Pawnee Trail
The Way Things Used to Be
The legendary Pawnee National Grassland is one of the only places near Denver where you can stand in native prairie, with gayfeather and pasqueflower tickling your feet, watching McCown’s Longspurs and Lark Buntings skylark against a backdrop of snow-covered peaks, in one of the very few areas in the country that has changed very little in the past 200 years. A stronghold of the increasingly threatened grassland ecosystem, this lush prairie is home to Kit Foxes, Long-billed Curlews, Mountain Plovers, and Burrowing Owls. Here, too, are seasonal wetlands, dramatic buttes, and some of the most famous spots in Colorado to find migrant birds in spring and fall, such as Crow Valley Campground. This is rightly one of the most popular wildlife watching destinations in the state, not to be missed by true lovers of nature.
Sites on this Trail
- Lower Latham Reservoir
- Greeley
- Poudre River Trail and Greeley Gravel Pits
- The Poudre Learning Center
- Windsor Lake/Boardwalk Community Park
- Windsor Reservoir
- Black Hollow Reservoir
- Drake Lake
- Raptor Alley
- Crom Lake
- Clark Lake
- Crow Valley Campground
- Pawnee National Grasslands (western section)
- Pawnee National Grasslands (East Section) & Pawnee Buttes
- West Pawnee Ranch