COME TO LIFE / Bikes & Beer BIKES & BEER: A DAY IN FORT COLLINS Breweries are as much a part of Fort Collins as the surrounding prairies, mountains and canyons. COLORADO @tonyfwu SIDETRIPS Located northwest of Fort Collins, the rustic mountain village of Red Feather Lake s 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. With near-constant blue skies 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! Spend the morning exploring Old Town’s bookstores, galleries and shops. Historic homes like the Victorian-style Avery House (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. AFTERNOON For lunch, stop into the historic Norther Colorado Feeder Supply building ,a new foodie haven, replete with a coffee and pie shop, and two restaurants as well as a small retail store, wine cellar, tasting room, teaching kitchen and banquet room. MORNING Pick up your method of trans-portation for the day at the Fort Collins Bike Share ( bikefortcollins. org ). Then, kick-start your morning in Historic Old Town (1) 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 craft-coffee arena include Harbinger Coffee, Bindle Coffee and Everyday Joe’s . 2 7 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 136 / Jessup Farm Artisan Village boasts locally crafted goods from coffee to bread, T-shirts, watches, photography, 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/TONYFWU; FORT COLLINS BOHEMIAN NIGHTS; CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER, MILES/MATT INDEN. OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: NEW BELGIUM BREWERY; REVOLUTION ARTISAN POPS. 1
Colorado Official State Vacation Guide 2018: Page 136
