This hike has been on the list for about 7 or 8 years!

Mt Grayrock is up off the poudre river, west of ft collins. It was in my loop hike book that we got shortly after we arrived colorado.

We attempted it this summer – but the temps in the poudre river area are about the same as denver, so august…  not amazing for starting a hike around 8am.  By 2 miles in, i was out of water and the boys laid down and said no more, and the hubby was ready to file for divorce…

Next up – enter Suman – I tapped her after returning home to hit this up in october – she was game!

The day finally arrived, a high of 55, overcast, ok let’s go!

Suman brought me a “Standard Bagel” from Rosenburgs! I ate half on the jaunt to the trail head!

After that we headed up, up, up and up! The sun was out, but I still had 3 layers on with 1 more in the backpack for the top.

The beginning follows the river and the sides of the trail reach in for you. They say there is poison ivy, so keep those ankles covered!

It was interesting to see the hillsides decimated by beetle kill. We imaged what the colors would have been like for fall if they were all still standing.

We continued up enjoying getting peaks of the hills in all directions. We had yet to see greyrock mt…

Finally we reached some manner of top and also found the wind we had heard blasting through the trees and valleys…. Brrr! For me i had not thought to bring a hat or gloves (also they are packed in storage, so i wouldn’t have ad them any way!) But my wonder woman buff was good enough to cover my ears!

As we meandered over the top we finally got a view of GrayRock and the meadow between us.

The views continued to be stunning!

We eventually got to the “base” of the summit. Then it got really hard. Ugh!

The trail was basically just giant boulders… up and up.

Then the trail was just not really there and you had to take care to watch for the next cairn or sometimes a mini hiker sign..

Then we watched the snow come for us! We thought it disappears and then the next time we looked it had us completely surrounded! On we went…

Final destination – the summit – totally worth it! The hidden lake was beautiful.

I scrambled to just below the top – the wind was too intense for me to risk the top (yup – chicken!)

 Notice my hair blowing sideways…

The views back out toward the hills and ft collins were fabulous! You could see where the sun was and the clouds stopped!

Then it was time to escape the freezing winds and get down to the car! Of course, then the sun came out and the clouds went away – Grayrock looked much more spectacular!

Longest part of the hike – i’m sure of it! My feet were boycotting – all the walking on rocks were just too much for them – but there were still miles to go!

In the end we did the loop including the summit in 6 hours. We rewarded ourselves with a margaritas and some mexican food!

Fabulous day, amazing view, great hiking buddy! Super glad we made it – no need to do that again!