Climbing Horsetooth Rock is a rite of passage for many Fort Collins residents and university students. The hill’s unique summit is a great place to experience a sunrise, and it’s conspicuous enough to be part of the logo for the City of Fort Collins. It looks like two giant horse incisors flanked by molars. The route described here goes to the top of the northern molars—a fun scramble that doesn’t require technical expertise.
Horsetooth Rock Trail
Begin in grassland on Horsetooth Rock Trail, which you will follow all the way to the summit. Keep left as Horsetooth Falls Trail branches right and enjoy beautiful views of red rock hogbacks to the east. When you reach a service road, turn right and continue 0.2 miles until Horsetooth Rock Trail branches left up some stairs. You’ll climb through a grassy gully next to some bulbous rock formations to reach a shoulder, where the plains come into view. Ahead the way is evident: along a rocky ridge populated by scraggly aspens.
Continue up some stairs and wind through rocks to a place where the trail briefly joins a bike path. At this junction you’ll see a memorial for John Blake, a CSU doctoral student who died in a fall on Horsetooth Rock in 1987. His family installed the plaque, which serves as a reminder that, although climbing the rock is not particularly dangerous, you must be careful.
Keep right as the trails separate. The unmistakable form of Horsetooth Rock immediately appears. A short loop path branches left for additional views to some western snowy peaks including Meeker and Longs.
Horsetooth Rock
With such a unique appearance, it’s not surprising that creation legends surround Horsetooth Rock. While horses have been in North America for only about 500 years, human beings have been around much longer, and the older legends have nothing to do with horses. One tale declares the rock to be the lacerated heart of a giant. This giant was the guardian of the animals living in the “Valley of Contentment” below, which is now filled by Horsetooth Reservoir, but those animals were coveted by hungry human plains dwellers. One night while the giant slept, and his throbbing heart rose above his body, a warrior struck with his tomahawk and made two slashes across the giant’s heart, turning the giant to stone.
As you continue climbing, you’ll need to mount some carved steps and scramble over some rocks. Just follow the most obvious route and use your hands where you need to. Beyond the rocks, a dirt path crosses beneath the horse’s incisors. The trail steepens to reach a notch between the northern summit rocks, where you may find children playing, pretending they are dental floss. Enjoy the high mountain views from here, or scramble left to reach the top of a molar. This last pitch can be dizzying, and requires some hand- and footwork, but your exposure is limited. The reward is unimpeded 360-degree views.
As always, watch for afternoon thunderstorms. In the creation legend, thunder represents the spirit of the murdered giant, and lightning his anger. For you, they herald danger. If a storm approaches, get off the rock immediately.
If you are not knackered as you return to the trailhead, you can take a nice 2.4-mile round-trip on Horsetooth Falls Trail. The trail leads down then up to the place where a stream spills through rocks into a picturesque pool. Depending on the season and weather conditions, it can be a trickle or a torrent, but it’s a nice hike either way.
Approach to Horsetooth Rock summit
From Denver. Take I-25 north to Exit 257, then turn left onto US 34 west (Eisenhower Boulevard). Drive 10.5 miles, turn right onto North CR 27 (Buckhorn Road), then proceed 5.2 miles to Masonville. Turn right onto West CR 38E and continue 3.4 miles. The entrance to Horsetooth Mountain Open Space and its large parking lot are on the left. 1 hour, 20 mins.
5 Arthur’s Rock & Westridge
A brisk climb gains a rocky prize, and a stroll in wooded hills brings high mountain views on this delightful all-season hike outside Fort Collins.
At a Glance
| Difficulty | Distance/Time | 7 miles/3 hours | |
| Trail Conditions | Trailhead ElevationTotal Hiking Gain | 5,600 feet1,300 feet | |
| Children | Features | Rock summit, woods, plains, mountain views | |
| Scenery | Best Season | All year | |
| Photo | Other Users | Bikes and horses on portion; dogs on leash | |
| Solitude | Notes | Entrance fee, toilets at trailhead | |
| Property | Lory State Park | Jurisdiction | Colorado Parks & Wildlife |
The trail to Arthur’s Rock begins in a stony gulch amid brambles, your destination visible above. It is named not for Arthur the King, who pulled a sword from a rock, but rather Arthur Howard, son of one of the early settlers in the area. Most of the Howards’ land is now this state park, which is named not Howard Park but Lory Park, in honor of an early president of Colorado Agricultural College (now CSU).
Ascend the left side of the gulch, keeping left at a fork to stay on Arthur’s Rock Trail. From here the trail slants gently through a meadow toward the rock. Some say this hunk of pegmatite resembles a person’s silhouette. If so, the person has a very large chin and is gazing upward.
As you enter a shady grove, the trail becomes very quiet. Cross a gully and the vegetation shifts from dense stands of fir to more solitary ponderosa pines, then shifts again to grassland as the trail climbs toward Arthur’s lower crags. A bouldering trail branches left; keep right and continue the traverse toward the cliffs. A spur at one of the switchbacks leads to a scenic overlook but offers nothing you won’t see from the top. Soon the main trail traverses directly below the rock face. You can feel its power and overhanging gravity.
More switchbacks bring a junction with a branch trail to the summit, which is just a short distance up a steep gully. Poised on the summit ridge are some large boulders that look ripe for trundling—by a giant with a crowbar, that is. Walk between them to gain the tip-top, at 1.8 miles.
Below stretches Horsetooth Reservoir, the city of Fort Collins, and its northwest suburbs Bellvue and Laporte. If some of these names sound French, that’s because they are. Trappers, many of French descent, began frequenting this area in the early 1800s. They gave the main river its modern name: Cache la Poudre; that’s the river you crossed on the way in. After the gold rush hit in 1858, some French-Canadian families settled Colona, now Laporte, with the idea of creating a “port” on a stagecoach route connecting the Oregon Trail to Denver and the goldfields. A few years