So, when motorcycling out of town I pass by this park. I'm not sure it's a new park, but it has a new parking lot - and the lot is often active / filled with cars. It must be a popular spot so I put it on my mental "check into it" list. Today's the day.

Temps are around 80 and are sure to jump a bit higher. Mostly blue sky for now with clouds and a small chance of rain for later in the day.

It's a fee based park - $6 per vehicle per day. Reasonable I guess. The lot is staffed by a ranger today (a note on the self pay station says to pay at the ranger table). The ranger informs me that I could purchase a year pass for the 14 county parks - $65 bucks. Seems quite high. The National Parks year pass is now $80 (which I did purchase and am 1/2 way to break even - IMO a better value). I'm not sure that county parks year pass would be a value for me - day pass for 6 it is.

I'm a bit uncertain as to how my 1000' elevation lungs will do in this 5500' elevation area so I scan the map for a somewhat easy route with an option to extend it. Horsetooth Falls it is. I can do an up-and-back for 2.25 miles total or I could check the falls and then continue on and loop back. Since my lungs were doing well and only giving reasonable complaint on the uphills I decided to lengthen to the longer loop. I dotted the map with the loop I walked - counter clockwise.

With only a small portion of the park covered - I will be back. A Horsetooth Rock hike (elevation 7256) is on the list. I might come back with the bike as most of the trails are multi-use (hike / bike / horse).