Loveland - Round Mountain Trail

After we returned from out trip to Texas, I was looking for a hike local to the area.  I had been on the Round Mountain Trail near Loveland back in 2009, so decided to try it again to see what had changed in six years.

The Round Mountain Trailhead is directly across from Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park (aka 'hyphenated park').  Viestenz-Smith Park was destroyed in the 2013 flood.  It was my favorite Loveland area park.  The Round Mountain Trail also has a nature walk which meanders along the south side of the canyon. Once past the gate, you are met with a small formation of flat rocks. I'm still not sure if these are a natural rock outcropping or have been placed here. There are no other similar outcroppings close by.

Round Mountain Trailhead

Flat Rocks at Gate

The Round Mountain trail begins an immediate climb to scale the side of the Big Thompson River Canyon.  The first two miles of the trail are fairly strenuous, but the view looking east down the canyon and upon the Big Thompson River are quite impressive.

Big Thompson River

Right after this view the trail begins a number of switchbacks that will eventually level out at you exit the canyon.  At the end of the switchbacks the trail passes through an interesting rock formation.

Round Mountain 'micro-canyon'

Soon after this point the trail levels out a bit and the hike becomes a bit less "winded".  Soon however, you begin a steady climb to the top of Sheep Mountain (8458') and the trails end.   As you can see the summit of Sheep Mountain is forested so the views are limited.

Sheep Mountain Geo Marker

Sheep Mountain Summit Cairn

While it was still early for wildflowers, I did find some along the switchbacks.

Wildflowers (1)

Wildflowers (2)

About a mile and a half east of Sheep Mountain is Stone Mountain.  Stone Mountain's elevation (7549') is less that of Sheep Mountain but the summit is composed of boulders upon more boulders. 

Stone Mountain

Stone Mountain in Colorado is still no comparison to Stone Mountain, Georgia.  It doesn't have a stone sculpture and night time laser shows.  My map indicated there had once been a trail to Stone Mountain, but it was neither marked or maintained.  So, I got my compass, map, and GPS out, took some bearings, set some waypoints and headed to Stone Mountain.  I had a pretty good guess about where I wanted to get off the Round Mountain Trail and with only one small, short detour, I soon found the remains of the Stone Mountain Trail.  Once found, this trail was easy to follow, at least until close to the summit.  A little bit of minor 'bouldering' and I was at the summit where the views were very nice.

Blue Mountain

Carter Lake

Horsetooth Rock

Longs Peak

The Mummy Range

A careful descent off of Stone Mountain and then it was an easy, if knee jarring, return to the Trailhead.

Overall Track Statistics for track Loveland - Sheep Mtn/Stone Mtn

 Length 11.549 miles

 Start Elevation - 5833.33 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 8447.11 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 5700.52 feet

 Date of hike - 4/15/2015 

 Start Time - 08:41a

 End Time - 02:29p

 Total Duration -     5:47 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 3564.96 feet

 Total Descent - 3697.77 feet

 Net Ascent - -132.81 feet

 Maximum Grade - 21.82%

 Average Speed -  2.67 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 3564.96 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  3.73 mph

Maximum Gain over Mile (%) - 16.10%