Happy Monday everyone! I hope that y’all had a great weekend and are enjoying this hot summer weather! I know that it’s pretty scorching in the Midwest right now and it’s been in the 90’s here in Colorado as well, so hopefully everyone is staying cool. This weekend, Cam and I decided to head north to the Fort Collins area to check it out because we’d heard a lot of good things. Before checking out the city (post on that later!), we decided to do a little hike first. Since we wanted to spend the majority of the day in Fort Collins, we opted to do a shorter hike. After reading some good reviews online, we chose a trail in Lory State Park (which is about 20 minutes west of Fort Collins) called the Arthur’s Rock Trail. From the parking area to the summit and back is about 3.4 miles roundtrip, and the elevation gain is about 1200 feet. We didn’t get on the trail until almost 11:00 AM, so it was definitely a hot hike, but there was a nice breeze so it wasn’t too bad. Here’s what the hike looked like:
 |
| For as eager as Lola looks to start this hike, she really was a slow poke on the trail… |
 |
| She kept acting like she was dying of heat so we kept having to stop for water breaks for the bebe |
 |
| Arthur’s Rock (aka the thing we’re climbing to the top of!) |
 |
| Scenic overlook of Horsetooth Reservoir 1.1 miles into the trail…clearly it was hot out…holy sweatiness… |
 |
| After the overlook, the trail gets a little bit more intense |
 |
| The last .1 of a mile, you’ve got to scramble up a bunch of rocks to get to the summit |
 |
| View of the reservoir from the top! There were tons of people out on the water enjoying the sunshine 🙂 |
 |
| Seriously, that’s what you made me climb all this way for?! |
|
 |
| Cam loving life and Lola looking on in disgust |
 |
| Whenever there are big rocks, Cam always wants to go climbing…go ahead…I’ll stay here with the pup… |
 |
| I love you Mom! |
 |
| Just kidding, I hate your guts for making me go on this stupid hike. |
 |
| Family pic before heading back down |
 |
| Lola was hustling down the rocks while I was taking my sweet time 🙂 |
Overall, Arthur’s Trail is a pretty good short hike to do if you’re in the Fort Collins area. It’s intense enough to make it worth your time, but it only takes a couple of hours. However, I wouldn’t say it’s a great hike because you basically you have to drive all the way around Horsetooth Reservoir to get into the park, and then you can see the reservoir the entire way up the hike. So by the time you get to the top it’s kind of like, “Wow, the same thing we’ve been looking at just a little bit higher up!” Not exactly the kind of impressive I like at the top of a hike, but don’t get me wrong, it is a very pretty area. I think I’m just a little bit bitter that we didn’t bring our bathing suits to swim once we were finished. There were tons of boats and people water skiing, wakeboarding, and swimming on Saturday, and I really wished we could have joined in on the action. My suggestion for this hike would be to get there as early as you possibly can, do the hike, and then come down and go swim and have a picnic by the water. Better yet, find someone who has a boat and see if you can be their new friend.
That’s all for now folks, stay tuned for my first impressions of Fort Collins…later!
