Coyote Ridge Natural Area (Again)

Today Noelle, Mom and I wanted to get out of town for a bit. We decided on Fort Collins. Sierra wasn't too excited about the idea though, so to entice her I did some research and found a playground that I thought looked really fun. It's called Twin Silo Park and after watching a few You Tube videos about it, I had Sierra convinced that she needed to go to Fort Collins.

The drive through Cheyenne and into Fort Collins is pretty painless. A little after 10 am we found ourselves at Twin Silo Park and Sierra was excited to get out of the car and play.

After an hour of climbing, 

sliding, 

playing and ziplining, we were ready for lunch at DC Oakes Brewhouse. 

Finally, after lunch we were ready to hit the trail. We don't have a lot of hiking options this time of year, as many of the trails are closed for mud and erosion protection. One of the few trails open right now is the Coyote Ridge Trail, which I had hiked back in December. We made the short drive west, parked the car, and hit the muddy trail. 

 Almost immediately, we walked through a large prairie dog town. 

We continued on towards the mountains and our objective for the hike: Coyote Ridge.

Sierra was feeling sleepy, but luckily Mom was snake awake.

Just beyond the "Snake Awake" sign we met our first short, steep climb.

We continued through a gap in the hogback 

and got into some snow.

We continued to climb up the ridge,

 made it through a switchback,

and then we were in the homestretch. mom stopped for a bit to admire the view.

Then, before we knew it we were relaxing on the rocks under a beautiful ponderosa pine tree.

The views out across the valley to the next ridge were quite spectacular. 

I climbed a rock outcropping to a wonderful photo op.

After our short break we turned around to head back to the car the way we had come. As we approached the restroom and cabin at about the halfway point of the trail, we found a large herd of mule deer.

A half hour later we were back to the car.