Today I wanted to get up into the mountains again. Relatively nice weather was in the forecast and so I made the drive south into Colorado and through Fort Collins to Horsetooth Mountain Open Space. This time I decided to start a hike from the Soderberg Trailhead which is closer to the reservoir than the trailhead we used for the Horsetooth Mountain Loop and Horsetooth Falls hikes.
I parked in a mostly empty parking lot, paid the fee and then hit the trail, the Swan Johnson Trail. The trail starts at the site of the Soderberg Homestead and there are a few historic buildings there.
Just after passing the historic buildings, the trail passes through a meadow area
and there was a group of mule deer grazing there. They showed absolutely no fear of me and I could literally have reached out and touched a few of them.
I followed Swan Johnson to a rough road known as the Towers Trail. It's a pretty steep climb up the road to a cluster of communications towers. At points along the road there are some really nice views.
I followed the Towers Trail up to the Loggers Trail, where I detoured for a short loop. I rejoined the Towers Trail for a bit and then took the Herrington Trail to Spring Creek Trail. Spring Creek Trail ascended up through a meadow. There were plenty of great views up to Horsetooth Rock.
Spring Creek rejoins the Towers Trail for a last, steep climb up to the towers.
From there is an amazing view of the high mountains to the west, including the most conspicuous mountains around, Longs Peak and Mount Meeker.
From the towers, I made my way over to the Horsetooth Rock Trail and carefully made my way up the rock, made slick in places, by ice and snow. I enjoyed the view from the summit for a bit
and eventually started to make my way down. On the way down I took the West Ridge Trail to the Towers Trail and followed that trail/road all the way back down to the parking lot.
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