Roxborough State Park Fountain Valley Trail

Fountain Valley is the loop through the heart of Roxborough State Park, a 2.3-mile walk on a wide trail between the tilted red sandstone fins of the Fountain Formation, the same rock as Garden of the Gods and Red Rocks with a fraction of the crowd. It climbs 350 feet in gentle rises, passes a 1900s homestead, and is the walk that shows most visitors what the park is.

From the visitor center, the Fountain Valley trail heads north on a wide gravel path with the fins on both sides, red slabs tilted at 60 degrees with scrub oak at their feet. The loop can go either way; clockwise puts the Lyons Overlook spur, a short climb to a viewpoint over the whole valley, in the first half.

At the north end the trail passes Persse Place, the stone house of the Persse family who homesteaded here in the early 1900s, and returns along the east side of the valley below the hogback with the plains in view. Interpretive signs along the loop name the formations. Return to the visitor center for 2.3 miles.

Roxborough State Park is south of Littleton, reached from Colorado 470 by Wadsworth Boulevard, Waterton Road, and North Rampart Range Road. A Colorado State Parks pass is required, paid at the entrance. The park is open 7 AM to 8 PM in summer, with shorter winter hours posted on the park page, and the visitor center runs 9 to 4; the lots fill by mid-morning on weekends in every season, and the park turns cars away when it is full. Toilets and water at the visitor center.

No dogs anywhere in Roxborough, and no bikes; the park is a state natural area and the rangers enforce it. The loop is one of the best trails on this site for kids and is fine for sturdy strollers on the gravel. Stay on the trail; the park protects the soil and the rare plants between the fins. Rattlesnakes are common in warm months. Carry water. Littleton is 20 minutes. Carpenter Peak is the park's climb, and the Littleton hikes page has the rest.