Castle Rock is a
butte in the
Colorado Piedmont region of the
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
.
An area landmark, it is the namesake of the town of
Castle Rock, Colorado.
The mesa’s caprock consists of
rhyolite
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...
, rock which is strongly resistant to erosion. About 58 million years ago, a volcanic eruption took place that covered the area around Castle Rock with of rhyolite. After a few million years, mass flooding and erosion of the volcanic rock gave way to the butte-shaped mesa that almost resembles plateau.
Public hiking trails on the mesa are in Rock Park, at the intersection of Front Street and Canyon Drive in the town of Castle Rock. The trailhead and parking are about two blocks south of the intersection on Front Street, for a 1.4-mile round-trip hike to the base of the town's namesake (climbing the rest of the way to the summit is discouraged by a sign warning that the loose rocks are a fall hazard). Other trailheads can be found along Canyon Drive and Sunset Drive.
Day Hikes Near Denver: Castle Rock Trail
8 Mar 2018.
References
Castle Rock, Colorado
Rock formations of Colorado
Landforms of Douglas County, Colorado
Buttes of Colorado
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