Our family’s 2022 New Year’s resolution: all the Fort Collins city parks
When 2022 began, our family started brainstorming New Year’s resolutions. The last few years had been challenging, and we were motivated to make 2022 better.
After lots of discussion about ideas (and reflecting on failed resolutions of years past), we decided to try something new: a family resolution. Since the usual “I will floss better” goal is hard to apply to a family of four (including two children under 6), it required us to be creative. We knew we wanted to do something active and preferably outdoors, so we landed upon visiting all the Fort Collins city parks.
At the time we made the goal, we didn’t realize how many there were. There are currently 54, with a few more in the works/under construction. That’s more parks than there are weeks in the year!
We made a map, started with the closest parks, and worked our way around the different neighborhoods in Fort Collins. Some we rode bikes to, some we walked to, and one we just drove through … Some were huge parks (City Park, Fossil Creek Park, Spring Canyon) and others were teeny tiny (Lilac Park, Spencer Park, Indian Hills Park). Most had playgrounds, while one was just a bench and tree with a gorgeous fall view.
We visited parks in snow gear and in swimsuits. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at the parks. Our dog, Fisher, came to a lot of the parks with us, and so did family and friends. We explored parts of Fort Collins that we had never seen, or it had been so long we had forgotten. We discovered what playground turf we liked better (first is the squishy mats, then the wood chips, then finally the sand). We learned about historic people/places/events. We celebrated Mother’s Day, the 4th of July, and a birthday at the parks. We got dizzy on the twirly rides, touched the sky on the swings and raced down the slides. We played. We spent quality time together. We laughed (and cried). We grew as a family and we fell more in love with our town. And we met our goal.
We have our favorite parks, some old, some new, and we’ll be back to visit them for sure. We’ve even tossed around the idea for next year to visit all the Fort Collins Natural Areas.
As we pulled up to our final park, I had a strong sense of accomplishment, but also nostalgia. I loved this resolution, and it was bittersweet be at the last park on our list. But as Dr. Seuss once said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
And smile I do as I put the photos we took at each park into a photo album to remember the amazing year we had.
Amber Steves is a Fort Collins resident.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Visiting all 54 Fort Collins city parks was our family's goal
