Spring at Horsetooth Falls

I found myself whooping it up at Horsetooth on Monday to the unfamiliar sounds of flowing water. Northern Colorado has a scarcity of water and Horsetooth Mountain Park has next to none, so I was excited to get out for a run to see if I could work some of the soreness from Fruita out of my legs and to see what was going on after the weekend's big snow dump.

I hit one of my regular eight-mile routes and was surprised to find the lower trails pretty much snow free. However, when I turned into the Spring Creek drainage I was shocked to hear the sounds of fast-flowing water. I've run up here almost every day for the last 12 months and have become accustomed to silence, so I really was shocked to hear that water, so shocked in fact that I let out one of those "I'm happy to be alive" yells.

I was psyched to get to the waterfall - which I never detour for - and was even more psyched to hear it long before I got there. For the first time ever, I saw the falls in all their glory - with a pool at the bottom and everything.

Roar!

The contrast shot

After hanging out for a while I got back on with the task at hand and made my way around Spring Creek to Soderburg and then up the Rock trail to find heavy, wet accumulation at the top that was still drifted to waist high in places - nice. My feet were soaked by the time I made it around on Audra Culver, but I was having such a good time I didn't care, and even better, the soreness in my legs was nothing but background noise. Best recovery run ever!

I was so stoked by the whole scenario that I took my son and neighbors' dog out later in the day for another look. Spring is a great time to run trails.

Alistair thought it was pretty cool

So did Bubba

From the top down