Saturday, February 2, 2013

Red Fox Meadows

Today was another exceptional day in the mile high state! The beautiful Colorado blue skies, clear paths and warm weather called us out of the house and onto a trail.
As part of our 2013 Passport to the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Tour we decided to go to Red Fox Meadows.

This is pretty close to our house. Up until recently, we didn't know it was here. A few years ago, we had seen the city tear up the corner of Prospect and Taft Hill and re-plane everything for flood control. We had no idea that this little corner went way back behind the houses and that there was a little bit of nature plopped right in the middle.

At the trailhead there are bathrooms, maps and areas set aside for educational purposes. Straight out of the "gates" Sarah pointed out two young bucks walking across our path. I wasn't fast enough with my reflexes to get a better picture.

There are several trails through this meadow. They were for the most part dry, flat and well maintained. What I found a little strange is that some of the paths just went no where. I would have liked a clear path where I could create a plan of action. We started on the north side and wandered around towards the east and the Heather Ridge Apartments. There we followed a jogger around the pond where the trail petered out to wild grasses. So we walked across an area where I'm sure we were not supposed to walk to get onto the south trail that follows a water ditch. There was another area in the middle that had stairs and a bridge leading a trail through a little wood. It was just beautiful. This little trail just faded away too. It led us to the bottom of a hill where others had trail blazed a path that was clearly causing erosion.

Despite the oddness of the trails, we had a great time. Susie saw a huge Red Tail Hawk. We watched the geese and ducks as they played in the melted pond.

We logged a slow 1.46 miles wandering around. (The red spots are where we stopped to wait for Sarah to catch up. She was having too much fun looking around.) We will definitely be back to see how things change through the seasons.