8 | Cache La Poudre N. Park

Length: 101 miles. Driving time: 3 hours.
Open Year Round

This byway links Fort Collins with verdant North Park, a quiet, bowl-shaped valley just west of the Continental Divide. The road runs through the Cache la Poudre River canyon, once a useful transit corridor for Native Americans and, later, white explorers. Today’s visitors lean more toward recreation; whitewater boaters and anglers love the Poudre, Colorado’s only federally designated National Wild and Scenic River. At 10,276-foot Cameron Pass the highway intercepts Colorado State Forest, a 70,000-acre preserve of glaciated mountains and evergreen thickets. North Park, once a favorite bison grazing ground, remains heavily populated with deer, antelope, elk, moose, beaver, and coyote; migrating waterfowl flock to the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge.

Features Include:

• Cache la Poudre National Heritage Area
• Roosevelt National Forest
• Colorado State Forest
• Outstanding fishing
• Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge
• Blue Lake; Delany Burns Lakes; Ranger Lakes; Kelly Lake; Joe Wright Reservoir; Michigan Reservoir; Poudre River

Wildlife
Moose, Elk, Antelope, Deer, Badger, Marsh Birds, Golden Eagle, Red Crossbill, Sage Grouse, Lek

Tour Colorado Member: North Park Visitors Bureau