10 Terrific Trips in Fort Collins, Colorado

Just an hour north of Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado, provides a great family trip alternative to Colorado’s busier capital. Located on the banks of the Cache La Poudre River and home to Colorado State University, Fort Collins is known in part for the collection of quirkily painted pianos scattered throughout the downtown area, where visitors are invited to sit down and play a tune.

Here are 10 great ways to spend your days:

Enjoy an outdoor performance

at the newly opened Great Lawn at The Gardens on Spring Creek, where the setting includes themed gardens.

Hike the Horsetooth Reservoir

, with options appropriate to all levels. An easy outing includes the 2.7 miles of the Inlet Bay Trail that connects the Blue Sky Trailhead and Soderberg Trailhead. Tougher options include a four-mile route along the Mineral Spring Gulch Trail through Poudre Canyon, and the Little Beaver Creek Trail.

Horsetooth Reservoir, Fort Collins. Photo: Melissa Woolf | Dreamstime.com

Test your cycling skills at Corral Center Mountain Bike Park, a 70,000-square-foot dirt/pump track mountain bike facility. Safety and fun are paramount, and the comprehensive skills area includes a range of choices for different ages and abilities, with low-flying features, tight corners, climbs and dirt jumps.

Head to a park. Fort Collins has 50 to choose from, including the Inspiration Playground at Spring Canyon Community Park where kids can enjoy 100 acres that feature a splash pad, dirt bike course, walking paths, skate park, basketball and tennis courts — and even a dog park with private dog pond. There’s more playground fun at Twin Silo Park, where 54 acres are fitted with pickleball courts, a zip line and a double set of soaring silos with a slide between them. At Fossil Creek Park, extensive playground facilities include a climbable Wooly Mammoth (not a real one, of course) where kids can actually swing from the animal’s tusks, climb through a shark’s jaw and scale a wall embedded with replica fossils.

Meet some farm animals at The Farm at Lee Martinez Park. Open year-round, the farm is home to sweet critters kids can meet up close, feed and learn about through the Farm Club Fun program for children ages 5 to 7, offered Saturdays, 1-3 p.m.

Take a cooking class. At Farm Fusion’s big red barn, located on an actual working farm, the cookery school offers kid’s classes. Family classes at Ginger & Baker include a monthly pizza-making party.

Spring Creek Park. Photo: Visit Fort Collins, Ryan Burke

Make some music. At the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, a permanent exhibition in The Music & Sound Lab will set visitors up to try out a variety of guitars, drums, marimbas and a theremin — an electronic musical instrument that performs without contact. Regular concerts are hosted in the museum’s OtterBox Digital Dome Theater, along with a monthly Acoustic Treatment event.

Get out your festival hat. From Aug. 9–11, the Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest family-centric festival will stage around 90 bands, with kid-friendly performances on the Kids’ Music Adventure Stage. The Kids’ Music Adventure also allows kids to play a variety of instruments, make their own or take part in music-themed workshops.

Eat at the new Old Town option, The Exchange. Sample fried chicken served in waffle cones at Chick’nCone, build a custom pizza at The Pizza Press, enjoy something cold and creamy at Old Town Churn, or nibble a doughnut fried by robots at the Fort Collins Donut Company.

Old Town Fort Collins. Photo: Chris Labasco | Dreamstime.com

Rest your head at the Elizabeth Hotel in Old Town. This 164-room luxury property keeps guests in tune with record players in rooms, piano in the Sky Bar, jazz in the rooftop lounge and a guest lending library stocked with musical instruments.