Fountain Valley Trail

Fountain Valley Trail

One hundred and fifty million years ago, Roxborough State Park was a popular hangout for the likes of the massive stegosaurus, T. Rex, triceratops, and other ancient beasties. The remarkable geological formations in the park are reminiscent of those days, and hiking the Fountain Valley Trail is a trek back in time alongside enormous red ridges and slanted hogbacks dating to five hundred million years! But the laurels of this park don’t stop there. As a result of the habits of wind flowing through this landscape, a number of diverse microclimates have formed, hosting a variety of flora and fauna. Roxborough is home to big critters like deer, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, and black bears. More than 140 species of birds have been spotted in the park, and don’t forget the snakes, frogs, and even turtles. We’ll pass by riparian habitats of chokecherries, wild raspberries, and Rocky Mountain maples. Porcupine, sandreed, yellow Indian, and big and little bluestem grasses wave amidst small stands of aspens, and of course, Gambel oak, Douglas-fir, ponderosa, mountain mahogany, skunkbrush, and yucca.

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