The trail began pleasantly enough. We followed the NCAR Trail to the Mesa Trail, then wove around numerous rock towers, including the Front Porch, Dinosaur Rock, Der Zerkle and the Red Devil, on the trail to Mallory Cave. We saw some climbers on Dinosaur Rock, one of the pinnacles along our way. Looking up, I envied their prominent positions next to the sky, but I would get my taste of climbing for the day soon enough, unroped at that!
Bear Peak
After many tight switchbacks between some small flatirons, we found ourselves at a steep rock wall with a small sign pointing to Mallory Cave. Holly climbed up first, then Josh and I followed. The steep rock was very solid, but slippery in places. It was class 3 with perhaps one or two class 4 moves, and some narrow spots which made it even more interesting. It was a lot of fun.
Climb to the cave
Above the main difficulties, it was a short scramble to the entrance of the cave. From February to October, this area is closed off to human traffic, due to its housing maternity colonies of Townsends big-eared bats and several other bat species. The cave had a large entrance, but the insides did not extend very far. There was a strange and very potent smell within the cave, which I am sure is due to the bats. However, there were no bats there today.
Mallory Cave
After leaving the cave, Holly and Josh took a break and enjoyed the views of Boulder from a rock outcropping, while I did some more climbing near the cave. After those intermissions, we down-climbed the steep slope back to the main trail. We had to backtrack only a short distance before we came to the climbers trail which would lead us in the direction of Dinosaur Mountain’s summit. This too contained many steep and tight switchbacks, which led us through a forest of boulders, rock walls, and more famous flatiron climbs. Included were the Hand and Finger Flatirons, the Box, and Back Porch. We had seen numerous people on the trails leading to Mallory Cave, but from here to the summit the three of us would remain in our own private wonderland of rock. Several times, we veered off the trail just to explore more possible caves and natural rock tunnels and arches and boulders. Even with all these detours, we made good progress, and before long the steep trail came to what appeared to be a dead end.
Scrambling up over some boulders and through some trees, we came to the continuation of the trail. This we followed up to the final stratum of rocks, the Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum and Dum of the Dinosaur’s spine. We had to work our way through an interesting notch between Fum and Dum and then up the “bowling alley” to the saddle between the summits of Dinosaur Mountain.
Bear Peak
We scrambled first to the true summit of the Dinosaur, and I loved every bit of it! The scramble in itself was a lot of fun, and as pointy summits go, this sheer rock is about as good as it gets! Sitting on the summit, my feet dangling on either side, I was thrilled and somewhat nervous to look down on the tree tops far below me. The views were fantastic: Green Mountain and it’s armor-plated slopes were visible across the saddle, and the pyramidal Bear Mountain lay across the valley from us. Boulder and Denver were both clearly visible, as were the Flatirons to the north. This recluse summit was an exciting place to experience.
At the summit
After taking numerous pictures, I scrambled to some other false summits, including the enticing balanced rock-top of Dum.
The pointy true summit of Dinosaur
I figured we could complete a loop tour of Dinosaur Mountain to make it even more interesting, so I decided to try to follow the southwest slopes down into Bear Canyon. I think I missed the proper route, and we ended up going all the way down a steep and slippery scree chute. After many minor slips and falls, we eventually made it to the dry creek bottom in the valley below. A kind of creepy place, reminding me of scenes from Sleepy Hollow, we made our way across a faint trail through some willows, and onto the Green Mountain Trail.
We still had some distance to cover, but the trails were nice the rest of the way back to our starting point. We arrived at the parking lot just at sunset, topping off a beautiful day and an exciting hike.
A final look at Dinosaur Mountain
At 7,360 feet, Dinosaur Mountain is not one to climb for a high altitude experience. It is, however, a great place to get in some climbing, bouldering, bushwhacking, and even some limited spelunking. Though small by Colorado standards, it is a complex, interesting, and enchanting mountain, well-worth the visit.