Horsetooth Falls Trail, Part I

We made our annual summer pilgrimage back to the Centennial State last week. I made plans to meet a friend for dinner in Fort Collins the first night, and decided I'd find some hiking to do in the area. I never really spent much time around Fort Collins when we lived in Colorado, as in I can literally only recall being there twice in 17 years.

The Horsetooth Mountain Open Space seemed promising, so I prepared the cameras, grabbed two liters of water, and headed out.

I was looking for a fairly cool "mountain hike," and missed the mark by several thousand feet of elevation.  Temperatures on the trail were in the 90s, which suited the prickly pears just fine.

I may not have really been "in the mountains," but the views to the east from along the trail were still terrific.

Thistles may be annoying to the touch, but I do love shooting them.

This sign was clearly placed with Texans in mind.  Without it, I would have strongly considered heading up that hill to check out the view.

But really, I didn't even need to leave the trail to get great views.  Big contrast from the highly developed DFW Metroplex.

The trail was not a steady ascent, but rather went up and down quite a bit.  I always groan a little on the inside when a trail slopes downhill on the way out, because I know that's just going to be uphill on the way back.

Salsify with its hypnotic cluster of seeds.

Horsetooth Falls is just 1.1 miles from the trailhead.  And while it's hard to tell from the photo, they were actually flowing pretty well.

A chipmunk accosted me only briefly before correctly deciding I had no snacks to offer.

I set out with plans to hike to both Horsetooth Falls and Horsetooth Rock, but I'd underestimated not only the temperature but also the time.  I was going to have to go another 2.5 miles just to get to the rock, then 2.7 more back to the trailhead.  I doubted I'd have both the time and the stamina to pull it off.  But taking one route would give me the chance to change my mind after about a mile, cut my losses, and change course to return to the trailhead.  I decided to take that option and see how things played out.

More to come!