We’re lucky to live only a few miles from the Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness Area and the trailhead for Greenhorn Mountain Trail. Back in July this area received over 6″ of rain in a few short hours. I know that doesn’t sound like much now….poor Boulder….but it was a record for our area. That much rain caused some damage. The bridge that crosses Greenhorn Creek at the trailhead was destroyed by the huge volume of water in the creek, and by boulders and debris pushing against it. In August the Forest Service rebuilt the bridge and the steps down to the creek. The new bridge is awesome! Yesterday we took an hour away from our fall chores in the nursery to hike the trail. Here’s the bridge, looking up toward the parking area.
And here it is with Merrilee and Xander, looking toward the trail.
The rain this summer has given this area a misty, magical look that I haven’t seen in years. Everywhere we looked there was moss and lichen covering trees and rocks. Rivulets ran by the path, and sometimes down the middle of it.
Xander enjoyed the water a lot.
This part of the trail isn’t known for long vistas, but every now and then you can glimpse the peak ahead.
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t insert a picture or two of plants. Here’s Mahonia repens and our native sedum. Most sedums that we grow in our gardens are from the European mountains, but we have a native sedum, too. And it’s native to our own Greenhorn Mountain! Sedum lanceolatum.
