Cottonwood Hollow Natural Area

Description

This ecologically diverse site sits amid a complex of natural areas. Nearby you’ll find Prospect Ponds Natural Area, CSU’s Environmental Learning Center, Running Deer Natural Area and Riverbend Ponds Natural Area. Cottonwood Hollow is a great place to get away from the urban environment, not far from home.

Visitors to Cottonwood Hollow find it ideal for wildlife watching – and listening. Red-winged blackbirds, egrets, herons, sandpipers, pelicans, killdeer, warblers, kingbirds, and song sparrows are some of the over 60 avian species that inhabit this area; some of them nest here. Painted turtles, foxes, muskrats and deer also might be seen.

Note: This is one of the few Fort Collins natural areas on which dogs are not allowed and one of only two on which bikes are not permitted (bike parking at the parking lot for those who ride to the site).

Trails

0.4 miles natural surface (from Running Deer Natural Area (Prospect St. parking lot), one way)

Hours

5:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.

Directions

Park at the Running Deer Natural Area parking lot on Prospect (west of Summitview Drive); also can be reached via connecting trail from Riverbend Ponds Natural Area through the underpass at Prospect or from the Running Deer Natural Area (Colorado Welcome Center) trailhead.

Events & Activities

• Fort Collins Natural Areas Program Program and Activity Guide May-October 2009 (pdf).
• Free educational programs at Cottonwood Hollow Natural Area are available for groups by request, call the Master Naturalist Program at 970-416-2480 or email .

Related Information

• Poudre River Natural Areas Management Plan