Hike- Horsetooth Rock Trail
If you are ever in Fort
Collins, it is hard to miss the unique rock formation at the top of Horsetooth
Reservoir. It's called Horsetooth because of an Arapahoe legend of a giant. The
legend says that a giant was protecting the valley's animals from tribes hunting
them, but a great drought came, and a tribe chief had to make the decision to
slay the giant. They waited until he was asleep to stab his heart. The chief
pierced the heart several times turning it to stone. Pioneers in the 1860s and
70s started calling it Horsetooth because of its resemblance.
The parking lot is
shared for all the different routes up to Horsetooth Rock and Horsetooth Falls.
I would recommend getting there early because the lot fills up fast. We would
always take the main trail up to the rock and then take the branch off called
Audra Trail. This trail goes into a meadow and shows the beautiful mountain
range behind Horsetooth Rock.
Audra Trail is special
to me because this is where my fiancé proposed to me. I highly recommend this
location for a proposal because it's off the main trail, so you won't have an
audience. There is a bench about halfway to Horsetooth rock on that path and it
has the best views as seen below. Fun fact about my proposal: it was on March
11, 2020, the day the US practically shut down for Covid-19. I did not have
service on the trail, and I knew I had a lot of happy calls to make, but the
second I was going to call I got all the texts and emails about my college
changing to remote learning and everything going into lockdown. Needless to
say, the phone conversations were a wide range of emotions but back to the
hike.
Comments
Post a Comment