Find the top rated cross country skiing trails in Fort Collins, whether you're looking for an easy short cross country skiing trail or a long cross country skiing trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a cross country skiing trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
The Poudre River Trail tracks a 21-mile, scenic course along Cache la Poudre River between Windsor and Greeley. The paved trail is popular with hikers, runners, cyclists and inline skaters. The path...
Big Dry Creek Trail follows an east-west course for 12 miles between Interstate 25 and Standley Lake in Westminster, one of Denver's northern suburbs. The trail is generally flat, with short stretches...
The Union Pacific Trail runs for just a short distance between E. 100th Avenue and Thornton Parkway in the Denver suburb of Thornton. The trail runs through a shadeless corridor alongside a railroad...
The Firestone Trail mostly parallels Colorado Boulevard between Dacono in the south and north of Firestone, at the northern end of the trail. The trail is paved and provides access to parks,...
Two unpaved segments of the Great Western Trail are currently open in rural Weld County at the northwestern corner of Colorado's Eastern Plains. Both portions were built on a railbanked Great Western...
The Loveland Recreation Trail encircles the "Gateway to the Rockies," offering views of the mountains and access to many of Loveland's natural treasures. While the trail is mostly complete, there are...
The Platte River Trail is just one of many of Denver's superb multi-use trails, this one stretching from just north and west of Englewood and heading north toward Henderson. The 28.5-mile trail...
The Longmont-to-Boulder Regional Trail (nicknamed the LOBO) extends more than 10 miles between these two major cities and taps into the region's vast network of trails. Most of the pathway has a...
Note: Like most of Lyons' parks system, the Corridor Trail has been closed since a devastating flood in September 2013. Work is currently underway to reopen the closed parks and trails. See the city's...
Two unpaved segments of the Great Western Trail are currently open in rural Weld County at the northwestern corner of Colorado's Eastern Plains. Both portions were built on a railbanked Great Western...
The Fowler Trail is an easy hike in scenic Eldorado Canyon State Park that provides a great place to sight wildlife, watch rock climbers, or take in stunning views of the surrounding canyon....
The Firestone Trail mostly parallels Colorado Boulevard between Dacono in the south and north of Firestone, at the northern end of the trail. The trail is paved and provides access to parks,...
The Switzerland Trail in the peaks west of Boulder was named for the spectacular mountain scenery along this remote and former railroad route. Although why it had to be named after another country...
The Loveland Recreation Trail encircles the "Gateway to the Rockies," offering views of the mountains and access to many of Loveland's natural treasures. While the trail is mostly complete, there are...
The Longmont-to-Boulder Regional Trail (nicknamed the LOBO) extends more than 10 miles between these two major cities and taps into the region's vast network of trails. Most of the pathway has a...
The Platte River Trail is just one of many of Denver's superb multi-use trails, this one stretching from just north and west of Englewood and heading north toward Henderson. The 28.5-mile trail...
Big Dry Creek Trail follows an east-west course for 12 miles between Interstate 25 and Standley Lake in Westminster, one of Denver's northern suburbs. The trail is generally flat, with short stretches...
The Poudre River Trail tracks a 21-mile, scenic course along Cache la Poudre River between Windsor and Greeley. The paved trail is popular with hikers, runners, cyclists and inline skaters. The path...
The Union Pacific Trail runs for just a short distance between E. 100th Avenue and Thornton Parkway in the Denver suburb of Thornton. The trail runs through a shadeless corridor alongside a railroad...
The Poudre River Trail tracks a 21-mile, scenic course along Cache la Poudre River between Windsor and Greeley. The paved trail is popular with hikers, runners, cyclists and inline skaters. The path...
The Switzerland Trail in the peaks west of Boulder was named for the spectacular mountain scenery along this remote and former railroad route. Although why it had to be named after another country...
The Union Pacific Trail runs for just a short distance between E. 100th Avenue and Thornton Parkway in the Denver suburb of Thornton. The trail runs through a shadeless corridor alongside a railroad...
The Fowler Trail is an easy hike in scenic Eldorado Canyon State Park that provides a great place to sight wildlife, watch rock climbers, or take in stunning views of the surrounding canyon....
Two unpaved segments of the Great Western Trail are currently open in rural Weld County at the northwestern corner of Colorado's Eastern Plains. Both portions were built on a railbanked Great Western...
The Platte River Trail is just one of many of Denver's superb multi-use trails, this one stretching from just north and west of Englewood and heading north toward Henderson. The 28.5-mile trail...
The Loveland Recreation Trail encircles the "Gateway to the Rockies," offering views of the mountains and access to many of Loveland's natural treasures. While the trail is mostly complete, there are...
The Longmont-to-Boulder Regional Trail (nicknamed the LOBO) extends more than 10 miles between these two major cities and taps into the region's vast network of trails. Most of the pathway has a...
The Firestone Trail mostly parallels Colorado Boulevard between Dacono in the south and north of Firestone, at the northern end of the trail. The trail is paved and provides access to parks,...
Big Dry Creek Trail follows an east-west course for 12 miles between Interstate 25 and Standley Lake in Westminster, one of Denver's northern suburbs. The trail is generally flat, with short stretches...
Note: Like most of Lyons' parks system, the Corridor Trail has been closed since a devastating flood in September 2013. Work is currently underway to reopen the closed parks and trails. See the city's...
This trail was easy to access and walk. Parking is available all around at memorials and in bordering neighborhoods. The only downside is that it follows a major road. You have to listen to the sounds of traffic. There’s not much nature.
We visited the western tip of this trail—from Lake Village Park to Eagleview Elementary School—a distance of about 1.5 miles one way. It made for a pleasant October weekend ride with large old cottonwoods and other trees offering shade and hints of fall color. The trail begins with a nice parking area, a large picnic pavilion, porta potty, and exercise stations. At many points as we rode along, the trail split, offering a paralleling finely crushed stone surface for runners. Much of the way, the trail also followed a narrow shallow ditch. You could tell how popular this trail was as many adjacent homeowners had built their own small footbridges across the ditch to reach the trail. A fun surprise for my 10-year-old was a small trailside playground with two climbable life-size horses made of concrete and a large pig sculpture. For my husband, another fun unexpected find was a dirt mountain biking trail that paralleled the main trail for a short distance.
Other highlights included two heritage areas with railroad artifacts and informational signage about the history of the area. The signs also marked the route as part of the Eastlake Heritage Trail. According to the signage, a Union Pacific Railroad spur once ran through the corridor. Built in the early 1900s, the trains ran to Denver carrying passengers, farm products, and business freight.
Towards the end of our journey, we reached Colorado Boulevard; the crosswalk was well-marked. On the other side of the street the houses got closer to the trail, but it was still a lot of fun as the trail winds through a nice neighborhood.
Got off track several times. Poorly marked in areas. Well maintained
I’ve ridden south from this junction down past Dartmouth where the trail connects westward to the Bear Creek trail. However the app indicates that the Platte River trail ends past Dartmouth but that’s incomplete information cuz the Platte trail continues many miles south past Littleton. Great ride but it does have some rough patches (and some rough neighborhoods)
We’re parked up at the top of the hill on Highway 42, and rode into Louisville along Coal Creek all the way to the golf course and almost all the way up to McCaslin.. The trail offer is a lot of enjoyable winding and a lot of shaded area which was very welcoming on a hot day like today.
Very enjoyable ride. Easy ride with a lot of shade.
The trail between Mississippi and Alameda has wood retaining walls that are leaning into the trail and are a hazard to all.
Who is responsible for the upkeep and how can I donate to help get this repaired quickly?
We explored a short 2-mile section near the middle of the Farmers' High Line Canal Trail. We began at Margaret's Pond in Westminster, where there is a small parking area, and then biked to the Northwest Open Space in Northglenn. This segment was all concrete. At first, we just traveled along the trail paralleling Legacy Ridge Parkway through a pleasant neighborhood, but the trail really got fun when it turned off the roadway to parallel Niver Canal. We enjoyed having the babbling canal by our side and saw redwing blackbirds and many other birds swooping through this area. At Federal Boulevard, take a moment to look down the roadway to the "Savery Savory Mushrooms" water tower, which is styled to look like a giant can of mushrooms and dates back to 1925. At the underpass for the boulevard, you'll see the trail's name posted, but there was no other trail signage along the route. Just past this point, we took a little detour around a pond and saw a pelican, cormorants, and ducks. We continued down the trail a short distance farther, still closely following the canal, to the Northwest Open Space, where we turned around and headed back.
I rode the entire loop today and it is now virtually all completed. There are only one or two very short pieces to ride on a road. I went counterclockwise. Be careful eat County Road 11C. I turned north and ended up on the Front Range Trail and ended up in Ft Collins. Jog left and you will catch the trail that continues west. It is a nice ride and keeps you out of traffic.
The trial from the Westminster City Park to the east end is all nice pavement, in mostly open fields. There the very nice Big Dry Creek Park at about 5 miles from the start. The trail ends just east of I-25. The tunnel under I-25 can flood, and the path there can be covered in debris. This is hard to see coming from brilliant sunshine in to the tunnel. I took a nasty spill there.
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