Hiking (and Climbing) the Mallory Cave Trail
Often, when people think of Colorado, they think of snow. So, when people think of Colorado in January, they are imagining anything from powdery beautiful cold days to fierce blizzards. What people don’t know, of course, is that Colorado winters are usually pretty mild, and that the time between the end of December to the beginning of February is actually a beautiful time to get outside. (Be warned, though, that planning a trip to Colorado based on this advice is foolhardy. Colorado weather is extremely unpredictable in both winter and summer. I take no responsibility for your weather-ruined vacation.)
On this beautiful mid-January day, Anna, the dogs, and I all took a hike around the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesa Laboratory in Boulder. The NCAR campus provides much needed research about atmospheric, climate, and meteorological sciences. Also, it’s beautiful.
Just south of Boulder’s famous Chautauqua Park, the NCAR campus and surrounding public lands are filled with hiking trails and stunning views of rock formations, such as the Flatirons. The trails are fairly accessible and somewhere between easy to moderate to hike, depending on which path you take. Enjoy the meditative calmness of both the flora and fauna around you as you walk in the beauty of Colorado’s foothills.
Once you reach the final section of the Mallory Cave Trail, however, ignore all that. The last ascent is terrifying.
Mallory Cave is a small cave formation at the top of a rocky formation that was named after a University of Colorado student who happened to rediscover (stumble) upon the long-rumored site. The importance of the cave, however, lies not in its name but in its inhabitants. Townsend’s Big-eared Bats.
The bats are seasonal inhabitants of the caves, and only 1 of 11 colonies that exist in Colorado. They are extremely important to the ecosystem and provide much-needed pest control. Also, they’re super cute. You should google them. Their ears are so big.
If you want to see the mouth of the cave, however, be prepared for a very steep climb up a craggy rock face. And, inexplicably, an even more sweat-inducing descent, thanks to the weird shape of the path up.
But the views make it worth the effort.
