Some information and recommendations for things to do in and around Fort Collins when not doing math.
Starting with the important stuff. There is plenty of good fuel for theorems in the Fort, starting from three coffee shops right on campus. Here are some other (and better) options near campus:
Alley Cat: more hippie than hipster, this coffee shop is open late (1 am) every day;
Little Bird: for people with a sweet tooth for pastries;
Roast: cozy and elegant;
The Neighbor: spacious and trendy;
Mugs on the Oval: nothing special about it, but gets the job done very well and efficiently. Also nice space to set up for work for a bit.
Arboretum Coffee: socially conscious coffee on the south side of campus.
There are several more good options downtown.
There is a food court in LSC (where the plenary talks are), and participants housed in the dorms have meal plans with the university dining halls. There are also several local eating options right adjacent to campus. All of the coffee shops listed above offer some selection of light fare (sandwhiches, soup and salad). For more restauranty options all at walking distance from the conference:
DGT: a Fort Collins take on tacos;
Rainbow: healthy fare and great patio;
RasKa: eat at your favorite Ethiopian aunt's house (and feel at home);
Colorado Room: creative mini-burgers;
Aloha Poke: best poke in town;
Los Tarascos: a traditional mexican with a salsa bar;
Yocomo Sushi: good sushi and korean standards;
Los Comales: nice mexican on the south side of campus;
Bawarchi: indian restaurant approved by indian people;
Walzing Kangaroo: australian meat pies.
Here are some ideas for evening or weekend meals.
Silver Grill Cafe: traditional diner with a good patio;
Ginger and Baker: good pies and brunch;
Lucile's: hearthy Louisiana breakfast;
La Creperie: gallettes' galore;
Jessup Farms: farm to table in fun outdoors setting;
Rise! : delicious brunch;
Me Oh My Pie: the name says it; a good reward for a bike ride up the Poudre Trail;
Vern's: pictoresque breakfast in the countryside with lots of taxidermy.
REGULAR
415: tasty and healthy with outdoor seating;
Tasty Harmony: all vegetarian (and mostly vegan) restaurant;
The Exchange: an outdoors food court with several small restaurant; (in particular La Piadina is an italian approved italian flatbread place)
Uno Mas: gourmet tacos;
Dae Gee: korean barbeque;
Choice City Deli: best burgers in the Fort;
Persimmon: mezze and small plates;
Coopersmith's: pub making their own beer with a nice patio on Old Town Square;
JJ's wood fired pizza: the only wood fired pizza in Fort Collins.
FANCY
Little on Mountain: small and often changing menu, fresh ingredients;
The Regional: rustic chic Colorado style;
Jax: fish restaurant;
Rare: good pasta and steaks;
In Colorado we take hydration very seriously. There are actually many more micro-breweries in Fort Collins, so just do a Google search if you want to be meticulous. Here I am listing the iconic places, places that have nice outdoor patios or places that are near campus.
Social: amazing cocktails in this speakeasy;
Cafe' Vino: nice wine bar and tapas near campus;
The Whiskey: the name says it;
Locust Cider: local ciders and tasty bites;
Scrumpy's: local ciders and good pub food;
R bar: the one designated queer bar in the Fort.
The Lyric is an independent movie theater that also serves food and drinks and has a surreal and charming installation of "junk"-art.
There are good bike trails to run on that start on or around campus and can take as far as you would like in all directions. The main ones (Spring Creek Trail, Poudre River Trail and Mason Trail) are seen in this map. A comprehensive, but rather confusing, online map is here.
The closest hiking trails to Fort Collins are Arthur's Rock (Notice: the trailhead is 2miles into Lory State park, so Ubers will not be able to retrieve you at the trailhead on your way back - plan for it. ) and Horsetooth Mountain, both a 20 minute drive from campus. Upping the drive to about 35 minutes, Grey Rock is another nice destination. There are higher mountains up the Poudre Canyon and by Rocky Mountain National Park, but those require a couple hours of driving. For a few participant-organized group hikes, click here.
There are good mountain biking trails in Lory State Park, Horsetooth Open Space. The Blue Sky Trail starts out nice and touristic for a few miles and then gets arbitrarily technical.
Participants to the SRI are allowed to purchase a daily pass for the CSU Rec Center which includes a gym, swimming pool and an indoor climbing wall. Passes can be purchased at the entrance of the Rec Center and should cost $7.
Outdoor climbing (blurb by Mark Shoemaker): the nearest outdoor climbing is a bouldering spot called Rotary Park (https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105745202/rotary-park), next to Horsetooth Reservoir. For nearby sport climbing, there are many options available in the Poudre canyon and outside of Boulder. Low Hanging Fruit Crag (https://www.mountainproject.com/area/120774966/main-wall) is easily accessible for a half-day outing. The more adventurous may also consider an excursion to Vedauwoo, for more bouldering and crack climbing (https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105744307/vedauwoo).
City Park pool is an outdoor pool close to campus.
July is premium inner tubing season on the Poudre river.
Horsetooth reservoir: local lake where you can hang out, rent paddle boards etc...
(organized by Sridhar Venkatesh) Casual soccer (football) games in the evenings during the conference, as a way for everyone to unwind and have fun! Please fill out this short form (https://forms.gle/nFo1eRkmuA4dbY4K8) as soon as you can. The plan is to play on whichever evenings we have enough people available, coordinating through either a mailing list or a Whatsapp group/discord server.
If you want to give a try to this Brazilian martial art and form of dance, feel free to pop in for an intro class taught by yours truly.
Tuesdays: food truck rally in City Park.
Wednesdays: live music on campus.
Thursdays: live music in Old Town Square.