My friend learned a day or two ago prior to the hike that Maple Springs is now open. We scheduled this hike and started our hiking journey from Main Divide on May 31.

This is another trail that was closed for a while due to the fire and prior to that, at least once a year, we always submitted this dusty and always hot trail.

But another bright side that the fire brought in the area is the changed landscape. Whatever trees standing before were now charred but the fire awaken the wildflowers with a bit help from rain. There were myriads of wildflowers blanketed some hillsides with their white and colorful hues. Since the trail was newly opened, not much dust settled on those flowers. I never been excited and happy in this trail, even if a little hot. It was just very pretty and we were in awe. Other times we hiked it, it was just dusty and hot. It was not the same caliber with other mountains when wildflowere were in bloom but I’d never seen it this beautiful before. Even the trail to Mojeska peak was very visible this time.

We tried an alternate route going up, where some bikers use, avoiding the main fire road. It was a little shorter but we decided to stay in the fire road back to Main divide.