Loveland, Colorado's Foothills Nature Trail

 With beautiful weather forecast for Easter weekend, Noelle, Sierra, Rosie and I headed south to Loveland, CO to get some food (Betta Gumbo), go to the playground (Mehaffey Park) and go for a hike. Lunch from Betta Gumbo was very good. After some playing at the Mehaffey Park playground, we made the drive up the Big Thompson Canyon and hit the Foothills Nature Trail. 

The trail followed an old road with views across the canyon to Palisade Mountain.

We slowly made our way up the trail, pausing every now and then to rest on some rocks.

Eventually, a spur trail broke off of the road and headed up to the overlook.

The spur lead to an old stone, CCC-built shelter.

There wasn't much of a view from the shelter, unless you looked through the trees. After a short time we started our way back down the trail from the direction we had come. We stopped to rest at a grouping of cairns that had been constructed along the trail.

Soon, we arrived back at the parking area. We decided to cross US Highway 34 to check out Viestenz Smith Mountain Park.

Sierra and Rosie cooled off in the river for a bit.

Then, we walked around a bit and explored. We found this circular sculpture to be very interesting.

When it was time to leave, we drove back into Loveland. We explored the Chapungu Sculpture Park for a bit.

Then we started home via Greeley. We stopped in Greeley to pick up some beer from one of my favorite breweries, Weldwerks.