Hiking is my happy place. And recently I’ve fallen in love with South Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado. It's sister, North Table Mountain in my estimation gets five times the foot and bicycle traffic.

A month ago, I found a trailhead for South Table that has only a few parking spaces, which guaranteed a peaceful hike! I've done it four times since. My favorite path takes me along an historic ditch, which no longer carries water, and then I take a right and follow the erosion up the side of the mountain. It's a popular place for mountain biking. I watch them plummet the steep elevations and soar over the natural berms. What a thrill.

The first time I climbed out of that notch I was exhausted. Surrounded by fog, I drank water and looked ahead on the trail, seeing the silhouette of a man. I was startled. I'd had the trail to myself all morning.

I continued toward the man, and soon made out antlers and the long, lean, limbs of a man. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Heart pounding, I kept going, snapping a picture with my phone camera. Finally, feet away, I saw that it was a sculpture of a Native American! He had a deer with antlers draped around his neck, carrying his successful hunt's prize to share with his community. I laid a rock on the base of the sculpture and went up the rest of the trail.

That next stretch of the trail? Check out my Instagram feed, because it is a skinny path that leads up an ancient sand dune, I'm talking 200-plus million years old! Hundreds of millions of years ago Colorado was underwater, the floor of a landlocked sea. This took no imagining as I stood on this dried out ocean floor. There were even white shell bits among the petrified dunes.

This haunting experience brought me back again and again. At night, I'd fall asleep studying maps as I searched for a new, fresh route up and around South Table Mountain.

But after my most recent visit, something happened to me that felt like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

And it led me to research the history of South Table Mountain. Soon, I found myself hiking to Castle Rock on weary legs and praying for peace and love to heal the land.

Two days later, I'd be back on the slopes to offer a flower to a murder victim.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

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Dark History of South Table Mountain (Colorado)