What is it?
The hiking trails at Arapaho Bend rate as “pretty amazing, considering where they’re located,” to me. Arapaho Bend is one of Fort Collins many Natural Areas. The trail loop network runs a total distance of 4 miles. These trails loop around ponds created from abandoned gravel pits. Hikers, boaters, horsemen and runners and dog walkers use the park. It is close to town without being in town, and the river runs along the eastern side
Where Is It
This open space area is at the eastern end of town, beside the Poudre River as it runs along Strauss Cabin Road just west of the I-25 Freeway, on the northwest corner of the intersection of Harmony and I-25. The hiking trails at Arapaho Bend bound the ponds in this oasis of open land. This area is just west of Tinmath Walmart, just north of the apartments on the south side of Harmony.
How to Get There:
There are three parking lots, one at the corner of the eastern end of Strauss Cabin and Horsetooth Road, which for its last mile or so is not the four lane thoroughfare that runs through town, but a gravel road leading between a pasture and a reservoir. Another parking lot is between Horsetooth and Harmony on Strauss Cabin Road, and the largest parking lot is in the Transit Center, which you enter from Harmony right after you cross over the I-25 coming west from Tinmath. Any of these parking lots has access to the trail system.
Who Goes There?
People who want to hike a short, flat distance through an unusually scenic rural environment, practically in town. There are a lot of dog walkers, runners, and small friendly groups walking the trails on any fair day, and some even when it’s cool. Then, in the ponds, there are people piloting SUP’s in the summer, not to mention kayaks and fishermen working both from the shore and from boats. Many launch boats from the side of Beaver Pond, which follows alongside Strauss Cabin Road for about a half mile. There is no boating in the second large pond, Rigden Reservoir. This pond is just north of Horsetooth Road. I’m assuming there’s no boats because of technical equipment in the lake, which looks from a distance like ski boat ramps.
Why Go There?
In the pantheon of good hikes around Fort Collins, Arapaho Bend can’t really compete for drama with places like Horsetooth Rock or Arthur’s Rock. There are no scenic outlooks in the flat area around the Poudre. There is no mystical meditation site like at Coyote Ridge. However, despite its closeness to town, and its popularity, this area retains a quiet country feel. And it’s completely flat. If you have fair-weather hikers it’s perfect.
What are fair weather hikers? My son in law listed some of the maladies that can affect hiking trail choice in our family. They include asthma, pregnancy, small children, aged parents, or, just generalized lassitude. Some folks tell you “I’m not going on a hike with a vertical rise of 1000 feet.” If that’s your situation, you can take them to Arapaho Bend and as soon as they get tired, you can turn around.
When to Go
On any fair day. The park is open year round, 5 a.m.to 11 p.m.
History
European settlement of this site goes back to the time of the Civil War when Robert Strauss, who built the Strauss Cabin of the road’s name, settled here after being flooded out of a cabin he built northeast of here in La Porte in 1864. Later, in 1904, Strauss died in a flood at this site.
The Strauss cabin stood for many years but burned soon after being restored in the late 1990s. You can still see the foundation, and some debris, and can imagine what life was like in this region before the roads, cars, telephone lines, and piped water and sewage lines came to the region.
