Loveland CO Continued

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We hadn’t attempted a “real” hike yet in Colorado. The two short ones in Rocky Mountain NP didn’t really count and many of the really good hikes there are still snow covered. We search around and discover Lory State Park just to the west of Fort Collins. There are numerous trails in the park and it’s  just about a 35 minute drive from camp. It sounds like the Arthur's Rock Trail is the most popular one there. We head out on a beautiful Friday morning for a hike. The trailhead is at the end of a 2 mile long road after the visitor center. There are lots of other picnic stops along the park road with some nice views over Horsetooth Reservoir. As we pull into the parking lot, it was nearly full but we found a spot. Unfortunately there were two school buses that had just unloaded at least 40 kids. Many of them had already started up the trail but we took our time moving out to allow them to get some distance. We know how boisterous a large group of young kids can be and we would prefer to have a more peaceful hike.

At Arthur's Rock Trailhead

The hike to Arthur’s Rock is about 1.7 miles one way and gains nearly 1100 feet in elevation. The good news is the peak is only at 6700 feet, well below those in RMNP, so the air isn’t quite as thin. The hike starts out going up a valley on its south side before crossing over to north side. It’s a rather consistent 12% grade for nearly all of the hike so our slow and steady pace should work well. Being unfamiliar with the trail, early on I wasn’t positive which rock in the distance was Arthur’s. Just over a quarter mile out is a trail intersection but the park has done a nice job with signage so we shouldn’t end up getting lost.

Looking Across Valley

A Fork in the Trail

When we cross over the valley, I can see a significant rock outcropping and decide that must be our destination. As we gain elevation our views get better and better and can eventually see glimpses of the reservoir to the east.

Possibly Arthur's Rock?

Arthur's Rock

Glimpse of Horsetooth Reservoir

Looking Down on Trail We Came Up

Better Reservoir View

The trail is a bit rocky but in excellent condition. There are stretches in the woods so we are not in the full sun for the whole hike. There are many wildflowers in bloom. I find myself using the trick of stopping for a photo of a flower in order to catch my breath without looking too obvious that we aren’t yet acclimated to the higher elevations. As we approach our destination, we are greeted to the loud voices of kids running around at the top. The last few hundred feet of the trail is a narrow scramble up steeper and rockier terrain. Good news, bad news. Some of the kids and the poor chaperones are starting to head back which should eliminate a portion of the noise. The kids however don't have a very good sense of trail etiquette so they tend to come down in small clusters that make our ascent difficult.

Possible Lily

Pasqueflower

Approaching Arthur's Rock

It took Chris several more minutes to get past the children and make it to the top. By then there was one more group of kids just making their way down. I jokingly asked a chaperone what return ratio would be acceptable with this many kids on a long hike. He (jokingly?) said 75 to 80 percent! Once gone, we had Arthur’s Rock nearly to ourselves with less than 10 others. The top is rather large with multiple viewing spots in all directions. We found a place in the shade to eat our sandwiches and checked out the views.

View from Atop Arthur's Rock

As we started our descent from the rock, there was a much smaller bottleneck with a couple groups making their way up.

Bottleneck on Way Down

Looking Back Up Last Stretch of Trail

A few hundred feet along the trail is a connector trail that heads over to both the Howard Trail and the Timber Trail. If we head to the former, it will cut across to the south side of the valley and follow along the top before dropping back down to the parking lot. This combination of trails will end up being a total of 4.2 miles with just over 1200 feet but we’ve already done the majority of the climbing so the extra 3/4 mile to turn our hike into a loop instead of an out and back seems to be a good decision. The main Arthur’s Rock Trail is hiking only but the Howard Trail is also open to mountain bikers. As we hiked along the trail, there were tire tracks in the dirt so we knew bikers do use it but we didn’t see any for nearly the first mile. As we were navigating the trail, I was trying to make a mental calculation of whether I would be willing to bike this trail. As we approached the switchbacks for the descent, there was a sign about needing to be prepared to dismount you bike. I decided that there may be parts of the trail that would be an enjoyable ride, I would likely need to walk the bike much too often to make it fun.

Bike Warning Sign

Pretty View Along Trail

We had stopped along one of the steeper sections of the trail for a brief rest in the shade to enjoy the views. Two cyclists were attempting the ascent. I was somewhat relieved when they needed to dismount and push their bikes up the steep grade past us. So even if I were 30 years younger (like them) I still would need to walk the bike. Before we headed out another cyclist was heading down the steep rocky grade. I was impressed with his skills and bravery. As we neared the parking area, we could see all sorts of trails on the much flatter portion of the park just west of the reservoir. Many mountain bikers were out enjoying what looked to be a much saner option. Maybe we can make it back here for a bike ride as well.

Rocky Trail Across Slope

I See a Face in the Rock

Colorful Tarantula

Entrance to Lory SP

We’ve been at Boyd Lake SP for several days but really hadn’t taken the opportunity to explore it. There is a paved bike path along the lake near the campground and we felt that would be the most enjoyable way to check out the park. The first thing we notice about the lake is the water level - it’s low, way low. Apparently the dry spring has caused the lake to be about 17 feet lower than normal for this time of year! The trail we are on ties in with many other trails and actually forms a loop around Loveland. We weren’t up for a 22 mile ride, so we limited ourselves to the general park area, grabbing a few geocaches along the way.

A Very Low Boyd Lake

Snow Capped Rockies

The following day we head south of camp to get a geocache in another Colorado county. Our destination also takes us past the town of Frederick. A cache was hidden near a group of whirley gigs. It was an interesting spot and would have been a great area to explore on bike but we weren’t in the mood to hike the paved bike path.

Whirley Gigs with Rockies View

Closeup

Carved Eagle

Next we swing by St Vrain State Park. We had actually considered staying here instead of Boyd Lake because this campground has full hookups. Unfortunately it is very close to I-25 and the campground reviews frequently complained about the noise. We figured it would be fine for a short hike. There are several small ponds and we picked a couple of the trails that would take us around Blue Heron Reservoir and Bald Eagle Pond. It was a rather hot and sunny day with no shade to speak of so while it was an okay walk, it wasn’t the best. There are some very nice views of the snow capped Rockies in the distance. One surprise to us at least was the pelican out on the reservoir. I don’t think of Colorado when I think of pelicans.

Entrance Sign

Longs Peak?

Colorado Pelican

The next day would take us back to Fort Collins. We wanted to do a brewery tour at New Belgium Brewing Company in the afternoon. We figured we could find some other things to do in town before the tour. Chris read about some gardens that are on the campus of Colorado State University so that was our first destination. The annual gardens were just starting to get worked on. There wasn’t much planted yet, but there was a large area where hundreds of pots with plants waiting to be arranged in the garden beds. I suspect they have a good handle on when the last frost of the season occurs.

The perennial gardens were just a block away. The old Fort Collins High School building appears to have been taken over by CSU and is now the Center for the Arts. Out front was an 8 foot tall Campbell’s Tomato Soup can. It’s not everyday you come across something like this. Turns out it was created under the direction of Andy Warhol for the opening of an exhibit on campus in 1981. The can even has his signature. It’s not clear why a can of soup but with him, there are lots of unanswered questions.

Former High School

Soup Anyone?

The perennial gardens were in excellent shape. There were a couple of students out tending to the plantings. It must be a tireless task to keep such a large garden looking good. While exploring, Chris stopped to chat with the guy in charge of the gardens. There were more varieties of flowers than we could count. Since this is part of the program at the university, many of them were cultivars created as part of the studies. We spent a fair amount of time just admiring the beauty of the gardens.

Delicate Flower

Horse Chestnut or Buckeye Flowers

Very Interesting Flower

We still had time to kill before our afternoon brewery tour. We head to downtown Fort Collins with a couple of things on our agenda. One was to find a place for lunch and the other was to attempt an interesting geocaching puzzle (GC20VW5). The cache owner had walked a 6 block area of the historic downtown district and took pictures of half a dozen buildings. Some shots were from a distance and showed a large amount of the building while others photos were taken from the sidewalk below the building and was rather close up. We wandered the streets comparing the photos on the cache page with the places we were seeing. When we found a spot, we were to determine the coordinates the photo was taken from and compare that to the partial coordinates provided to get numbers for the location of the final. It was an interesting concept and was a lot of fun to get us to walk around this part of town. It turned out that the final was hidden not far from the New Belgium Brewing Company, where I’ll pick up next post.