Audio Excerpt

Take a look to the East and you’ll see a hill with a really flat top, kind of looks like a table for giants doesn’t it!? Well that my friends, is a mesa known as North Table Mountain.  A mesa is a term for an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs.. Sooo table looking hills.. Got it. North Table Mountain is geographically separated from South Table Mountain by Clear Creek and the Golden freeway which runs along the creek's banks.  North Table Mountain is 6,555 feet high and is underlain by sedimentary rocks of the Denver Formation, which is located in the central part of the Denver Basin. The formation is known for important paleontological resources including dinosaur remains from the late Cretaceious period.  Hmmm maybe the remains were from the T-Rex.. I wonder if ‘ol short arms could comfortably sit at the North Table.. hehe . maybe they had a T-Rex table just like the kids table at Christmas! 

 

  North Table Mountain is located inside North Table Mountain Park, a scenic recreational park home to a variety of animals.  Of those animals, one in particular shares a similarity to the dinosaurs! Any idea which one?

 

A - Raptor, B - Mountain Lion, or C - Mountain Sheep?

 

If you answered A, Raptor, well done! Wait, but a Raptor IS a dinosaur, right?. Well not this one, but it does share the name! The Raptor that frequents the area is the bird of prey, like the Hawk or Falcon! The name Raptor is Latin and means, to seize and capture!! Yikes!! Several areas in the park are closed seasonally to protect several species of nesting raptors!