I have mentioned the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway in a previous post. Here is another day trip from Estes Park that I recommend. Come back down through the Big Thompson Canyon and hang a left on Rt. 287 in Loveland to get to the college town of Fort Collins.
If you love your craft beer (and boy do I), this is the place to go. Rocky Mountain snowmelt into the Cache la Poudre River provides the main ingredient for the product of 20-odd craft breweries. Some you may have heard of, such as New Belgium Brewing Co. (home of Fat Tire, among others), some you may not, like Funkwerks, Black Bottle and Horse & Dragon.
Since many of these breweries are within walking (or staggering) distance of each other, you might want to consider a brewery tour. I would recommend a guided tour though, unless you’re REALLY good with directions. I am convinced that whoever laid out Old Town had been on a few too many brewery tours himself. I like to think I’m handy with a map, but DANG! At least if you get yourself lost (not that this happened to me, except that it . . . might . . . have . . . happened to me), it’s a gorgeous town to get lost in.
Flowers and brightly painted murals everywhere you look.
Plus, there are random, artistically-enhanced pianos scattered all over town that you can just sit down and play. (The more breweries you’ve hit, the better you sound!)
But if you’d rather take a brewery tour without the frustration of getting misdirected, might I suggest Beau Jo’s Colorado Style Pizza? Beau Jo’s is a Colorado chain with half a dozen locations that is famous for Mountain Pies. Which look like this.
These are smalls. They only weigh ONE pound. An extra-large is FIVE pounds. You’d need a whole vanload of Low-Rent Foodies to tackle one of those bad boys.
Beau Jo’s pizza also comes in a Prairie Pie size crust, but what fun is that? Go big or go back to the cabin. The crust comes in honey white or honey wheat. (Note for the non-gluten folk—almost everything on the menu can be made gluten free for an additional charge). I recommend the honey wheat, which is delicious in its own right, but dip it in the honey that they keep on the table, and you’ll wonder why more pizza places don’t do this.
There are a mind-boggling number of choices for customizing your pizza. Beau Jo’s offers 11 different sauces, 15 meats, 18 vegetables and 10 different types of cheese to top your mountain pie. There are also three tiers of specialty pizzas, such as the Sky Hawk (pepperoni, Hatch green chiles, mozzarella and feta cheese); the Cajun (andouille sausage, pepperoni, onions, jalapenos, cheddar and provolone cheeses); and the Motherlode (salami, pepperoni, meatballs, bacon, Italian sausage, ham and mozzarella), to name just a few. (Note: the meatballs are NOT gluten-free.)
And of course, you have to have something to wash it down with, right? Did I mention that Fort Collins has a few beers?
I love it when places with a large beer selection offer “flights” (those samplers with small glasses of several different kinds of beers). This way, you can try several different beers without getting too hammered to find your way home (or getting stuck with a whole pint of something you don’t like). At Beau Jo’s, you can go first class, or coach. Here’s a coach:
There are still a lot of Fort Collins beers that I haven’t tried yet, but my favorite so far is the Sad Panda Coffee Stout from Horse & Dragon Brewing Co. I don’t know why the panda is sad, but it made me happy!
So if you find yourself in Fort Collins (or Evergreen, Idaho Springs, Arvada, Steamboat Springs or Longmont), GETCHA SOME! (Before you do that, though, click on the pic below for a special deal on a gift card!)
