Mt Sanitas Loop Trail - Boulder, Colorado

Tectonic forces along northern Colorado's front range created ripples that forced rock layers to bulge and compress, creating anticlines - or convex folds on the earth's surface. As the bulging anticlines' softer sediments eroded, only hard ridges - known as Hogbacks - remained from previously rounded hilltops between the eastern plains and Rocky Mountain uplift. Mt Sanitas is one such formation that stands above all others in central Boulder, Colorado.

The Mt Sanitas West Ridge Trail and Sanitas Valley Trail form a short but challenging loop to its rugged summit, and along its east face. The following description begins on Mapleton Road and travels clockwise from the West Ridge to Sanitas Valley Trail ...