulder Flatirons in the distance.

At the far end of the "Back 40"

Walking along the edge of the northern plateau where the snow was deepest

Heading back down to the trailhead.  The trail "up the gut" is slightly visible on the hillside to the right.

A giant cottonwood borders a small pond that fills with water in the spring.  Water loving dogs romp there with their owners.

North Table Mountain

Distance: 5.5 mile loop
Elevation: 6,030 ft - 6,485 ft
Elevation Gain: 455 ft
Bathroom at Trailhead: Yes
Dogs: Leash Only

Ancient lava forms a basaltic cap on top of North Table Mountain

Ever seen a Coors commercial showing majestic Mt. Wilson?  This peak is actually located in the southwest corner of the state but Coors likes to pretend its brewery is near this scenic edifice when in fact, it is sandwiched between North and South Table Mountains in Golden, CO.  These mesas are just as much a part of Colorado topography as Mt. Wilson, but the marketers obviously found their unique rock formations too mundane to sell beer.  Don't fall into the same trap.  A stroll to the top of these eroded monoliths is a pleasant excursion for the whole family.  I have already profiled the Lubahn Trail, which goes to the top of South Table Mountain.  Another unseasonably warm day in January 2012 was an opportunity to visit the area's northern cousin.

Large Parking Lot

Map of the area and our route

Rabbitbrush along the side of the initial ascent

This wide road forms part of the North Table Loop

While the Lubahn Trail, is more of a neighborhood trail (e.g. you have to know it exists), North Table Mountain is an Jefferson County Open Space park with a large parking lot and bathroom.  Getting to the top of the mesa is easy, there is a large, obvious road that heads up from the parking lot.  We passed several families with small children whose little feet could easily navigate the gravel road.  This road is part of the North Table Loop and it is 0.7 miles to the top of the mesa.  Once at the top, the route splits with the North Table Loop continuing to the right while the Tilting Mesa veers off to the left.

Trail junctions are marked with large rock signs.

The distant rock formations along the Tilting Mesa Trail with pockets of ice

The wide open expanse of the Tilting Mesa Trail.  Could you tell that you are on top of a mesa and not out on the eastern plains?

The far end of the Mesa Top Trail, just as it descends to the other side

Having never been to this area, I wanted to explore it as much as possible, so we took the Tilting Mesa Trail which heads off to the northern side of the mesa.  This area is dominated by distant rock formations (they are sequestered behind do not enter signs), flat grasslands, and an open sky that seemed to stretch all the way to Never Never Land.  We could see Mule Deer  wandering across a distant hill while runners and mountain bikers dotted the landscape.

Heading down the other side

Heading north on the North Table Loop

Heading East on the North Table Loop

At the three-way junction of Tilting Mesa, Rim Rock, and  Mesa Top Trails, we decided to head east on the Mesa Top Trail, which ended up taking us down the other side of the mesa.  At the bottom this became the North Table Loop Trail again,  which we followed all the way back around to the parking area.  This part of the route was slow going.  The trail was full of mud and ice.  I fell at least twice in spots where the slightest incline turned the trail into an commercial for high-powered laundry detergent. 

Houses appear, but we are a long way off yet

The icy and muddy trail and occasional inclines made for difficult walking.  There was no one else on the trail.

Several bridges cross drainages coming off the mesa

If I were to go again, I might choose to head out the Rim Rock Trail, which deadends on top of the mesa, and then turn around and return the way I came.  I can see in the spring when the grasses are green and the trails are dryer, this open space would a great spot for a sunset stroll.
 

At last we return to the parking lot

Buffalo Cabin Snowshoe

Distance: 3 miles round trip
Elevation: 9,760 ft - 10,619 ft
Elevation Gain: 700 ft
Date Hiked: 15 January 2012
Dogs off leash:  Until Eagles Nest Wilderness Boundary
Bathroom at trailhead: No

The view of Lake Dillon, the Continental Divide and the condos of Wildernest from 700 ft up Buffalo Mountain

Buffalo Mountain (12,777 ft) is the large as in very large as in immensely large round mountain you see after jetting down from the Eisenhower Tunnel heading west.  Climbing Buffalo Mountain (3 miles/3,017 ft elevation gain) is one of the steepest ascents around but snowshoeing 1/3 of the way to the summit to the ruins of Buffalo Cabin is something mere mortals can do.   While devoid of views unless you press on for at least another 0.2 miles, it is very popular with the locals.  This is in fact why I was on this trail.  I wanted something close by to exercise both the dog and myself on a Sunday afternoon.

Standing at the trailhead and looking at the parking lot.  The trail to Lilly Pad Lake is just around the bend.

The trailhead

The route starts at the Buffalo Cabin Trailhead, 3.5 miles up Ryan Gulch Road (one of two main roads that shoots straight up the mountain's slopes).   Note this road starts out as Wildernest Road lower down.  This trailhead shares a parking lot with Lilly Pad Lake, which you can also access from Frisco.

Playing with the shadows on the snow.

The route is easy to follow if a bit monotonous.  You pass the Wilderness Boundary at 0.36 miles and come to a 4-way junction at 0.6 miles.  Go straight to intersect the Gore Range Trail and South Willow Falls, go right to dead end at the end of the other road that goes up the mountain, and go left to continue climbing.

Typical trail segment.  Packed snow in the trees

There are actually several ruins of cabins along the way but it can be hard to tell in the snow.  The first one appears around 0.95 miles while the official (e.g. largest) one occurs shortly thereafter at 1.1 miles.  All that remains of these cabins are a few logs piled on top of each other.

Trail sign at the 4-way junction

I had snowshoed this trail before but it had been 9 years ago and my memory was very foggy.   I do remember reaching a point where I could not go any further and this trip was no exception.  On this trip, I was in microspikes and reached the point where the angle of the trail became very steep.  Snowshoes and poles would have been required to go any further.   I snapped a few photographs of the views and headed back down.  This spot is only a few tenths of a mile beyond Buffalo Cabin, but it is up and around another switchback.

The ruins of Buffalo Cabin.  With all the downed trees it is hard to tell what is a tree and what is a cabin log.

Buffalo Mountain was so named because it reminded the early settlers of the large hump of a buffalo.  There are two prominent avalanche shoots that the grace the eastern side.  These slid in 1986 and 2003.  The large cirque that is also one of the prime identifying feature was carved by glaciers.

The view at the turn around point

I would not send tourists on this trail since there are so many more scenic options in the area, but for general exercise this trail will get your heart pumping and burn off last night's fried chicken wings.  Sometimes that is all you want.