Taylor Mountain and Big John

It was a beautiful weekend for hiking. Calm weather that wasn't too hot, even at lower elevations. We didn't get up too high but stayed a little lower hoping to find some wildflowers. The Lyons area has always been good for wildflowers but we weren't sure if it was too early for that elevation. And although it was indeed early, there were still a handful of flowers on this hike at the beginning as we were hiking along the forest road. But I would not consider this a hike for wildflowers. The main trail soil conditions didn't seem right for wildflowers to thrive here. But even without the wildflowers, this was a great hike with wide open views at Big John Mountain that were perfect for eating lunch.

The last time we hiked this, forest road 3301 was open allowing us to drive up 3/4 of a mile to make the hike shorter. The gate was still closed from winter so this was a little longer of a hike than last time, but we were expecting that so it was ok.

There was only one other car when we got to the trailhead, and right as we were starting our hike that person was heading back from camping that night before. So we were the only ones up there for the majority of the hike. On our descent we came across a handful of people, but overall it was a very quiet hike. This area has a ton of small off shoot trails that we need to explore some time. But since it isn't well known, the trails a very overgrown making it a real adventure getting lost in the forest and finding your own way.