The Cache la Poudre and North Park Scenic Byway in Colorado, Part One

 Colorado has designated 26 areas as official scenic byways, with just over a dozen federally classified as American Byways. My husband and I have traveled many of them since moving to Colorado twelve years ago. While on a visit to Fort Collins- click here--to read that blog post, we learned there was a scenic drive nearby we could take as a detour side trip on our way back home.

The 101-mile corridor of Highway 14 between the city of Fort Collins and Walden, Colorado, constitutes the Cache la Poudre-North Park Scenic Byway. For much of the journey, the road parallels the Cache la Poudre River, Colorado’s only federally-designated National Wild and Scenic River. The river’s name translates from French to “hide the powder.” Legend tells that the river (pronounced "poo-der") was where French fur trappers decided to bury their gunpowder for retrieval in spring to lighten their load while traveling during a snowstorm in the mid-1800s. The name Caché la Poudre in French means ‘where the powder was hidden,’ and thus the river was named.

Along the drive, the rocky canyon twists and turns, crossing the river in a few places. The lower altitudes feature places where locals gather to engage in inner-tube rides and swimmers paddle in the slower-moving shallows. Rougher water can be found upriver, where rafters and kayakers challenge upwards of Class III rapids from May until late September.

As we drove through steep canyons, we saw hikers, fishermen, and campers along the way.

We enjoyed the wild, rustic scenery we saw along this part of the river!

A short video above of rapids on the Cache la Poudre River.

It was easy to see how the Rocky Mountains got their name!

As we gained elevation, we saw beautiful forest areas...

...but we also saw some areas that had been sadly devastated by past wildfires.

We stopped at the summit of Cameron Pass  (elevation 10,276 ft; 3,132 m). The pass is a gap between the south end of the Medicine Bow Mountains and the north end of the Never Summer Mountains. 

After descending from Cameron Pass, we entered a high plain area called North Park.

North Park is a high, sparsely populated basin (approximately 8,800 feet (2,700 m) in elevation). The valley receives its name from being the northernmost of the three large mountain valleys (or parks) in Colorado on the western side of the Front Range. The others are Middle Park and South Park respectively.  The basin opens northward into Wyoming, in the direction of flow of the North Platte. On the east side, it is rimmed by the Medicine Bow Mountains, the Never Summer Mountains, and Rabbit Ears Range to the south, and the Park Range to the west. The Continental Divide rims the Park along the south and west.

I find these high-elevation "parks" so mesmerizing! We live closest to South Park, and I've often blogged about it.

I have more to show about North Park and a wonderful wildlife refuge in Part Two of my next blog post--see you then!

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