Fort Collins Colorado State University Logo: Knowledge to go Places, link to homepage for the university

Living on campus

This University is located in Fort Collins in Northern Colorado. I am living on campus in Parmelee Hall for my 10 weeks stay. I believe living in the dorm was a good choice since it made it very easy for me to meet so many people. On my floor there are 9 student participating in the Chemistry REU, as well as 5 Electrical Engineering, 8 Mechanical Engineering, and 2 Discovery Program students. These students like myself come from all different areas of the country. Since we are all in different programs people have been arriving and departing on all different dates. I think I am lucky being one of the last people to leave. I would say the people that are leaving earlier feel like they are going to miss out fun times.
I have also been able to meet students that attend CSU and are enrolled in summer courses. They live in the other wing of my floor. The dorm holds activities to help all the students get aquainted such as floor meetings and fun nights. There is pool, ping pong, foosball, and a TV in the lounge. Since it was the NBA finals soon after we got here, I met many people while watching the Detroit Piston fight for the Championship. (Of course, the Lakers weren't really that big of a challenge for such an amazing team.)

Other Activies

There is much to do in this area. I went hiking on my first weekend here, and continued to plan group outings other weekends. I found getting a bike for the summer makes it a lot easier to get around. There is a store, Recycled Cycles, right on campus that sells used bikes at reasonable prices. Fort Collins has many different trails for biking. I have enjoyed riding all through the city on Spring Creek trail just south of campus.

Grey Rock

This photo is of Grey Rock, the first mountain I hiked here. This trail was listed as
moderate. I did make it to the top along with the rest of my group. It runs along the
Poudre River, and is 7,613 feet above sea level.

For those who are not into hiking and biking every weekend there are other things to do. There are also many movie theaters to keep you up to date on any good newly released movies. Try going to
this site where you can get all the info you need. (At first I went to more popular movie sites that will not mention the drive-in theater where you can see two movies for $5!!)

The second weekend here I hiked at Horsetooth Mountain. This is right in Fort Collins and is 7,255 feet above sea level at the highest point. I learned it is important to go hiking early in the morning. It is a lot cooler then, and less likely to rain on you. Despite the rain we did have fun. Another weeking I went camping over night with a group of 10 people from the dorms. We drove up the mountain straight to the campus site. It was on a beautiful lake. There was no hiking but we still had a great time making hot dogs and smores over the camp fire.

The last weekend in June I went tubing in the Poudre River. The girls down the hall bought tubes for about $20. I went with a group of 6 people, but only 2 of us actully went down the river. The water was very cold, and it was a bumpy ride. We were going to ride all the way down to Picnic Rock, but since everyone else was waiting for us we got out before then. If you go past Picnic Rock it is much more dangerous due to all of the damns in the river. Even though the water was cold, it was more fun than it will be later in the summer (the river gets very shallow as the temperture increases.)

Another place I would recommend you go if given the oppurtunity is Estes Park. This is about an hour away by car towards Rocky National Park. It is a beautiful area with a great little town to shop in and plenty of trails to hike. If you go there call ahead to make reservations for a tour of the Stanley Hotel including its interesting history. I didn't know about this ahead of time so I just walked around the very old building. It is very nice inside and they still have guest staying in it. You have probably seen this hotel since the film Dumb and Dumber was filmed there. More interesting than that, the hotle is suppose to be haunted by ghost. These stories are the reason The Shinning was filmed there.

The 4th of July was wonderful in Fort Collins. I went to city park with a group of people from the dorm. There were a variety of venders and games to play. We stayed from 6:30 until after 10:00. You have to get here that early to get a good seat for the fireworks. It was very crowded by the time the show had started, but it was worth it. I have to save that was on of the best fireworks shows I have seen.


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