Sunset Vista Natural Area

Font Size: + -

Feedback Print

Sunset Vista Natural Area is located at the northeast corner of Taft Ave. and 57th St. in north Loveland. The site consists of 87 acres of open space, a segment of the paved Loveland Loop Trail, finished in 2021, a connection to the regional Long View Trail, which opened in 2018, and a 1-mile soft-surface Nature Trail.

The Sunset Vista Natural Area Management Plan was completed in 2018, with a public input process and resource evaluation to help identify future uses and improvements. Current amenities and uses include a trailhead parking area, paved and soft-surface trails for recreation and wildlife viewing, interpretive signage, a historic stone farmstead structure, a picnic area, and continuing use as a working dryland wheat farm. The property offers sweeping views of the foothills and mountains.

The property provides a sanctuary for wildlife such as songbirds, raptors, amphibians, coyote, red fox, and deer. Tributary wetlands, a section of the Louden Ditch, and agricultural lands provide wildlife habitat, cover, and movement corridors for these species. Wetlands support common cattail, reed canarygrass, Emory and Nebraska sedge, coyote willow, and plains cottonwood. Upland and wetland areas of the site have been undergoing restoration to native short-grass prairie and wetland habitat since 2018, in a continuing effort to improve habitat for native species, wildlife and pollinators.

A chronolog station was installed in 2025 to help track natural area changes at Sunset Vista over time. The station is located along the Nature Trail and visitors are invited to contribute photos to the time-lapse series online. Instructions are included on the sign post for submitting photos to be included in the citizen science photo monitoring tool.

Long View Trail Project

The Long View Trail connecting Loveland and Fort Collins along N. Taft Ave./S. Shields Ave. opened in August 2018. The 4.4-mile paved multi-use recreation and commuter trail will tie in to the Loveland Recreation Trail System at Sunset Vista Natural Area, including intersection improvements for the trail crossing at 57th St and N. Taft Ave.

Loveland and Fort Collins, along with Larimer County, received funding from a CDOT Transportation Alternative Project Grant ($1 million) and a Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Paths to Parks Grant ($1 million), to help pay for construction of the 10-foot wide concrete trail, trailhead/parking lot, and intersection improvements to connect to the Loveland and Fort Collins trail systems.

Sunset Vista History

In August 2014, the City of Loveland acquired this key 87-acre open space property at the northeast quadrant of North Taft Ave & 57th Street, adding to preserved land in the 3,500-acre “community separator” between Loveland and Fort Collins. Sunset Vista also opens new connections for two long-awaited off-street trails: the Loveland Recreation Trail loop and the Long View Corridor Trail linking Loveland and Fort Collins. The $1.5 million purchase price for Sunset Vista was funded primarily by Loveland’s share of the voter-approved open space sales tax collected throughout Larimer County, and a $200,000 contribution from Larimer County Open Lands. The acquisition also included shares of CBT water and Louden Ditch water rights. The community separator also includes Loveland’s Prairie Ridge Natural Area, Larimer County’s Long View Farm, and Fort Collins’ McKee Farm.

A public naming contest generated over 300 names from more than 150 community members. In January 2015, the Open Lands Advisory Commission selected the winning name for this new open space: Sunset Vista Natural Area. Residents Jim and Pat Horner, who proposed the name, have enjoyed “the best sunsets in Loveland" over this open space.

Free viewers are required for some of the attached documents.
They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below.

Word Viewer