Pineridge Natural Area

Today we made the drive down to Fort Collins to get some takeout food, visit a playground, go for a hike, see Christmas lights and drink a beer. Our first stop, picking up food from Music City Hot Chicken to take to Spring Creek Park for a picnic and playing at the playground.

Next we made the short drive over to Pineridge Natural Area where we hit the trail for a short hike around the Dixon Reservoir. The parking lot at Pineridge was full, so we parked along the road near the entrance to Maxwell Natural Area. We walked alongside the road for a short distance before entering the natural area. There were lots of people out and about on a beautiful, warm, day after Christmas. Almost immediately, we found ourselves following the shoreline of the reservoir. 

We followed the shoreline to a trail junction where we headed out onto the Timber Trail. The trail is well-named as it heads along the edge of an area of ponderosa pines. There were a few short muddy sections, but nothing too bad. Sierra enjoyed running ahead.

We crossed a meadow at the natural area boundary. 

At the next trail junction, Sierra found a nice rock to take a break on.

Then, we started hiking through the meadow back towards the reservoir and the way we had come.

We walked past lots of prairie dogs that Rosie seemed pretty interested in.

Soon enough we were back to the water 

and shortly thereafter, the car. We drove to Old Town to walk among the Christmas lights. Before it was dark enough, we spent some time at the playground at Library Park 

and then got a beer at Equinox Brewing. 

It was a great way to spend a day.