Little Thompson Overlook Trail - 2.9 Miles Round-Trip

Rabbit Mountain stands along a divisive uplift between the Saint Vrain drainage basin (south) and Big Thompson drainage basin (north). Here the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountain upslope, a rich ecological juxtaposition that brings plant and animal communities together from each.

Trail Map | Photo Gallery

The Little Thompson Overlook Trail runs along the east slope of a hogback to an outcrop with excellent views of the Eastern Plains and Little Thompson River. This easy out-and-back is ideal for running, biking, families and winter recreation. Visitors will enjoy diverse wildflowers and good wildlife viewing opportunities throughout:

The trail heads northeast from the parking area on a winding course to the Little Thompson Overlook Trail junction (.5 miles : 5,712'). Bear left.

The trail curls northeast to the back side of a steep-faced hogback. The Little Thompson River flows below, framed by another row of hogbacks to the east.

The Little Thompson River is lined by cottonwood and willow, which stand out in this otherwise open space. The trail rises nominally along the hogback's contours to its apex (1.15 miles : 5,888'), from which it drops gently to its terminus at the Little Thompson Overlook (1.45 miles : 5,802').

140 million years ago the Rabbit Mountain area marked the western shoreline of a massive inland sea that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Hudson Bay. It was a tropical lowland covered by rivers, swamps, and lagoons.

This sea retreated approximately 65 million years ago when tectonic forces pulled upon the earth's crust, resulting in a western uplift that gave rise to the Rocky Mountains.

The uplift's ripples caused rocks to compress and bulge at its base, creating anticlines - or convex folds on the earth's surface. As the bulging anticline's softer sediments eroded, only hard ridges - known as Hogbacks - remained from the previously rounded hilltops.

Unique to Rabbit Mountain is its position three miles east of similar anticline formations along Colorado's northern Front Range communities.

The complex movements of two faults in the area pushed these eroding anticlines east, and with a rare orientation: their steepest sides face east, and gentler slopes to the west. This unusual location and orientation make it a natural landmark visible from three counties.