How a piano floated down the North Fork of the Poudre River
How a motorcycle ride turned into one of the most legendary icons of Larimer County
Why the road through the canyon was a jailhouse project
How boom turned to bust for the Manhattan Ghost Town
How the pioneers traveled, and built railroads and the lakes that are now part of Red Feather Lakes
The story of Lady Moon, her horse Moses and her locomotive animal disruptor
The story of the historic Livermore Hotels that the river road bypassed, and the Forks Mercantile & Saloon
A Narrated tour a ghost town cemetery, and the gold boom that created it.
The story of the Virginia Dale Stage Station & Wily Jack Slade
Discovery of the ancient Lindenmeier Site at Soapstone Prairie ……and many more
Uncover hidden mountain treasures
The Wild West Explorer Package — $60
Everything to make this educational history trip a blast for the entire family, for $60.
Two 32-page books, written and illustrated around the stories you will hear on the road: a coloring book, and an activity book with the Pioneer Passport built into it. Collect all six stamps along the way, send us a photo of the finished passport, and we will mail your explorer a free 11 x 17 inch poster.
The narrated app, with a story for every stop and more (27 tracks) full GPS navigation, and all seven coupons on your phone. That is $120 of local value at the counter.
The books are written for 2nd through 5th grade. Pick them up in person at the Poudre Park Market on Day 1, or if you’re unsure of travel dates, we can ship them.
Coupons are good Monday through Thursday — midweek, when the canyon is quiet and these businesses have room for you. Order your package by August 17, 2026.
Leave Fort Collins and turn up the Poudre Canyon on Highway 14. Your first stop is the Gateway Natural Area, where two rivers meet and the horseshoe bend makes about the safest family float this canyon offers. There is a small entry fee.
Dry off and carry on to Poudre Park. Pick up your Explorer Package at the Poudre Park Market, and get a coffee from the Kind Bean cart at Riverside Colorado while the kids dig into the books.
🎟 EXPLORER PERK: Buy one, get one on any coffee or espresso drink.
Lunch: The Mishawaka
Lunch on the riverside patio at The Mishawaka — a dance hall a Fort Collins musician built in 1916, after riding a motorcycle up a dirt canyon and deciding this was the most beautiful place he had ever seen.
🎟 EXPLORER PERK: $10 off lunch or dinner for a family of four WITH THE APP ONLY 🛑 PIONEER PASSPORT STAMP LOCATION
Afternoon: The Narrows
The canyon walls close in. In the early 1900s engineers called a road through here flatly impossible, so the state brought in convict crews who blasted a single lane out of solid granite with pickaxes and dynamite, foot by foot, for years.
Look for the long straight drill holes in the rock face as you pass — those were packed by hand. Then the canyon opens out again at Rustic, and you have arrived.
Dinner and Stay: Glen Echo Resort
Check into a cabin or set up camp at the historic Glen Echo Resort, and have dinner at the on-site restaurant. There has been a store on this ground since 1925, and it has been the canyon’s front porch ever since. Let the kids run themselves out along the river while there is still light.
🎟 EXPLORER PERK: 15% off one night’s cabin rental WITH THE APP. (book ahead) 🛑 PIONEER PASSPORT STAMP LOCATION: Get your stamp at the front desk, then an icee or an ice cream cone to close out the day.
Day 2: High Altitude Pioneers & Pine Trees
(Red Feather Lakes)
Morning: A Ghost Town and the Village
Climb north out of the canyon on Manhattan Road. A couple of miles up, pull over at the Manhattan Cemetery — all that is left of a gold town that had hundreds of residents, three hotels and a good many saloons, and lasted about fifteen years. The ore turned out to cost more to get out than it was worth.
Carry on up County Road 69 into Red Feather Lakes. The Red Feather Trading Post is two historic buildings joined into one, and the little wood-frame cabin beside it held the village post office for seventeen years.
🎟 EXPLORER PERK: $1 off any espresso drink at The Outlawtte – WITH THE APP 🛑 PIONEER PASSPORT STAMP LOCATION
Midday: Pioneer Trails and Lunch at the Hill Top
Saddle up at Sundance Trail Guest Ranch and ride the same high-country routes the tie hacks and ranchers used, for the same reason they used them: it is where the ground lets you through.
Then lunch at the Hill Top General Store. Mr. Wallace built it around 1929, and in 1934 the family started running the mail out of it — the first official Red Feather Lakes post office, in the corner of a general store.
🎟 EXPLORER PERK: 15% off family trail rides WITH THE APP. 🎟 EXPLORER PERK: Free chips and a soda with every sandwich – WITH THE APP ONLY 🛑 PIONEER PASSPORT STAMP LOCATION
Afternoon and Evening: The High Lakes
Break out the fishing gear and head for the accessible piers at Dowdy Lake or Bellaire Lake. These waters were deeded to the state for public recreation in 1948, and that decision is the only reason your family can fish here today.
Morning: Panoramas and the Barn That Ran the High Country
Before you leave the high country, drive up to the Deadman Lookout tower. At over 10,000 feet there is no better view in Larimer County, and the tower is on the National Historic Lookout Register.
Then start down the grade. Watch for the Solomon Batterson barn — an enormous 1889 swing station where stagecoaches swapped spent teams for fresh draft horses. Without it the freight stopped. It is private property and a working ranch, so look all you want from the road.
Lunch: Rigby’s Roadhouse
A red barn on Eiger Road with a horseshoe pit out front, and the best lunch in this part of the county. Watch for Rigby himself — he is the black Lab on the sign, and he makes the rounds at lunch like he is checking on everybody personally. Turn the kids loose on the grass by the lake while the food comes.
One thing to know: Rigby’s is closed Monday through Wednesday. If today is one of their quiet days, pick up sandwiches at the Hill Top before you leave the village and find a patch of grass down at the lower elevations. It is a better picnic anyway.
🎟 EXPLORER PERK: 10% off your table WITH THE APP — Thursdays only. 🛑 PIONEER PASSPORT STAMP LOCATION
Afternoon: Livermore and The Forks
Coming into Livermore, watch for a white clapboard hotel with a tiny post office beside it. In 1890 the county moved the wagon road a quarter of a mile north and the traffic vanished overnight. Two hotels, and the road decided which one won.
Then pull into The Forks Mercantile and Saloon for cold drinks and ice cream. A hotel stood on this fork in the road for 111 years until it burned in 1985, and a town of a few hundred people raised the money and built it again on the same ground.
🛑 FINAL PIONEER PASSPORT STAMP: Grab it with your ice cream. 🔍 ANTIQUE SCAVENGER HUNT: Find the cast iron potbelly stove, the hundred-year-old golden cash register, and the old-timey phone booth with a door on it.
Late Afternoon: Outlaws and Ancient Hunters
Head north toward the Wyoming border on the old Overland Trail. The Virginia Dale Stage Station is one of the last of its kind still standing in the country, and the man who ran it, Jack Slade, turns up in Mark Twain’s Roughing It. Look at the rocks around the rim of the valley and pick the spot you would wait in, if you meant to rob a coach.
Carry on to Virginia Dale Church, where the old fashion potbelly stove still sits between the pews, and the 1800’s era playground is still there for swinging. Finish at the Lindenmeier Site in Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, where Folsom hunters camped more than ten thousand years ago. Take nothing but the photograph — every artifact stays exactly where it lies.
Please note: Soapstone Prairie is open March 1 to November 30. On a winter trip, finish at Virginia Dale Church instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I still be able to use the app another time if I can’t make these dates?
Yes. The app is yours to keep, and you can drive the route whenever you like. The coupons are the only part with a date on them — they expire May 31, 2027, and are good Monday through Thursday.
Will this trip be available again?
We will be releasing more travel apps for this area, each one built for the date and the season it comes out in. We cannot promise this exact route will run again, and the businesses taking part can always change.
Will the stops be crowded with other Passport families?
No. We are releasing about 30 of these for this first run, spread across August and September and midweek only — so on any given day there may be one or two other families somewhere along 250 miles of road. And every stop is a real working business rather than a tour group: you are going to a coffee counter, a lunch spot and a lake, the same as anybody else who happens to be up here that day.
Can I buy it if I cannot get to the Poudre Park Market?
Yes. Everything is bought online. At checkout you choose whether to collect your books at the Poudre Park Market or have them shipped to you — the app and your coupons are on your phone either way.
Do I have to do the days in order?
No. Take the days in any order you like, and do as many in one go as suits you. The app knows where you are and plays the right story when you arrive.
How far is the whole trip?
About 140 miles round trip from Fort Collins and back again, taking in all the stops we suggest.
Do I need cell service?
No — and you will not have much. Most of Poudre Canyon has no signal at all, and Red Feather Lakes is patchy. Download the trip before you leave and the narration, the maps and your coupons all live on your phone. GPS works fine without a signal.
What ages is this written for?
The coloring book and the activity book are written and illustrated for 2nd through 5th grade. The history in the app holds up for the grown-ups.
Does the app work on more than one phone?
One phone per purchase, linked to the email address used at checkout.
Should I book anything ahead?
Yes. We suggest reservations at The Mishawaka, Glen Echo Resort and Sundance Trail Guest Ranch. Where you stay on night two is up to you, and it is worth booking early — this is a small village and it fills up.
How do the coupons work?
Show the coupon in the app to your cashier, and tap “mark as used”. One per family, per visit. The Hill Top is the exception — theirs is one chips and soda for every sandwich you buy. You may use your Glen Echo coupon to book a cabin ahead of time by following our instructions on the cart screen prior to checkout.
How does my child get the free poster?
Collect all six stamps in the Pioneer Passport section of the activity book, then send us a photo of the finished passport. We will mail your explorer an 11 x 17 inch poster, free.
What if something is closed when we get there?
Rigby’s Roadhouse is closed Monday through Wednesday, so the app has a Hill Top sandwich plan for those days. Soapstone Prairie is open March through November, so a winter run finishes Virginia Dale Community Church instead.
Can we have a campfire?
Please check the current fire restrictions before you travel. This country has burned repeatedly and conditions change fast — we keep a live fire restrictions page so you can see where things stand before you pack the car.
Pioneer Passport App Gallery
Two 32-page books, written and illustrated around the stories you will hear on the road: a coloring book, and an activity book with the Pioneer Passport built into it. Collect all six stamps along the way, send us a photo of the finished passport, and we will mail your explorer a free 11 x 17 inch poster.
The narrated app, with a story for every stop, full GPS navigation, and all seven coupons on your phone. That is $120 of local value at the counter.
The books are written for 2nd through 5th grade. Pick them up in person at the Poudre Park Market on Day 1.
Travel dates are August 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027, and the coupons are good Monday through Thursday — midweek, when the canyon is quiet and these businesses have room for you. Order your package by August 17, 2026.
Bellaire Lake, one of two public waters you can fish on Day 2.
The youth shirt, kelly green.
Riverside Colorado at Poudre Park — where you collect your books on Day 1.
The picnic ground at Poudre Park, a few steps from the water.
Gateway Natural Area, where the North Fork meets the Poudre.
The whole route, from the mouth of the canyon to the Wyoming border.
More of the coloring book.
Inside the coloring book.
Back cover.
The coloring book. 32 pages, written for 2nd through 5th grade.
The youth shirt, sold separately at $20.
The adult shirt, sold separately at $22.
The Outlawtte, inside the Red Feather Trading Post — $1 off any espresso.
The Narrows, blasted out of solid granite from 1912.
Red rock above the Poudre in the lower canyon.
Bellaire Lake, one of two public waters you can fish on Day 2.
The youth shirt, kelly green.
Riverside Colorado at Poudre Park — where you collect your books on Day 1.
The picnic ground at Poudre Park, a few steps from the water.
Gateway Natural Area, where the North Fork meets the Poudre.
The whole route, from the mouth of the canyon to the Wyoming border.
More of the coloring book.
Inside the coloring book.
Back cover.
The coloring book. 32 pages, written for 2nd through 5th grade.
The youth shirt, sold separately at $20.
The adult shirt, sold separately at $22.
The Outlawtte, inside the Red Feather Trading Post — $1 off any espresso.
The Narrows, blasted out of solid granite from 1912.
Red rock above the Poudre in the lower canyon.
Ready to hit the trail?
Grab your Explorer Package, pack the car, and come see what the mountains have to offer.
