Eagle’s Nest Open Space

I’ve lived in Northern Colorado for almost 6 years now. I’ve been past the site where Eagle’s Nest Open Space resides and yet have never noticed it. Located north of Fort Collins about 12 miles, it’s access road is off Red Feather Lakes RD about 1/4 mile west of Highway 287 in Livermore, CO. The picture above gives the view that will greet you about a mile from the trailhead. The brochure at the trailhead tells us this area was a stop over used to graze cattle for a few months while the cattle were being sold to army posts, Indian reservations and mining camps in the area.

Eagle’s Nest Rock, the landmark in the foreground on the left of the picture above, is considered the centerpiece of the open space. Used by Golden Eagles for a century as a nesting place.

You can tell from the all the green in the picture that’s it’s been a wet spring and the wildflowers in the area have started to respond. Below are two examples that I stopped along the trail long enough to snap their picture with my iPhone.

On top is a very large Boulder Raspberry and below it a Spider Wort. There were many other varieties of flower along the path to enjoy.

At the trailhead you start out trail called the 3-Bar that travels back about 1.75 miles to the North Fork Cache la Poudre River. There you can take a bridge across the river onto a 1.8 mile loop called the OT Trail. At the opposite end of the loop from the bridge you will brush up the beside the River again. A couple of gents were fly fishing by the bridge as we passed reporting they hadn’t any luck yet probably due to the muddy condition the river from runoff of yet melting snow in the high country.

It’s a beautiful area, well worthy of visiting if you find yourself in the Fort Collins area.