Reservoir Ridge Natural Area: North Loop

Today was a Fort Collins day. We made the drive through southeast Wyoming and into Colorado. Our first stop was the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space where we planned on hiking Horsetooth Rock. Unfortunately, with today being the Friday before the busy Memorial Day Weekend, the parking lot was full and we could not start our hike. Instead, we went into Old Town to get lunch at Chick'n Cone. 

Once we had lunch in our bellies, I formulated a Plan B. We would head out to Reservoir Ridge for a hike on the north loop. We arrived at the trailhead to dark gray skies and a distant rumble of thunder. Still, we decided to proceed with our hike. 

The hike began in the flat prairie. 

Then started to climb some of the lower foothills.

It was pretty hot at the start of the hike. Sierra demanded some shelter in the shade of a ponderosa pine.

After a short break, we were back to ascending up to the ridge again.

Once we had reached the top of the ridge, the trail began to descend slightly to start the loop portion of the hike.

We caught views to the west overlooking the Horsetooth Reservoir and some of the higher mountains. 

After a short break at a nice overlook, we started to make our way back to finish the loop.

Once back at the car, we returned to Old Town for ice cream and a beer at Gilded Goat's new Old Town taproom.

Fort Robinson State Park: Lover's Leap Hike

For Mother's Day, we decided to get out of town for a little bit and check out Fort Robinson State Park. I've been a few times since we moved to Nebraska, but it was Noelle's first visit in years, and Sierra's first visit ever. I had wanted to hike the Wagon Wheel Trail from the Crawford City Park to Lover's Leap. However, we were unable to find the trailhead in the park and so ended driving to the headquarters building to purchase a vehicle pass and hike from the Red Cloud Buttes Trailhead.

We were greeted by a herd of longhorn cattle at the trailhead. 

We climbed the gate and started to make our way up towards McKenzie Pass.

We said goodbye to one last solitary longhorn, 

and then continued on our way, climbing up to the saddle.

Along the way, we were treated to views of beautiful wildflowers in bloom.

It was a pretty steep climb, but we stopped pretty often for breaks.

After reaching the saddle, we descended to a junction with the Wagon Wheel Trail, the trail I had intended to hike. We made a left onto the Lover's Leap Trail and started to ascend pretty steeply again. There were lots of great views from this section of trail.

Soon, we found ourselves at the last landmark before the start of the scramble up to the summit of Lover's Leap. It's a sandstone hoodoo known as Grant's Thumb.

From the thumb, we contoured around the west side of the Lover's Leap bluff to an angled crack that we climbed up to the top.

We spent some time relaxing on the summit and exploring a bit. There were some really pretty flowers growing nearby.

Eventually, we started to make our way back down the crack, 

and past Grant's Thumb 

for the descent back to the car.

Along the way, the smell of clove currant perfumed the air. The smell must have attracted this tiger swallowtail butterfly.