Fern Canyon joins the Mesa Trail on a 4.15 mile route to Bear Peak. The Fern Canyon Trail is direct but strenuous, climbing 2100' in just 1.2 miles to the summit. Visitors will enjoy diverse terrain and exceptional views across the plains, foothills and Continental Divide.

Looking NW over Green Mountain toward Mt Meeker and Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park

The Mesa Trail runs 6.7 miles from Chautauqua Park to Eldorado Canyon Road, with multiple options for reaching Green, Bear and South Boulder peaks

In 1898 Boulder residents approved the purchase of 80 acres of land to be used as a 'Chautauqua', or gathering for intellectual and cultural development

The jagged south ridge for which Dinosaur Mountain is named leads down into Bear Canyon

The 2013 floods damaged many apple and plum trees along main drainages; biologists are monitoring to see how this affects bears in the area, who have become reliant on the fruit

The final 50-75 yards require a precarious scramble across exposed boulders and steep dropoffs

Most flower species in Boulder County can be found along the Chautauqua Park trail system, which spans grasslands, steppe-foothills and montane forests in a small area

Bear Peak is not the tallest mountain over Boulder, but its pointy, rocky summit can be distinguished from all others and seen from greater distances

The Fern Canyon Trail climbs steeply through rugged intervals of rock and root

Bear Peak is buffeted by easterly winds off the mountains; no matter the trailhead weather, carry extra layers!

Looking north across the Mt Sanitas valley ad hogback; hogbacks are anticlines whose softer sediments have eroded to expose hard ridges

Oregon Grape is a ubiquitous ground cover that produces dark blue berries in the fall, a vital food source for bears heading into hibernation

Open Space has been working for years to cull forests and restore natural tree densities, which have ballooned in recent decades to unsafe levels as a result of fire suppression

Western Wallflowers (genus | mustards) are the most widely distributed of the 12 species