Ask real estate agent David W. Birks about the community where he sells homes and campground plots, and he’ll tell you: “Red Feather Lakes is probably Colorado’s best-kept secret, and most of us kind of like that about it.”
The quaint and unruffled community is home to under 500 people. One listing counts 347 residents, and there are even fewer in winter. It’s located about 50 miles northwest of Fort Collins on isolated, rustic land atop a granite shelf.
It’s where you’ll find a real-life trading post selling everything from toys to live worms; a waitress who has been on the job at a well-known restaurant so long that she knows all the customers’ names; a historian who knows how the town got its name, a real estate agent who got out of the corporate rat race to sell people camp grounds and homes, and even an encampment of ceramic figurines and gnomes who guard the border of the community. An Ace Hardware store across the street from the post office appears to be the most modern store for miles around…