COME TO LIFE / Bikes & Beer: A Day in Fort Collins BIKES & BEER: A DAY IN FORT COLLINS Breweries are as much a part of Fort Collins as the surrounding prairies, mountains and canyons. COLORADO SIDETRIPS Located northwest of Fort Collins, the rustic mountain village of Red Feather Lakes is far from hectic city life and popular with campers and boaters. Surrounded by the 612,000-acre Roosevelt National Forest, the area is a year-round outdoor playground that offers beautiful scenery, diverse wildlife, hiking trails and cozy mountain retreats. 1 With near-constant blue skies, relatively flat terrain and more than 280 miles of bike trails and lanes, bikes and beer are natural companions here. In fact, Fort Collins produces 70 percent of all craft beer in Colorado, so whether you ride a cruiser, fixie or just a plain old bike, hop on, grab your ID and get pedaling! craft-coffee arena include Harbinger Coffee , The Coffee Registry and Everyday Joe’s . Spend the morning exploring Old Town’s bookstores, galleries and shops. Historic homes like the Victorian-style Avery House (2) (come for tea on the lawn in the summer!) and the adobe Museo de las Tres Colonias tell stories of gold seekers, immigrants and sugar beets. Or get an art fix at The Downtown Artery , an eclectic arts space with a cafe, performance venue and retail store selling items produced by the painters, musicians and other artists in residence. MORNING Pick up your method of transportation for the day at the Fort Collins Bike Share ( bikefort collins.org ). Then, kick-start your morning in Historic Old Town (1) (the inspiration for Disneyland’s Main Street) and ride up to The Bean Cycle, where you can sip a steamin’ cup of ethically sourced coffee and peruse books at Wolverine Farm Publishing in the same building. Other places to investigate Fort Collins’ exploding 2 T WINTER FUN Winter sends Fort Collins’ active residents into neigh-boring Roosevelt National Forest for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing and even snowy horseback rides. QUICK TIP 142 / Jessup Farm Artisan Village boasts locally crafted goods from coffee to bread, T-shirts, watches, photogra-phy, barrel-aged beer and more, along with a few places to grab a bite. The village is just one of the reasons the city has been recently named a Certified Colorado Creative District . COLORADO.COM THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: RED FEATHER LAKES, FLICKR/KIMON BERLIN; OLD TOWN FORT COLLINS, O’HARA PHOTOGRAPHY; HISTORIC AVERY HOUSE, MILES/ANDREA BUROLLA. OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ODELL BREWING CO; CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER NEAR FORT COLLINS, MILES/MATT INDEN.
Colorado Official State Vacation Guide 2017: Page 142
