Field guide

Explore Lyons: Five Places in Walking Order

Main Street first, then the river, then whatever the season allows. Everything but the trailheads is inside a mile of the confluence.

Or let us plan it

Five ways to spend the day

The itineraries, step by step

Main Street in Lyons looking west toward the red sandstone hogback

The first visit

A day in Lyons

Coffee on High Street, the stone blocks, the river to the whitewater park, a short trail, and a beer where the craft-can movement started.

The wooden arch of the Apple Valley Road bridge over the North St. Vrain

Water, rocks, soft-serve, pinball

Half a day with kids

The splash pad and the whitewater rocks, a float if the level is right, ice cream at the walk-up window, and pinball for the last hour.

A hiker on the red-dirt Bitterbrush trail at Hall Ranch

Two rides, one town

The bike weekend

Hall Ranch on Saturday, Picture Rock to Heil Valley Ranch on Sunday, both from a bed in town and both finishing at a taproom.

A red sandstone cliff rising straight out of the St. Vrain at the Planet Bluegrass ranch

RockyGrass and the Folks Festival

Festival weekend without a car

Camp on the ranch or sleep on West Main, walk to the gate, float the river in the morning, and never look for parking.

The rusticated red sandstone 1881 schoolhouse that houses the Lyons Redstone Museum

Indoors, or dry and sunny

A rainy afternoon, or a winter day

The museum and the galleries, the gift shops on the 400 block, a whisky tasting up the highway, pinball, trivia.

Main Street and the stone town

Main Street is US 36 for six blocks, running east–west between the two highway junctions with the hogback closing the view at the west end. The buildings are the point: fifteen structures of locally quarried red sandstone, built between the 1870s and 1917, are listed together on the National Register of Historic Places, and most are still in everyday use as shops, kitchens and offices.

Walk it end to end in twenty minutes. High Street, one block north, has a second small cluster of coffee, wine and the museum. The Town's downtown is an accredited Main Street America program and a state-certified Creative District.

Getting there: Street parking along Main and the side streets, free; a Town lot at 4th and Broadway beside Sandstone Park.
Best for: Coffee, lunch, the galleries and gift shops, and the building fronts themselves. Pick up the walking-tour leaflet at the visitor center in Sandstone Park.
Historic district: Town of Lyons, historic sites

Who is on the street

Main Street in Lyons looking west, with the stone drug-store building on the right and the red sandstone hogback behind — Main Street, looking west

Rogers Hall, a gabled red sandstone building with a green-shingled upper storey and a white double door — Rogers Hall, one of the sandstone buildings still in everyday use

The river and the parks

The North and South St. Vrain come out of their canyons and join in the middle of town, and the Town's parks follow the water. LaVern M. Johnson Park, under the cliffs off Broadway, has the whitewater park, a splash pad, playgrounds, the campground and, in a cold January, an outdoor ice rink. Bohn Park, across the river from downtown on 2nd Avenue, has the ball fields, a dog park, an accessible fishing area and the trailhead for the town's dirt-jump bike park. Sandstone Park, at 4th and Broadway, is the downtown green with the visitor center and the summer concert stage.

Tubing on the North St. Vrain is the town's summer sport: a quarter-mile of pools and drops through the whitewater park when the flow is right, usually July and August. In May and June the runoff is high and cold and not for tubes. Anglers work both forks; a Colorado fishing licence applies.

Parking: The park lots take a Town parking pass on busy days; non-residents can buy a day or season pass. Street parking downtown is free.
River today: The live level, and whether it is tubing water
Rules and closures: Town of Lyons Parks & Recreation
Best for: Kids in the water, a picnic under the cliffs, and the walk along the river between the two parks.

The North St. Vrain pouring white between red boulders in the canyon above Lyons — The North St. Vrain in its canyon, above the whitewater park

The wooden arch of the Apple Valley Road bridge over the North St. Vrain, with the hogback behind — The Apple Valley Road bridge, north-west of town

Trails

Four open-space areas ring the town, and none is more than fifteen minutes from Main Street. Hall Ranch, on Colorado 7 just west of town, is the Front Range's best-known mountain-bike climb and a fine hike; the Bitterbrush trail gains about 1,500 feet to a loop through ponderosa meadows. Heil Valley Ranch, south off US 36, connects to Hall Ranch by the Picture Rock trail and has its own loops. Rabbit Mountain, north-east off Colorado 66, is the low, dry, early-season option with views back to Longs Peak. Button Rock Preserve, up County Road 80 west of town, is a gentle walk along the North St. Vrain to Longmont's reservoir dam.

Hall Ranch, Heil Valley Ranch and Rabbit Mountain are Boulder County Parks & Open Space; Button Rock is the City of Longmont's. No dogs at Hall Ranch, Heil Valley Ranch or Button Rock; leashed dogs are welcome at Rabbit Mountain. The county posts closures after storms and during elk calving. Distances, climbs and parking for every trail are on the Trails & River page.

Hall Ranch: Boulder County trail page · Trailhead on CO 7, 1 mile west of town. Bikes yes; dogs no.
Heil Valley Ranch: Boulder County trail page · Picture Rock trailhead on Red Gulch Road, south of town off US 36. No dogs.
Rabbit Mountain: Boulder County trail page · Off N. 53rd Street from CO 66. Leashed dogs welcome.
Button Rock Preserve: City of Longmont preserve page · End of County Road 80, west of town. Foot travel only; no dogs.
Closures: County trail closures and alerts

A hiker on the red-dirt Bitterbrush trail at Hall Ranch, sandstone ridge behind — The Bitterbrush trail at Hall Ranch

Ponderosa pines above a rocky slope at Hall Ranch, looking across to the hogback and the plains — Looking east over the hogback from Hall Ranch

Public art and the Redstone Museum

The heARTS of Lyons is an outdoor collection of some thirty sculptures placed along Main Street, in the parks and at the town's edges. Pieces are chosen through an annual call and stay for two years, so the collection turns over; a few have been bought for the permanent collection. The Lyons Arts & Humanities Commission, a Town commission, curates it, and a self-guided walking tour is online.

The Lyons Redstone Museum is the 1881 town school, a two-storey block of rusticated sandstone on High Street, run by the Lyons Historical Society since 1979. Inside are the quarry days, the railroad, the floods and the families, plus a research library and a gift shop. Admission is free; it opens for the summer season.

The sculptures: heARTS of Lyons, Town of Lyons · Walking tour on Clio
The museum: Lyons Redstone Museum, 340 High St · Hours are seasonal; check before you go.
Best for: A slow hour on foot with the tour map, then the museum porch.

The rusticated red sandstone schoolhouse of 1881, now the Lyons Redstone Museum, with its painted sign and a spruce in front — The Lyons Redstone Museum, High Street

Planet Bluegrass and the music

A town this size should not have a nationally known music scene, and yet. Planet Bluegrass, a 20-acre ranch on the river at the west end of Main, hosts RockyGrass in late July and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in August, both with on-site camping and both selling out. The rest of the year the music is in the taprooms: a Sunday serenade and a Tuesday pick at Oskar Blues, a Thursday pick at MainStage, an open mic at the Rock Garden, and touring acts on the weekends.

Festivals: Planet Bluegrass, 500 W Main St
This week: The events calendar carries the weekly picks and the dated shows.
Festival weekends: Lodging fills months ahead and Main Street parking goes early; the festival runs shuttles from Bohn Park and Longmont.

Layered red sandstone cliff face above trees at Planet Bluegrass — The bedding of the Lyons Formation above the festival ground

Before and after the walk

Getting here, and how the place came to be

Directions, parking passes, transit and the seasons are on the visitor page. The quarries, the 1885 railroad, the flood of 2013 and the rebuild are on Our Story.

Plan a Visit Our Story