2025 Colorado Scientific Society Field Trip

North Table Mountain – CSS No Moss Gathering

Saturday, May 17 2025 8:00 am – 12:00 noon

Pete Modreski, USGS Retired, will lead this trip.

From Pete’s announcement:

“In our last newsletter we said we’d been planning some more “No Moss” half-day field trips. We are going to hold one this coming Saturday, May 17, to North Table Mountain. All are welcome to come!”

“I (Pete) will lead the trip. We’ll meet at 8 a.m. at Tony Grampsas Sports Park, Golden, located at the end of Salvia Street, going north from W 44th Ave., just east of the Colorado Railroad Museum. Park near the left (west) end of the gravel parking area, closest to the path that will lead to Table Mountain. Plan on a loop hike of about 3 miles and 600 feet elevation gain, from which we’ll return by about noon. We’ll be hiking through the Denver Formation and the three lava flows (earliest Paleocene) that lie within and atop it, including seeing the the lower contact of one of the lava flows; columnar jointing, spheroidal weathering, and vesicular zones (filled with zeolite minerals) in the lavas; and an abundance of flowering plants and shrubs. A bonus to doing this trip right now is that, thanks to last week’s rain, small groundwater-fed streams have been flowing in two drainage canyons on the south and east sides of North Table Mountain, feeding one waterfall plus some smaller cascades. A few pictures, from a hike here last Friday, are attached.”

“It’s not necessary to reply to come on the trip, but if you wish to or have question, contact me at pmodreski@aol.com, or call or text 720-205-2553. If there are some who would like to come on the trip but cannot make it on this date, we may repeat the hike in two weeks, on May 31.”

It should be similar to Pete’s March, 2022 trip. See 2022 North Table Mountain No Moss trip
The information there includes maps and descriptions of the geology and minerals.