Friday August 9

Schedule for Friday, August 9th 2019

08:30 –14:00 : Boulder Area Hikes from Chautauqua Park (optional)

On this day we will be offering a few different hikes from our very own Chautauqua Park in Boulder. This is also an opportunity to explore further downtown Boulder, such as Pearl Street.

Hike Option 1 (Easy): Flatiron Loop Trail

"The Flatiron Loop Trail is a Chautauqua tradition. Who doesn't want to stare up at one of the massive flatirons or maybe take a quick scrabble up one? If you aren't sure what the Flatirons are, you aren't alone. Check out the brief blog article What The Heck Are The Flatirons for an introduction. The Flatiron Loop is typically accessed via the well-known Chautauqua Trail and returned via the Bluebell Rd Trail. It is a beautiful hike through open meadows, pine forest, rock falls, and valley floor."

Hike Option 2 (Moderate/Difficult): Royal Arch Trail

"Royal Arch (6,915') is perched high along a rugged fold in the Boulder Flatirons. These rocks are remnants of the Fountain Formation, a mineral-rich sand eroded from the ancestral Rocky Mountain uplift 300 M years ago. Sediments deposited by the ebb and flow of inland oceans compressed this layer into sandstone, thrust upward 45 M years ago by the same tectonic forces that created our modern Rocky Mountains. Royal Arch is a fragment of the exposed Fountain Formation sculpted by water, wind and mechanical erosion into the 20’ span we see today."