Aug 10, 2026

Fort Collins Bans Dogs From 7 of Its Own Natural Areas: The Full List, and the 40 That Welcome Them

Most published lists of Fort Collins natural areas that ban dogs are years out of date. Checked site by site against the city's own pages, the real number is seven.

Luis ZamoraCo-founder of PetCompass; Dog Dad to Banzo and Tuck

Fort Collins, Colorado10 min readPet Care & Services

Fort Collins owns 51 natural areas. Dogs are banned outright from seven of them, permitted on leash at 40, and the remaining four are not yet open to anybody.

That ratio is worth stating plainly, because the internet has the story backwards. Search this question and you will find lists naming a dozen or more sites as closed to dogs, including several that the city's own pages currently tag as welcoming leashed dogs. Those lists are out of date.

Below is the current position, taken site by site from the City of Fort Collins' own natural area pages. Every one of the seven bans allows service animals trained to assist a person with a disability, in alignment with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The seven where dogs are banned

1. Soapstone Prairie Natural Area

22998 Rawhide Flats Road, Wellington. Open daily dawn to dusk, March to November.

The city's flagship, over 28 square miles of wide open vistas, nearly pristine grassland, miles of trails, and world-renowned cultural resources.

The ban here goes further than anywhere else. The city states that this is one of the few natural areas on which dogs are not allowed, including in cars. You cannot drive in with a dog and leave it in the vehicle while you walk. On a site this remote, that is a policy with teeth and no workaround.

Note the season. March to November only, dawn to dusk. It is closed in deep winter regardless.

2. Bobcat Ridge Natural Area

10184 W. County Road 32C, Loveland. Open daily dawn to dusk.

Grassy valley, foothills, ponderosa pines, red rock cliffs, and historic homestead sites, with elk, wild turkey, and mountain lions.

Dogs are not allowed, and the city adds that Bobcat Ridge is an on-trail-only natural area, so there is no off-trail latitude either.

Mountain lions are the context. This is genuine predator habitat rather than a technicality.

3. Coyote Ridge Natural Area

Open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

One of the best-known hikes in the county and one of the most commonly misunderstood dog rules, because the trailhead sits close enough to town that people assume it works like the rest.

It does not. Dogs are not allowed.

4. Fossil Creek Reservoir Natural Area

3340 Carpenter Road, Fort Collins. Open daily dawn to dusk.

Rolling prairie uplands, wetlands, and a tree-lined reservoir, and the county's outstanding birding site. It was created through a partnership between the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, and North Poudre Irrigation Company to conserve 1,398 acres.

The city gives its reasoning here, which it does not elsewhere. Biking, water recreation, and pets all have a significant impact on wildlife, and are therefore not permitted. The note is explicit: dogs, bikes, and horses are not allowed.

Bald eagles winter here, alongside raptors, shorebirds, songbirds, and waterfowl. That is what the rule is protecting.

5. Running Deer Natural Area

3745 E. Prospect Road, Fort Collins. Open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Named for exactly what it sounds like. Mule deer and whitetail deer bed down and run across the site, and there is a wildlife viewing pavilion.

No dogs are allowed at Running Deer. This one catches people out because it sits in the Poudre corridor among several sites that do allow dogs.

6. Cottonwood Hollow Natural Area

3301 E. Prospect Road, Fort Collins. Open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

An ecologically diverse wet meadow site in the Poudre River corridor, near Prospect Ponds, CSU's Environmental Learning Center, Running Deer, and Riverbend Ponds.

Dogs are not allowed, and it is also one of only two natural areas where bikes are not permitted, with bike parking provided at the car park for those who ride there.

7. Piano Boulders, within Pineridge Natural Area

Open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

This is the subtle one, and the reason it belongs on the list.

Pineridge Natural Area itself allows leashed dogs. But Piano Boulders, the popular bouldering-only site inside it, does not. The city states there are no dogs allowed in the Piano Boulders climbing area, and the short trail there leads to climbing access only.

So the boundary is inside a site rather than at its gate. If you are climbing, the dog does not come. If you are walking Pineridge, it does.

The seven at a glance

#	Natural area	Hours	The rule
1	Soapstone Prairie	Dawn to dusk, March to November	No dogs, including in cars
2	Bobcat Ridge	Dawn to dusk	No dogs, on-trail-only site
3	Coyote Ridge	5 a.m. to 11 p.m.	No dogs
4	Fossil Creek Reservoir	Dawn to dusk	No dogs, bikes, or horses
5	Running Deer	5 a.m. to 11 p.m.	No dogs
6	Cottonwood Hollow	5 a.m. to 11 p.m.	No dogs, and no bikes
7	Piano Boulders, inside Pineridge	5 a.m. to 11 p.m.	No dogs in the climbing area

The four that are closed to everyone

Worth knowing so you do not drive to one. The city lists Crossline Canyons, Eagle View, Flores Del Sol, and Topminnow as not yet open to the public. These are not dog bans. They are sites that have not opened.

The 40 where your dog is welcome

Forty of the 51 carry a Leashed Dogs feature tag on the city's own listings, and most keep the standard hours of 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. That includes Arapaho Bend, Cathy Fromme Prairie, Gateway, Kingfisher Point, Maxwell, Pineridge, Prospect Ponds, Red Fox Meadows, Reservoir Ridge, Riverbend Ponds, River's Edge, Salyer, Springer, Two Creeks, Udall, and Williams, among others.

The rule at all of them is the same. The city's own natural areas map puts it in one line: keep dogs on-leash and pack out dog waste, at sites where dogs are allowed.

That is not a suggestion about tidiness. In a system where seven sites have already been closed to dogs to protect wildlife, off-leash dogs and abandoned waste bags at the other 40 are the argument for closing more.

Why the lists you find online are wrong

This is worth a paragraph, because the misinformation here is unusually persistent and it will cost you a day if you trust it.

The widely circulated version names 14 sites. It typically includes Butterfly Woods, Hazaleus, Puente Verde, Soaring Vista, and Tanglewood alongside the genuine bans. Every one of those five currently carries a Leashed Dogs feature tag on the city's own page. They are open to your dog.

It also usually misses Running Deer and Piano Boulders, both of which really are closed to dogs, because their pages use different wording from the standard note. Running Deer says "No dogs are allowed at Running Deer Natural Area" and Piano Boulders says "There are no dogs allowed in the Piano Boulders climbing area," neither of which matches the phrase the copied lists were built from.

So the popular list is wrong in both directions at once. It keeps you out of five places you could go, and sends you to two you cannot.

The fix is simple. Check the individual site page on fortcollins.gov before you drive. Each one carries a Features block, and the presence or absence of a Leashed Dogs tag is the fastest reliable signal, with the explanatory note in the description underneath.

Why these seven and not others

The pattern is legible once you have the whole list in front of you, and it is not arbitrary.

Sensitive wildlife with young or wintering populations. Fossil Creek Reservoir spells this out: pets have a significant impact on wildlife. Running Deer is a deer bedding site. Cottonwood Hollow is uncommon wet meadow habitat.

Predator habitat. Bobcat Ridge is home to mountain lions and elk. A loose or even leashed dog in that environment is both a target and a trigger.

Scale and remoteness. Soapstone Prairie is over 28 square miles with dawn to dusk seasonal access. Enforcement and rescue at that scale are different problems entirely, which is why the ban extends to dogs left in vehicles.

Concentrated human activity in a small footprint. Piano Boulders is a bouldering area, where tied-up dogs under a climbing wall are a hazard to everyone.

What to do instead

The good news is that being turned away from seven sites in a system of 51 barely constrains a trip.

For foothills hiking with a dog, the Horsetooth complex is the direct substitute for Coyote Ridge and Bobcat Ridge. Access points are ranked in Horsetooth Reservoir and Horsetooth Mountain with a dog.

For river corridor walking, the Poudre sites that do allow dogs sit alongside the ones that do not. See the Poudre is Colorado's only Wild and Scenic river.

For off-leash running, the city's fenced dog parks are the answer, ranked in Spring Canyon has a dog pond.

For the national park question, Rocky Mountain National Park is far stricter than any of these seven. The alternatives are in Rocky Mountain National Park won't take your dog.

Before you go

Check the site page on the day. Natural areas close for wet and muddy conditions, and the city asks visitors to respect those closures and use the paved trail system instead. Carrying capacity also applies: when the car park is full, the city's guidance is to go elsewhere or come back another time.

Check COTREX, the Colorado Trail Explorer at trails.colorado.gov, which the city points to for trail and closure updates.

Know the hazards before the walk, because Colorado surprises visitors. Rattlesnakes, altitude, foxtails, blue-green algae, and afternoon storms are covered in 9 Colorado hazards that catch Fort Collins dog owners off guard.

Save a vet number before the first trailhead, not after. See emergency and after-hours vets in Fort Collins.

Frequently asked questions

Which Fort Collins natural areas do not allow dogs? Seven: Soapstone Prairie, Bobcat Ridge, Coyote Ridge, Fossil Creek Reservoir, Running Deer, Cottonwood Hollow, and the Piano Boulders climbing area within Pineridge Natural Area.

Are dogs allowed at Coyote Ridge Natural Area? No. The City of Fort Collins lists it as one of the few natural areas on which dogs are not allowed. Service animals trained to assist a person with a disability are permitted.

Can I leave my dog in the car at Soapstone Prairie? No. The ban at Soapstone Prairie explicitly includes dogs in cars.

Are dogs allowed at Bobcat Ridge? No. Dogs are not allowed, and the site is on-trail-only. It is open dawn to dusk.

Why are dogs banned at Fossil Creek Reservoir? The city states that biking, water recreation, and pets all have a significant impact on wildlife and are therefore not permitted. The reservoir supports wintering bald eagles, raptors, shorebirds, songbirds, and waterfowl.

Can my dog go to Pineridge Natural Area? Yes, on leash. Only the Piano Boulders climbing area inside it excludes dogs.

Sources

Site rules, hours, and openings change, and natural areas close temporarily for wet and muddy conditions. Confirm on the city's own page for the site before travelling. This article is general information and is not veterinary advice.