Hiking the Willow Creek & South Ridge Loop in Roxborough State Park – Colorado

As we slowly creep toward fall, the weather here in Colorado has been getting pretty nice. With cool mornings and only slightly warm days, it’s a great time of year to get out and take a hike! I took advantage of this weekend’s nice weather by heading to Roxborough State Park for a quick morning hike.

My original plan was to hike to the top of Carpenter Peak, but because of the crowds already lined up at the gate when I arrived, I decided to do the less populated Willow Creek and South Ridge Loop hike. Although this is a super short and easy loop, it was a great little hike.

The Hike at a Glance

Hike Type: Loop

Total Distance: 3.1 miles

Total Elevation Gain: 500 feet

Parking and Trailhead

I started my loop at the Willow Creek Trailhead, which has a small parking area. The trail’s parking area is just a little before the main parking area for the Fountain Valley Trail (the basic loop everyone does in Roxborough). You can easily navigate to the parking area on Google Maps.

The Willow Creek Trail parking area has room for about ten cars.

A very short spur attached to the parking lot leads to the start of the Willow Creek Trail.

The Hike

I decided to hike the loop clockwise, taking the South Rim Trail up to the top of the ridge. The trail then loops around and meets back up with the Willow Creek Trail, which I took back to the car.

An overview of the hike in CalTopo.

You can download a PDF version of the trail map for free here.

The hike starts with a short climb to the top of the ridgeline. Once there, you get great views of Roxborough’s famous rock formations.

The trail remains mostly flat from the top as it continues along the ridge. Along the way, there are some benches that you can sit on and enjoy the view.

One of the benches along the trail.

As the trail continues along the top of the ridge, you can enjoy nice views of the rock formations below. After a bit, the trail begins to descend from the ridge back into the valley. As you descend, you’ll go through some short, wooded patches. This is a great area to keep an out for wildflowers!

Pay attention to your right as you hike out of the valley, and you’ll notice the ridge you just hiked down. The cliffline is quite interesting here, as you can see all the different rock layers. Notice how you can see the folds in the rocks that resulted from the tectonic plates pushing this landscape up millions of years ago.

The ridge we were just on is at the top of this cliff. Notice the cool rock layers in the cliff line.

You’ll continue to get great views of the rock formations as you continue back toward the car.

After a bit more hiking, you will hit the junction of the South Rim Trail with the Willow Creek Trail. From here, you could take a left onto the Willow Creek Trail to hike toward Fountain Valley and extend your hike with the main loop in Roxborough. I decided not to do this and take a right on the Willow Creek Trail to hike back to the car.

Final Thoughts

This loop was about 3.1 miles long and only had an elevation gain of about 500 feet. So, all in all, a very easy hike.

The elevation profile of the hike.

Roxborough State Park tends to get extremely busy during the summer months. Being only mid-September when I did this loop, this day was no exception. When I got there right before the park opened, people were already lined up at the gates.

That said, this hike seems to be much less trafficked than the main loop in Roxborough. I only saw about a dozen people during my hike, most of whom were heading up the trail clockwise as I was wrapping up my loop.

This seems like a great hike to get a bit of solitude in an otherwise crowded park, but you’ll likely still want to arrive early to ensure you can get parking.

All things considered, I think this was a nice, quick loop that’s well worth checking out should you find yourself in the Roxborough State Park area.