Ft. Collins

It's been raining all day, so no hike today. Have to write about Ft. Collins instead of exploring it. People keep asking me where it is, and confuse it with conservative Colorado Springs, so I suppose a little background is in order. Ft. Collins is about an hour north of Denver, in an area called the Front Range. Plains aren't what you think of when you think of Colorado, but you can see clearly on this map, where the plains start on the eastern side of the state. In the case of Ft. Collins, the foothills of the Rocky Mountains are only a half hour or so away. Though Hewlitt Packard and other tech companies are now the big employers, the town is surrounded by farmland and ranches (I often hear horses on my walks). I took this picture on a little hike up near Horsetooth Resevoir, which is the closest park in the foothills. In the picture, you can see the prairie in the distance. The smell of the pine trees reminds me of being a kid in East Texas, and the big sky of the plains reminds me of the rest of the state...it is nice to be out West again.