Red Mountain

Finally, spring is here! As I was just typing this in I was thinking about what a wonderful hike I had and then...I felt something creepy crawly on my arm. Ewww....a tick! That's a first for around here. I'm going to have to go take a shower!

I feel much better and I'm tick free! :) Anyhow...about this 'wonderful' hike I took. I went way out to Red Mountain today. It's closer to Cheyenne than it is to us but is considered part of the Ft. Collins open space. Ewww...I wonder how long this creepy crawly feeling is going to last. I'm feeling imaginary bugs crawling on me (at least I hope that's what they are!)

The drive to Red Mountain is long but fun. You are out in the boonies and spend about the last 7 miles on dirt roads. It is an open range so I saw TONS of cows and baby calves. One was even standing in the middle of the road nursing!
I saw a couple of pronghorn from way off running. On the way home I even got to see a couple of bison. Not bad for 'wildlife.'
I started off on the Bent Rock trail and did a loop. It was only about 2.5 miles long and started off in a pleasant canyon w/ a stream running through it.
The buds were just coming out on a lot of the vegetation.
The wildflowers were starting to come out along the Bent Rock Trail:
I'm thinking it would be a fun place for the kids to go on Memorial Day weekend. A small hike and then grill out at the covered picnic area w/ this cool sign.
Everything is pretty much 'red' at Red Mountain except for a small section on the Bent Rock Trail. There is rock that looks like chalk.
I also saw many cool geological features/formations along the way.

After that I headed to the rising sun trail and headed off to the Cheyenne Rim Trail to end at the Overlook Trail.

I saw lots of wildflowers along the way:
The view at the overlook was really nice. Plains, foothills, and snow capped mountains all rolled into one.
I even found the marker for the top.
I came down the same way and then cut back through the Big Hole Wash Trail. It is most definitely a wash: Lots of gravel and few plants.

Red Mountain
Trails Used:
Distance: 11.2 Miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.6 mph
Moving Time: 3 hrs, 25 min
Total Ascent: 1899 ft.
Maximum elevation: ft. 7190 ft.
Satellite View of Hike:
Elevation/Time of Hike:

Horsetooth Mountain Park

I went for a little hike this weekend. I was planning on doing Red Mountain but we decided that it wouldn't be a great place (plains, very open, few trees) when the 30-40 mph winds arrived. I thought that sticking close to home and finishing quickly seemed like the better option. So we ended up at Horsetooth. We parked at the Soderberg Trailhead. We would have done a longer hike had a storm not been blowing in. Saturday it was 80 degrees (albeit windy) and beautiful. I had committed to tennis already so that left Sunday for a hike. I woke up to it being 52 degrees. The temperature took a nose dive quickly thereafter. The wind and clouds came. The picture below was taken as the bad weather was rolling in. Luckily we got our hike in before the rain came. It turned out to be an okay day for hiking. Some little yellow flowers were just starting to peek out behind the rocks! I'm ready for spring/summer! Lots of bikers and runners were out trying to get their exercise done before the weather turned. There was a ton of smoke from the Crystal Fire blowing down the canyon by the time we finished. We made it back to the car w/ 10 minutes to spare before it started to spit rain and we were safely locked away inside the house by the time it turned to snow. I did do a new route today so that was fun. It started out along the reservoir then crawled up into the hills and back down.

Hopefully I will have my new camera soon and start capturing better pictures. I'm very anxious to get it!

Horsetooth Mountain Park
Trails Used: Swan Johnson, Shoreline, Sawmill, Stout, to Towers, and back on Swan Johnson
Distance: 5.2 Miles (GPS crapped out a couple of times, so this is an estimation)
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.5 mph
Overall average: 3.3 mph
Moving Time: 1 hrs, 17 min
Stopped Time: 4 min, 47 sec
Total Ascent: 861 ft.
Maximum elevation: 6126 ft.