Trails Around the ‘Hood

Ponds and wild grasses through Hearthfire at Richard's Lake.

Considering that I’ve been living in the same neighborhood for 3.5 years, you’d think that I’d have explored every square inch of trail around it by now. It is quite disgraceful, then, that I never “discovered” the recreation trail separating the nearby Fort Collins Country Club and Richard’s Lake despite living less than a mile away — until now. It’s especially shameful because this particular jeep trail is perhaps the most scenic in the entire area.

Below are photos from a recent run I did on it. The recreation trail is part of a three-mile loop to and from my home that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine for a short, car-less run or mountain bike ride. The scenery includes the lush, manicured lawn of the golf course, clear lakes, Horsetooth Rock, the Horsetooth mountain range and Long’s Peak (a fourteener) in the distance. Further along the clockwise loop I do are farms, horses, and wildlife. Upon returning to the Hearthfire trail in my subdivision, there are ponds and wild grasses.

I feel fortunate to be able to step outside the house and be able to marvel at all this, even if it took me a while to discover some of it.