North Table Mountain

Yesterday, the temperature barely exceeded sixty degrees and there were a few clouds in the sky. Nonetheless, I opted to brave the elements in order to hike North Table Mountain. Its smaller counterpart, South Table Mountain, was one of my first real hike of the year and I'd be looking to complete the pair. When I saw that park management slated one of the trails for a seasonal closure starting mid-month, I moved this park up in priority.

Aside from the first half-mile, where the trail climbed 500 feet to the top of the mesa, the hike was pretty easy.  Once on top of the mesa, the landscape was, true to form, fairly level, though as flat as it looks from a far away.  In addition to its own set of hills and vales, the mesatop even had a small pond.  The whole area is large enough that at times it's easy to forget that you're on a mesa, 500 feet above the surrounding terrain.

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About half-way across the top, I turned left on to a mile-long spur trail--the one that will be closed in a couple days--which led to the high point on the northeastern quarter of the mesa and granted wonderful views of downtown Denver and the north along the Front Range toward Boulder. Back on the main trail, I soon dropped elevation back to the foot of the mesa, but on the exact opposite side from which I parked. From there, I followed the north loop trail around the base of the mesa back to the trailhead.

Trip Statistics
Length: 7.9 miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 7 minutes
Avg. Speed: 3 MPH
Min. Elevation: 5,950
Max. Elevation: 6,600
Net Elevation Gain: 650 ft.


Elevation Profile

Trail to top of North Table Mesa

Mesatop Pond

Front Range from North Table Mountain