A new favorite...

Yesterday morning we decided to do some more exploring. We've heard a lot about the Poudre Canyon, so we headed north out of Fort Collins to take a drive on Highway 14. Highway 14 goes through the Poudre Canyon, following the Cache La Poudre river. I'm officially in love with this river and I'm so glad we choose Fort Collins so we can spend a lot of time there. It's Colorado's first official Wild and Scenic River. That's definitely saying something for the beauty that surrounds this area. We stopped at the Hewlett Gulch trailhead and hiked around three quarter's of a mile up the three mile trail. Normally there is a mountain creek flowing along the trail (with 19 crossings), but being fall it was dry. We can't wait to do it again in the spring with the snow melt brings the water back. After that we drove a little further into the canyon and found a spot to hike down to the river and spent some more time throwing rocks into the clear water. No one got hurt this time! It started raining at that point so we decided to head back home. After arriving home, I realized we hadn't even gotten to the part of the river that is classified as "wild", so I can't wait to plan a day to go back and travel the whole length of the canyon. I'd really like to go all the way to Steamboat Springs which is 150 miles away, but takes 3 1/2 hours to drive because of the scenic, windy two lane highway. Anyone know of a Picasa-like program that's compatible with Macs so I can post pictures in a slideshow?