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Arthur’s Rock (6,782′) | Lory State Park

Fort Collins, CO | 12/23/18 | 3.66 miles | 1,096′ gain

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It’s Christmas Eve Eve and I finally made it up Arthur’s Rock today with Kyle, Lady, and Toby. It’s been on my list since a friend recommended it a few years ago, and we finally got around to doing it. I’m definitely trying to cram as many hikes into the last of 2018 as possible, and with the extra time off for the holidays, we are planning on doing a few more yet this year (yay!)

Arthur’s Rock is next to Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins, which means we only had about an hour drive. The last part of the drive coming around Horsetooth Reservoir was absolutely gorgeous and I would recommend everyone drive up that way! Arthur’s Rock is in a state park, which means there’s a fee to get in ($7 for a day pass, not terrible), but we were able to find the correct trailhead easily enough and the park was beautiful (lots of other trails to explore!).

We started down the Arthur’s Rock trail at 12:22 pm, which is really late for us but due to the short length of this trail, we didn’t have to worry about not having enough time to finish. So we slept in!

The trail started in a forested gully, slowly switchbacking up to a meadow with great views of Arthur’s Rock. The incline was pretty steady throughout and some spots were extremely icy.

As you make your way over to Arthur’s Rock, the views of the Rock itself as well as the surrounding areas improve.

After a short but steep rock staircase, you’re nearly to the top of Arthur’s Rock. Just a short traverse over the rock and you reach the summit. I admit that I was expecting more of a scramble at the top. I was planning on using this hike as training for Class 3 14ers, and I wanted to practice my scrambling. But the rocky part of the summit can be walked up, no scrambling needed.

Although the scrambling aspect of the summit was underwhelming, the views were amazing and the hike was short and wonderful.

We didn’t want to spend too much time at the summit today since there were a number of others up there, but there are other scrambling/climbing opportunities in the area that are worth looking into. The summit rock itself is easy but surrounding areas looked more difficult and promising for training! Next time! We’ll absolutely be back!

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Chelsea

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