Hiking in Chautauqua Park

Boulder's Flatirons - I heard someone actually "climbed" to the top on rollerblades?
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The first “hike” of this hiking trip was a brief one, but I certainly felt the altitude difference between where I live in Maryland, 27 feet (9m) above sea level, and Boulder’s 5400 feet (1646m).

After a hearty breakfast, we drove along Baseline Road to a marvelous place called Chautauqua Park. If you were to come into Boulder from Denver on the Boulder-Denver Turnpike, you’d take a left on Baseline and just drive until you get there, a couple miles maybe. After parking in a small parking area, we hiked up one of the many trails into the hills. Now, to a Boulderite, what we did wouldn’t be called a “hike” at all; in fact, it was the customary daily dog walk for my cousin Joan and her best friend. We probably didn’t walk much more than 2 miles, if that.

A view of the famous Boulder Flatirons, from Chautauqua Park. They say the Flatirons were named by pioneer women who used real flatirons.
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Before coming to Colorado, I had read an article about Boulder, about how everyone is so fit and healthy. The article was “The Gore-Tex Vortex” and it was a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the city and its denizens. The author noted that he always felt like he was not in shape, running along trails behind former Olympians, always being passed by the slowest walkers.  Well, I certainly felt out of shape during this little hike, and we were not even in the mountains yet; not even, truth be told, in the foothills! (http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200608/best-outside-towns-2006-12.html)

I looked for a real flatiron to compare to Boulder's famous ones, and finally came up with this landmark sculpture in Asheville, NC. I'll have to visit it sometime! But maybe you can see the similarity ... maybe.
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No one watching me huff and puff would have believed I had walked across Spain, not six months earlier.  But it was my first hike here, and I did say I had come out to hike.

Now, here is another difference between Boulderites and many of the rest of us: it was after 9:00 in the morning, the usual start of the typical office workday for us back East. But we saw dozens of people along the trail, some with dogs, some without. Most of these are regulars, and Joan even knew their dogs’ names. This one is a lawyer, that one teaches tai-chi, he owns a mountain bike shop, she is a sculptor, and so on. Joan is self-employed. They walk these trails every day, it’s part of their routine; no wonder they are all so healthy.

And did I mention Boulder averages 300 days of sunshine per year?  Makes you want to get out there to enjoy it!  And so, they do.

The next day I was leaving Boulder to head across the state to the great beyond – western Colorado and eastern Utah, and a few more hikes...