Our next destination was Fort Collins, Colorado, a college town just a bit north of Denver.

The drive there took us back through Wyoming for most of the trip, only dipping into Colorado for the last 45 minutes of the drive. And we were quite struck by how instantly the landscape seemed to change when we entered Colorado. Jackson aside, Wyoming was a fairly bland landscape. But almost as soon as we crossed the border into Colorado the views became lush, mountainous, and interesting. Whoever negotiated that border was clearly in the pocket of Big Colorado.

Like most of the places we’d been, the weather forecast in Fort Collins called for heat. However, while the mornings ended up being hot, most of the afternoons were overcast, even bringing some rain and thunder (which was once again nice for us, bad for Winnie).

We took advantage of the cooler weather on our first full day to go for a hike at the nearby Horsetooth reservoir. We chose a path called “Waterfall Loop Trail”, hoping that at the end there might be some falling water. Alas, this time of year it was a misnomer and we ended up on a completely dry hike instead.

And as per usual, Winnie pooped out half way through:

On our way back we stopped at a cute looking cafe to relax and do some reading. While there we couldn’t help but notice that they sold a lot of Noosa products, which is a brand of yogurt we really enjoy. As it turns out, we had unknowingly stumbled upon the Noosa factory! This delighted us so much that Ellie bought a shirt there.

Another thing we can’t help but note about Fort Collins is how much attention Winnie got. She might be the cutest dog in Colorado judging by the number of people that commented on her or stopped and asked to pet her. In just one night we spent downtown we counted 16 compliments!

We were worried that this would go to her head and make her insufferable, so each night we reminded her that she’s still a California 7. (Just kidding, she’s a 15 anywhere).

Other than that, there was nothing too notable about Fort Collins. Our Airbnb was fairly uncomfortable (a horrible couch and a weak AC), but otherwise we thought the place was cute and had a nice downtown.

Our final day there was a Thursday, and we had to find a temporary place to work before heading to our next destination. We chose a cute little coworking space called Cahoots right near downtown, which we both loved. It was a great ending to Fort Collins. (And 3 more people asked to pet Winnie there).

• How much we’d like to visit again: 5/10. A cute town, but we wouldn’t go out of our way to come back.
• How much we’d like to live here: 5/10. We liked a lot about Fort Collins, but we don’t generally like college towns. Strangely, they tend to attract college students.