Colorado State Parks: Roxborough

About three weeks ago, I went hiking in Roxborough State Park with some friends. It wasn’t my first hike in the park; in fact, I’ve written about Roxborough before. But in the aftermath, I realized this post was published more than four years ago, prior to not only this recent visit but another one a couple summers back. It seems appropriate, then, to update this post with additional information and photos from the new-to-me trails.

Roxborough is a fairly small park, nestled between the foothills and the neighborhoods of the southwestern Denver metro area. What Roxborough lacks in size, though, it more than makes up for with its dramatic landscape. The park is characterized by angular red rock fins that are part of the same rock formation that’s seen at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and Red Rocks Amphitheater. This same layer is also visible further north as the Flatiron Mountains of Boulder.

The Fountain Formation, as it’s called, is a layer of red sandstone that was deposited nearly 300 million years ago, uplifted, and subsequently exposed by erosion. An interesting – and somewhat unusual – fact about this formation is that the rocks immediately beneath are 1.7 billion years old, meaning approximately 1.4 billion years of geologic history is missing from this area of the Front Range. Whatever happened during that time was eroded away before the Fountain Formation was deposited.

Today, a network of trails weave through, around, and behind these formations, offering numerous hikes of various distances and difficulty levels. I’ve now hiked all but one of these trails, and will provide an overview of each below.

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• Visiting Roxborough State Park
• Fountain Valley Loop Trail
• South Rim and Willow Creek Loop
• Carpenter Peak
• Trail of Lights

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Visiting Roxborough State Park

Roxborough State Park is located off North Rampart Range Road and Roxborough Park Drive in the farthest southwest corner of the suburb of Littleton. There are neighborhoods in the area, including one called Roxborough Park, so be sure to follow the signs toward Roxborough State Park. Your maps app should get you there without issue, but note that once you’re in the park phone service is limited. Be sure to download trail maps and anything else you need prior to arrival.

If you have Colorado license plates and paid the state park fee with your vehicle registration, entry is free. Otherwise, you’ll need to stop at the entrance station (when it’s staffed) or the self-service pay station and pay the $10/day usage fee.

Once you’re in the park, there’s only one road. It dead-ends at the visitor center, which is where all the trails begin. There are a couple of overflow parking areas along the way, but parking in the park is very limited. On weekends especially, plan to arrive early.

Note that bikes, dogs, and horses are not allowed on any trails at Roxborough State Park. There is no camping allowed and the park closes overnight. Additional park information and regulations can be found here.

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Fountain Valley Loop Trail

The Fountain Valley trail is a fairly flat 2.2 mile (3.5 km) loop that weaves in amongst the red rocks. This is a great way to get up close to the formations and, if you’re willing to tackle a bit of elevation gain to climb to the overlooks, a fantastic spot to see them from above. This is a nice easy trail, good for kids, out-of-town guests who aren’t used to the elevation, or just anyone looking for more of a stroll than a hike.

I’ve hiked this trail in winter, spring, and summer, and it’s pretty at all times of year. In the winter, bring your microspikes; many areas are shaded and may be icy. In addition, the climb to the overlook is steep enough to be slippery in the snow.

In the spring and summer, it will be warmer and sunnier (and likely unpleasantly hot on many summer afternoons). Things will also be a lot greener and, in early summer, there may be some wildflowers to add pops of color to the landscape.

At around the halfway point, the trail passes the old Persse house and cabins. Henry Persse moved to Denver from New York in 1888 and became co-owner of the land that is now Roxborough State Park. At the time it was called Washington Park, after a giant rock that supposedly looked like George Washington. We couldn’t find the rock, but the photos of it on the sign looked absolutely nothing like Washington… or any other person, for that matter.

Persse ultimately renamed the land, inspired by his Irish heritage. He built a house and other buildings here for himself in 1903, but his eventual goal was to turn this area into a resort. This never came to fruition and about 15 years later he was hit and killed by a streetcar. His house and two of the cabins still stand today, and this land he cherished is now preserved for years to come.

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South Rim and Willow Creek Loop

This trail is one I just hiked a couple weeks ago, so it’s a new addition to this post. The Willow Creek Trail can be hiked on its own as a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) easy loop. The South Rim Trail, on the other hand, can only be reached from the Willow Creek Trail. The combination of the two is rated moderate and comes in at about 3 miles (4.8 km).

Most of the elevation gain of this loop is on the South Rim Trail. However, with elevation gain comes views! There are some nice overlooks at the high point of the trail.

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Carpenter Peak

Behind the exposed rock fins at Roxborough is a hogback: a narrow ridge with steep but similarly inclined slopes on both sides. The highest point on this hogback is Carpenter Peak, which I climbed with Chelsea on a warm winter day a few years back.

This is the longest and most difficult hike in the park, totaling 6-9 miles (9.7-14.5 km) depending on the route with about 1100 feet (335 m) of elevation gain. We began at the visitor center, heading counterclockwise on the Willow Creek Trail and then turning off onto the Carpenter Peak trail. While the initial section is fairly flat, the Carpenter Peak trail is much steeper as it zigzags up the front of the hogback. It then curves north and winds up and down along the ridge for a distance before finally reaching Carpenter Peak.

As Carpenter Peak is the highest point in the park, we had 360° views from the summit.

The most common way to finish this hike is to return via the same path, but we decided to take the alternate route. At the first junction just below the summit, we turned right onto the Carpenter Spur which descends steeply to the Powerline trail. This trail undulates across the back side of Carpenter Peak for about 1.8 miles (2.9 km) before connecting with the Elk Valley trail. While relatively untraveled and peaceful, this route had more ups and downs than we expected and our legs were not pleased. But we distracted ourselves with the various animal tracks in the snow and a large group of deer in the distance and eventually we reached the Carpenter Peak trail once more, which meant it was all downhill back to the car.

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Trail of Lights

And lastly, every January and February the park hosts the Trail of Lights, which stretches from the parking area to the visitor center. Unfortunately, it sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is. In reality, it’s a few strands of twinkling lights wrapped around some trees and draped over the sidewalk, forming a “trail” that takes less than 1 minute to walk. The main purpose is really just to encourage visitors to come to the park after dark for some night hiking and stargazing. But Pat and I have stargazed before in places with far less light pollution, so we didn’t really think it was that great.

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Colorado has 42 state parks and, when it comes to visiting them, we’ve just barely scratched the surface. But of the parks near Denver, I think this one is probably my favorite. No matter the season, there’s something for everyone at Roxborough State Park!