Aug 10, 2026

The Poudre Is Colorado's Only Wild and Scenic River: 6 Places Your Dog Can Get In

Colorado has exactly one Wild and Scenic river and it runs through Fort Collins. With every county swim beach closed to dogs, it is also the only place they can legally get wet.

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

Fort Collins, Colorado10 min readThings to Do

The Cache la Poudre is the only river in Colorado carrying federal Wild and Scenic designation. Congress designated it on 26 October 1986, running from Poudre Lake downstream, with the main and south forks rising in Rocky Mountain National Park and flowing through Roosevelt National Forest before passing through Fort Collins on their way to the South Platte.

It is also the answer to the question every Fort Collins dog owner eventually asks, which is where a dog can legally get wet. Larimer County bans dogs from every swim beach it manages. The city's reservoirs are not an option. The river is.

Six places below, all City of Fort Collins natural areas tagged for leashed dogs, ranked by how easily a dog actually reaches the water.

One rule before the list. These are city natural areas, so dogs must be on a leash, and the city asks you to pack out waste. Four of the six also carry an Off-trail Hiking Permitted tag, which is the detail that makes reaching a bank legal rather than a trespass. Where that tag is absent, stay on the path.

1. Shields Street River Access

1219 N. Shields Street. Leashed dogs, parking, restrooms, enhanced accessibility features, fishing, hiking and bike trails.

Purpose-built for getting into the water. The city describes it as a convenient river access for recreationists who kayak, canoe, or tube, providing access to the Cache la Poudre River, the Poudre Trail, and the North Shields Ponds and McMurry natural areas.

That combination is unique on this list. A designed put-in means a graded bank rather than a scramble, which matters enormously for an older or smaller dog.

Use the underpass or the sidewalks, which the city flags specifically for safety. Shields Street is busy.

A jurisdictional curiosity. The car park is owned by Larimer County and managed by the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department, so the city's leash rules are the ones that apply rather than the county's ten-foot allowance.

2. North Shields Ponds Natural Area

1333 N. Shields Street. Leashed dogs, off-trail hiking permitted, non-motorized boating, fishing, picnic facilities, parking, enhanced accessibility features.

A 1.5-mile trail system in a figure-eight configuration, which the city notes gives mountain views and a feeling of remoteness despite being close to town. Popular with anglers, equestrians, and hikers.

Off-trail permission plus ponds plus a figure-eight is the best combination here for a dog that wants to swim rather than wade. It sits immediately north of the Shields Street access, so the two work as one outing.

3. McMurry Natural Area

445 Hemlock Street. Leashed dogs, off-trail hiking permitted, non-motorized boating, fishing, hiking and bike trails, horseback riding, parking.

Two ponds and river frontage. The city notes more than 20 species of fish across the two ponds, more fish types than at any other natural area in Fort Collins, including orange spotted sunfish, smallmouth and largemouth bass, bluegills, black crappie, and yellow perch.

Both still water and moving water in one site, which is genuinely useful. Use the river on a hot day and the ponds when the river is running high with snowmelt.

The trade-off is the anglers. A dog crashing into a pond in front of somebody who has been standing there for an hour is a bad afternoon for everyone. Look before you let it in.

4. Kingfisher Point Natural Area

745 S. Timberline Road. Leashed dogs, off-trail hiking permitted, non-motorized boating, fishing, hiking and bike trails, horseback riding, parking, enhanced accessibility features.

The southeast option, on the Poudre River Trail. The city lists great horned owls, which occasionally nest here, plus kingfishers, wood ducks, pelicans, and western tanagers, and chorus frogs on a warm evening.

Nesting owls are a reason for restraint. Off-trail permission is not permission to let a dog range through nesting habitat. Keep it near the water and near you.

5. Salyer Natural Area

350 Woodlawn Drive. Leashed dogs, off-trail hiking permitted, fishing, hiking and bike trails, horseback riding, parking, enhanced accessibility features.

On the north side of the Poudre River, easy to reach from the Poudre Trail and nearby neighbourhoods. The city lists killdeer, belted kingfishers, and song sparrows.

The quiet one. No ponds, no boating, no headline feature. What it has is river frontage, off-trail permission, and fewer people than the Shields Street cluster.

6. Gustav Swanson Natural Area

445 Linden Street. Leashed dogs, fishing, hiking and bike trails, parking, enhanced accessibility features.

Blocks from downtown, on the Poudre, with interpretive signs and benches. Over 45 bird species have been recorded here, including green-winged teal, great blue herons, owls, kestrels, and Bullock's orioles, with bats, foxes, and deer seen occasionally. It was dedicated on 31 July 1988.

Note what is missing from the feature list. There is no Off-trail Hiking Permitted tag here, so stay on the path. It earns its place as the walk you can do on foot from an Old Town patio rather than as a swimming spot.

Pair it with lunch. The Old Town circuit is in 12 Old Town Fort Collins patios that take dogs.

The six at a glance

Rank	Site	Address	Off-trail allowed	Water
1	Shields Street River Access	1219 N. Shields St	Not listed	River, designed put-in
2	North Shields Ponds	1333 N. Shields St	Yes	Ponds and river
3	McMurry	445 Hemlock St	Yes	Two ponds and river frontage
4	Kingfisher Point	745 S. Timberline Rd	Yes	River and ponds
5	Salyer	350 Woodlawn Dr	Yes	River frontage
6	Gustav Swanson	445 Linden St	Not listed	River, stay on trail

The free county option

Lions Open Space, just south of Laporte on North Overland Trail. No entrance fee, open year round from sunrise to sunset.

Larimer County describes it as sitting on the banks of the Cache la Poudre with day-use picnicking, fishing, hiking, and biking, and holding the westernmost portion of the Poudre River Trail, which continues west as the paved Pleasant Valley Trail to Watson Lake in Bellvue. Three-acre Bingham Hill Park sits at the top of Bingham Hill on County Road 50E with shelters, picnic tables, and a view over Pleasant Valley.

County rules apply here, which means a leash of up to ten feet, and no dogs in designated swimming areas. More county access points are in Horsetooth Reservoir and Horsetooth Mountain with a dog.

Reading the river before you let go of the lead

The Poudre is a mountain river, not a pond, and its character changes completely across the year.

Snowmelt, roughly May through July. The watershed produces more than 80 percent of its annual flow during peak snowmelt from April through July. High, cold, fast water is not a swimming river, and a dog that enters it will go downstream. Rapids on the Poudre are rated Class I to VI, varying greatly with water level.

Late summer and autumn are the swimming season. Lower, warmer, slower. This is when the ponds and the calmer river reaches are worth using.

Watch for blue-green algae in the still water. Warm, low, stagnant conditions in late summer are when it appears. If water looks like pea soup, carries a surface scum, or smells bad, keep the dog out and do not let it drink. Dogs are affected worse than people because they swallow water and then groom it off their coat.

Never let a dog into the river above a diversion structure or through a culvert. The Poudre corridor through town is heavily engineered, and Udall Natural Area is a good illustration: the city describes storm drain water from downtown flowing through a series of settling ponds before entering the river, and notes that they filter water but are not a water treatment plant.

Dry the dog. Front Range evenings drop fast, and a wet dog at 5,000 feet after sunset gets cold quickly. Towel in the car, every time.

Why this river matters more than the reservoirs

It is worth understanding what the Wild and Scenic designation protects, because it explains why the Poudre stays usable while the managed water bodies do not.

Designation protects outstandingly remarkable values, and for the Poudre the federal listing names recreation among them. Visitors to the wild section find outstanding opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation, including hiking, backcountry camping, fishing, horseback riding, and kayaking. The Poudre River Trail runs the length of the river within the protected area, providing non-motorized access to its remotest reaches.

A reservoir is infrastructure with recreation attached. Horsetooth exists as part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, jointly operated by the Bureau of Reclamation and Northern Water for drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower, with Larimer County managing recreation on top. When drinking-water quality is the primary purpose, a rule banning dogs from the swim beach follows naturally.

A river corridor is managed the other way round. Fort Collins built its natural areas along the Poudre for habitat, flood control, and public access, and dogs on leash are part of that access rather than a threat to it. That is why 40 of the city's 51 natural areas welcome them.

The practical upshot. In a region where the biggest, most obvious body of water is closed to your dog, the protected river running through the middle of town is not the consolation prize. It is the better option, and it is free.

What else to know

Ten sites in the region refuse dogs entirely, several of them riverside, listed in the 7 natural areas where Fort Collins bans dogs.

Off leash is only legal in four fenced parks, ranked in 4 Fort Collins off-leash dog parks.

The wildlife and regulatory hazards are in 9 Colorado hazards that catch Fort Collins dog owners off guard.

And if the dog drinks something it should not, know where you are going before you need to, in emergency and after-hours vets in Fort Collins.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Cache la Poudre really Colorado's only Wild and Scenic River? Yes. It was designated under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System on 26 October 1986, running from Poudre Lake downstream, and it remains the state's only designated river.

Where can my dog swim in Fort Collins? In the Poudre River and the ponds at City of Fort Collins natural areas that permit leashed dogs, including the Shields Street River Access, North Shields Ponds, McMurry, Kingfisher Point, and Salyer. Dogs are banned from Larimer County swim beaches.

Can my dog swim at Horsetooth Reservoir? Not at the swim beach. Larimer County regulations prohibit allowing dogs into swimming areas, land or water.

Do dogs need to be on a leash along the Poudre in Fort Collins? Yes. City natural areas require dogs to be leashed and waste to be packed out. Larimer County sites permit a leash of up to ten feet.

What is the best river access point for a dog? The Shields Street River Access at 1219 N. Shields Street. It is a designed access for kayaks, canoes, and tubes, so the bank is graded, and it has parking and restrooms.

When is the Poudre safe for a dog to swim? Late summer and autumn. From roughly April through July the river carries peak snowmelt, and it runs high, cold, and fast. Rapids range from Class I to VI depending on water level.

Sources

River conditions change dramatically with snowmelt and season, and water quality advisories are issued locally. Check current conditions before letting a dog into any water. This article is general information and is not veterinary advice.