A trail dream has come true in northern Colorado. 

A celebration is set for 9 a.m. June 13 at Timnath Community Park, close to a new stretch of concrete being called “the final link in a 50-year vision.” Indeed, the Poudre River Trail dates back to the 1970s, when Fort Collins officials broke ground on a path to roughly follow the waterway between Larimer and Weld counties. 

With the latest mile-long addition between Timnath and Windsor, “Trail users can now travel the entire 45-mile route from Bellvue to Greeley without ever leaving the trail,” proclaimed a recent news release marking the celebration.

Added Meegan Flenniken, Larimer County’s land conservation, planning and resource division manager: “This trail is a gift to the community ー protecting the Poudre River while providing an unmatched way to experience the heart of northern Colorado.”

From Watson Lake northwest of Fort Collins to Greeley’s Island Grove Regional Park, the trail travels past leafy preserves and rural outskirts between urban cores ー landscapes showcasing the past and present of one of Colorado’s fastest growing regions.

Preservation was the goal of Greeley’s Natural Areas and Trails Division, established in 2019 to join the long-standing, multi-agency mission that was the Poudre River Trail.

Said the division’s manager, Justin Scharton, in a previous Gazette interview: “I think there’s something universal and human in that we kind of take for granted nature until maybe the finiteness of it starts to become evident. It starts to feel like we should prioritize this before it’s gone.” 

A detailed history of the trail, “A Tale of Two Counties” by George Moncaster, credits various governments and landowners sharing the priority over the years as they worked through various issues ranging from fiscal, environmental, social and political. Moncaster called the Poudre River Trail “an intergenerational ambition.” 

The author continued: “Truly, if there is anything to take away from the history of the PRT, it is that individuals and the interests they may represent can come together and achieve long-term goals if the original motivation is preserved throughout.”

Moncaster traced the trail to a Colorado State University student’s 1975 dissertation titled “The Cache La Poudre Trail Interpretive Plan.” From Fort Collins’ Parks Department, the vision reached officials and advocates elsewhere in Larimer County and beyond to Weld County. 

While the trail steadily expanded on either side, connecting the two counties separated by Interstate 25 was a years-long focus. A breakthrough came in the form of an underpass in 2024. 

It was a costly, collaborative job not unlike the most recent job filling the mile-long gap between Timnath and Windsor. Including a bridge over a canal, the $2.4 million segment was funded with grants from Great Outdoors Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Northern Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Colorado Department of Transportation. 

The segment “connects the whole vision,” Larimer County’s Planning and Natural Resource Manager Zac Wiebe previously told The Gazette. “But hopefully we’re not done.” 

Broader connections have been imagined: on the west end continuing to Poudre Canyon, and on the east end continuing to where the Poudre River meets the South Platte River.