Long Draw Road Scenic Drive

📖 Read our full guide: Long Draw Road: A High-Country Scenic Drive Above the Poudre Canyon

A 12-mile dirt road that leaves Highway 14 just past Chambers Lake and climbs into the headwaters of the Cache la Poudre, ending at Long Draw Reservoir at about 10,030 feet on the northern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s one of the finest short scenic drives in Northwest Larimer County — creek bottoms, subalpine meadows that fill with wildflowers by mid-summer, the silvered standing timber of the 2020 Cameron Peak burn, and an alpine reservoir at the top, nearly all of it visible from the car.

Open roughly July 1 until snow closes it, usually mid-November. The main road is wide and well maintained, fine for a passenger car in dry summer conditions, but there are no services and no cell signal up here, and the rough side spurs want high clearance. Go on a weekday and take your time.