At sunrise on Friday, the gates will open to Loveland’s newest public natural area — a haven for wildlife that spans grasslands, hogbacks and wetlands and will connect 35 miles of regional trails.

Prairie Ridge Natural Area, 6400 N. Wilson Ave., opens to the public on May 1 — 20 years after the city purchased the land — without a ribbon cutting or official celebration.

Because of the global pandemic and the need for physical distancing, the city will forgo a celebration and simply open the gates.

Residents will be allowed to explore the land, to hike and mountain bike, to view wildlife, to run the new soft-surface trail. They are asked to enjoy the natural area while staying 6 feet away from others, while not gathering in large groups, while still following public health orders.

City staff produced a special video highlighting the attributes of Prairie Ridge in lieu of a gathering. That will hit the city website (cityofloveland.org/prairieridge) on Thursday, the day before the gates will be raised to allow public use.

Prairie Ridge Natural Area is 785 acres, purchased by the city of Loveland in partnership with Fort Collins, Larimer County and Colorado Open Lands. The acres are adjacent to Fort Collins’ Coyote Ridge Open Space and are part of a separator project to protect lands between the two cities.

With a 36-car parking lot and a vaulted bathroom at the trailhead, the natural area will be open daily from sunrise to sunset. It features 3.3 miles of soft-surface trail for hikers, mountain bikers, runners and wildlife watchers.

The first 1.6 miles of trail from the parking lot “has been constructed for accessibility to provide a better experience for those that might have challenges,” said Marilyn Hilgenberg, the city’s trails and open lands manager. The next 1.7 miles is still accessible but has more slope and undulation, she said.

The first piece is called the Prairie Ridge Trail, and the second is called the Ridge to Ridge trail because, with a new 1.1-mile piece constructed by Fort Collins on its Coyote Ridge Open Space, that segment ties into the Coyote Ridge trail system. From there, the trails connect Larimer County’s Rimrock Open Space and the Blue Sky Trail system. The Blue Sky Trail connects into the Devil’s Backbone to the south and all the way to Lory State Park on the far northern end.

“Those will all be available via this gateway,” said Hilgenberg.

Because the Loveland trail connects into Fort Collins and Larimer County systems, e-bikes will not be allowed at Prairie Ridge. While Loveland does allow them on some soft-surface trails, Fort Collins and Larimer County do not, so the city followed the more stringent rules for consistency along the trails.

Eventually, the city plans to restore wetlands on the property and to connect the trails into future neighborhoods near 57th Street and into other city trail systems. The goal of this project was to connect trail systems and to help connect people to their natural surroundings.

“It’s both a separator and a connector,” said Gale Bernhardt, member of the Loveland Open Lands Advisory Commission. She was referring to the fact that the property is part of the decades-old separator project where Loveland and Fort Collins worked together to conserve lands between the two cities. The idea was to preserve their unique identities and natural lands simultaneously.

There are more than 3,500 acres preserved as part of that separator project.

Loveland purchased the land in 2000 for $3.13 million. The city paid $1.89 million of the cost with the rest coming from Larimer County, Fort Collins and Great Outdoors Colorado. Loveland is the majority owner, 75 percent, and manages the property, which is jointly owned by Fort Collins, while Larimer County and Colorado Open Lands hold the conservation easement that protects the property.

The land has never been open to the public before. Construction to develop the trail and open space, to open it to the public, began last fall.

The overall $820,000 project included the addition of a turn lane off of Wilson Avenue, the parking lot, restroom and trail system along with grading and drainage work. A $260,000 Great Outdoors Colorado grant and a $200,000 federal trails grant, administered by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, covered just over half of the project.

The varied terrains and habitats, including grasslands, wetlands and hogbacks filled with mountain mahogany, native shrubs and some ponderosa pine, are home to coyotes, deer, prairie dogs, bobcats, wild turkeys, eagles, hawks, fox, badgers and more.

Starting Friday, residents will have access to trails that wind through those natural lands to run, hike, mountain bike and view wildlife. Horses are allowed on the trail, but the access for horse trailers and all equestrian use will be from the Coyote Ridge parking lot, a mile north on Wilson Avenue.

This will open up connections to the land and the surrounding trail system with a vision for more trail connections in the future. When the city is eventually able to connect the trail to the south, it will attach into neighborhoods and into the city’s 22-mile paved recreation trail, which also connects to two paved regional trails between Loveland and Fort Collins.

Hilgenberg added, “The more things we can connect that are community assets — parks, schools open spaces, streets — those are all possible positive community connections.”

Did you know?

Prairie Ridge is the largest open space owned and managed by the city of Loveland. At 785 acres, it is nearly four times the size of the city’s second largest natural area, the 18-acre Eagle Vista, which is not open to the public. Prairie Ridge contains the largest soft-surface trail on a single city site.