Route:updated on May 2, 2007

The Start of the South Table Mountain Run

South Table
Rating: T3, P2, N5
Facilities: None. The closest bathrooms are at the Denver West Shopping Center, across I-70.
Start Elev: 5,720'
High Point: 6,300'

Description: A relatively easy run, with a fairly short climb to the top of the mesa. Once on top, it's mostly flat, with a gradual rise to the west. The challenge is in finding your way. There are dozens of intersecting trails, no trail signs, and very few landmarks. Go with someone familiar with the trails or with a group. Stop at trail junctions, look at the surroundings, and remember them for the way back.

Jefferson County recently purchased and obtained easements for a large portion of the top. They will be developing a trail system and signage over the next couple of years. Note that there is still a significant amount of private land. Please respect those boundaries, whether or not there is a fence.

Weather: South Table is decent for running in the winter (06-07 was atypical). Because it's flat with almost no trees, snow and ice melt quickly. It is not good when it's wet. The mud is very thick and heavy. To help preserve the trails, please stay off muddy trails. The top is very exposed, so stay off in high winds and t-storms. That also means that there is no shade in the summer. Watch out for snakes in the warmer months.

Route
Route:
Blue line = basic route
Orange = advanced
Purple = additional advanced options

The basic route is out-and-back. Run to the Golden Stairs (12) - a rock perch overlooking the town of Golden - ~3¼mi, and back. Check your time and turn around earlier if necessary.

Basic: Starting from NREL, head up the trail from the E end of the visitor's lot. The trail bends right as it start to gets steep, just below the first junction (1). Most runners go left. The faster runners sometimes go right. Follow the trail to the top (3). If you're new to the trail, stop, turn around, and look at the landmarks below to help you find your way back. Continue to heading N. Ignore any crossing paths. As you get to the N end of the mesa, you'll be running alongside the fence by the CDOT test track. At the N end of the CDOT track, you'll come to a wide jeep path (4). Remember this junction for the way back.

Go left on the jeep path and head W. The CDOT fence will be on your left, and, a little further up, a private fence line on your right. The path winds a bit, then turns into a narrower trail, before reaching a downed fence line (8). Continue a short way W to another key junction (9). There may be a small rock cairn (pile) here. The basic route takes the gentler right onto the rocky jeep path. Faster runners may take a sharper right here.

The basic route continues W on the wide jeep path. This is a gradual uphill. Keep heading W towards the power lines. You crest the hill by the power lines (11), then down the other side. There are a couple of junctions. We generally stay to the right without taking any of the steeper climbs to the N. At the end of the trail, climb the concrete stairs to the top (12). This is the site of an old night club. Stop and enjoy the view.

Return the same way. Stay right at junction (10). Look for the rock cairn and veer left at (9). Look for the CDOT track and go right on the single track just past the fence (4).

Advanced: At the first junction, turn right. This curves down to a sharp left (2). Head up the hill to the top. Follow the rocky trail around the E edge, then head W. Just after turning W (5), there's an option to go right down the steep hill. Then, take a left at the next junction (6), and follow the gentle climb back up to the jeep road (7). Continue W on the basic path.

At the key junction with the western main jeep path (9), take the sharper right up the hill. At (13), take a right and loop around the quarries. At junction (14), there are a couple of different ways back to the jeep road and the basic route. Continue W to the Golden Stairs (12).

On the way back, the group may decide to add the trails to the S at junction (15). This area has a few motocross type short, steep ups and downs, and sharp curves.

South Table Mountain History

Marnie Barnhardt of Lakewood remembers that during the 1920's she lived with her parents at the base of Golden's Castle Rock, about where the corner of 13th and Ford streets are now. There was a dance hall on top of Castle Rock and a restaurant. It was closed down by a fire in the late 1920's and never reopened. One terribly scary thing I remember, writes Marnie, is the fiery cross the Ku Klux Klan burned up there. The Klansmen met up there but drove up the back way on a dirt road in Pleasant View. I remember the night the Klan burned a cross in the front yard of the old St. Joseph's Catholic Church, which was at the foot of the rock.

Mrs. G.P.T. of Denver remembers: "We moved to Golden in 1916. I remember the funicular up Castle Rock. I remember the night the pavilion on top burned in 1927. It lit up the whole sky, a sight I will never forget. The Quaintances, who built the dance hall, also cut a road up South Table Mountain and rented donkeys for the ride to the top of Castle Rock.

From Arthur Lowther of Golden: A long flight of concrete steps remains today on the back side of Castle Rock. These steps were used by the railway passengers after they got off the cog to complete their way to the top. After the railway was removed, folks drove their Model T's up the back side of the rock. Remains of this roadway are still in evidence.

Bill Hoeper of Lafayette recalls that the Ku Klux Klan used to congregate on South Table Mountain and at one time burned a cross on top of the mountain.

Bill Coors recalls that the cable car consisted of a car at each end of a cable which was powered by a reversible bull wheel driven on top. As one car went up, the other car went down. As a small child he remembers watching the cars go up and down.

Bill continues: Sometime around 1920, the dance pavilion closed and the cable cars shut down. Shortly thereafter, the Ku Klux Klan began using the mountain as headquarters for its operations around Denver. In that era, the Klan wielded a great deal of influence in Colorado and was much feared by many people, including my grandfather. As a boy, I recall on many nights the burning of enormous fiery crosses on Castle Rock and watching ghoulish, shadowy figures dance around them. One summer afternoon in 1927, the pavilion went up in flames. It was an awesome sight, with flames reaching up into the sky as high as the cliffs of the rock itself. I watched the fire from my family home on the brewery premises a full half mile east of the center of Golden. Yet I could hear the jubilant shouts coming from the town as the resented structure on Castle Rock burned to the ground. The building was never rebuilt after the fire. The power of the Klan was waning and no evidence of it was ever again visible in the Golden area.

A visit to the top of Castle Rock today reveals only a few faint vestiges of its past. Concrete foundations of the cable car railroad, a concrete stairway from the terminal to the top of the rock and few rusty steel tie rods embedded in the rock itself are all that remain.