Blue Sky Trail

Larimer County Parks and Open Lands Has created the Blue Sky Trail to connect together Horsetooth Mountain Park, Rimrock Open Space, and Devil's Backbone Open Space. This trail creates wonderful opportunities to extend rides starting in those other areas, or to complete "epic" rides spanning the whole trail network. It's now possible to ride all the way from Lory State Park (northwest of Fort Collins) to Devil's Backbone (west of Loveland) and stay on singletrack almost the entire time! The trail surface is very smooth and doesn't present a technical challenge, but the scenery is top notch, and the connection options can't be beat!

Since there are 3 trail access points, and numerous ride options, I won't try to describe them all here. Instead, I'll just describe a ride from north to south along the trail starting at the Soderberg trailhead, and you can piece together your own route from there.

• Trail Information
• Trail Map - Download printable topo map, or view in
• Directions to Blue Sky trail

Trail Information

The Blue Sky trail runs North - South through a valley between Horsetooth Reservoir and Devil's Backbone. Midway along the trail, you can access the Coyote Ridge / Rimrock open space areas to the east, and the Indian Summer trail to the west.

From the Soderberg trailhead, ride out of the parking lot to the south, cross the road, and follow the crushed gravel path through the campground. After leaving the campground, the gravel path soon gives way to singletrack, and crosses under County Road 38E. From here, the trail winds through the scrub oak, hugging the east slope of the valley as it heads south.

(89 K)

(66 K)

(70 K)

About midway along the trail, The Coyote Ridge / Rimrock connector comes in from the east over the top of the ridge. At this point, Blue Sky trail drops to the valley floor and moves over to the west side to avoid a raptor nesting area in the cliffs.

(105 K)

(68 K)

(90 K)

After reaching the west side of the valley, the Indian Summer trail forks off to the right, and climbs about midway up the mountain to the west before curving south and dropping to the valley floor again. This trail offers a chance to do some climbing, and some nice views of Longs Peak, the Indian Peaks, and the city to the east...

(85 K)

(81 K)

(87 K)

After returning to the valley floor on Indian Summer, Blue Sky trail crosses back over to the east side of the valley, and eventually climbs over the eastern ridge and connects up with the Devil's Backbone trail system.

That's Blue Sky trail in a nutshell, see the descriptions of Horsetooth Mountain Park, Rimrock Open Space, and Devil's Backbone Open Space to complete your ride, and have fun out there!

Trail Map

• View in Google Earth - requires Google™ Earth viewer
  
  Suggested tour settings for Google Earth:
  • Camera Tilt Angle: 75
  • Camera Range: 600
  • Speed: 200


• Download print quality topo map (550 K) - requires Adobe Acrobat® Reader



• View Notes about the high quality version of this map