Imagine a frog leaping into a creek in February or a bear paddling a kayak over a stump. See the world as a kestrel sees it. Be comforted by a misty, marshy painting. You can find all that and more along these Boulder County trails where public art can make you laugh…and make you think.

Coot Lake

A 1.2-mile dirt path circles this lake and marsh west of 63rd Street and the Diagonal Highway. Artist Sue Wise painted misty landscapes inhabited by owls, eagles, herons, and other inhabitants of the marsh. The images, accompanied by quotations from nature writers, are mounted along the northwest end of the lake. We especially love Wendell Berry’s thoughts: “When despair for the world grows in m …I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water.”

Milavek Reservoir

This reservoir in the Frederick Recreation Area adjacent to Colorado Boulevard is a great place to see a variety of geese and ducks as well as clever murals and sculptures. It’s encircled by a 1¼ mile trail that takes you past a playground on the northeast end where you can laugh at the bear sculptures and at a mural of children fishing. Many nature-related sculptures are placed around the lake including our favorite place to rest: a wrap-around wooden bench carved with owls, a bear, and fox and turtle arm rests.

Bear Creek Path Through Martin Park

Martin Park, at the intersection of South Broadway and Table Mesa Drive, contains funny murals as well as a carved tree with bears emerging from the trunk and an owl perched above. If you enter the park from Dartmouth, look to your left for the wildlife tree and then take the paved path south through an underpass. Murals depict hopping frogs, leaping children, and bears pointing the way to Bear Creek. It’s worth walking north from the park to the underpasses beneath Martin and Moorhead Drives. Wildlife murals brighten the dimness, and you can measure yourself against a 100-year flood.

St. Vrain Greenway Trail at Fairground Lake

The section of the St. Vrain Greenway Trail near Fairgrounds Lake in Longmont features Robert Tully’s wonderful stone sculptures. Starting at the parking lot near the intersection of Hover Street and Boston Avenue, circle the southeast end of the lake and head for the “Listening Stones” a bit west of the bridge over St. Vrain Creek. Sit in the parabola-sculpted stone to hear the amplified sound of water, and then head west to see more Tully creations. There’s a mosaic of a kestrel beside the path, and “Kestrel’s Way” reveals a hawk’s eye view of the riparian area. Look for the fox, rattlesnake, prairie dogs, and other critters depicted in “Prairie Underground,” a bas-relief halfway between the path and the picnic pavilion. Just before you reach the underpass beneath Hover Street, look for more Tully sculptures and try to find the turtle, salamander, and muskrat.

We’ve also found laugh-out-loud art at Hawthorne Community Gardens, the Foothills Underpass, and Josh’s Pond. It’s a joy to find an unexpected wildlife scene in a dank, dark underpass or to round a bend and find a bear bearing arms while a hunter scrambles up a tree.

There’s a lot of surprising art just waiting to be found.

Check online for maps and directions to these trails.

Ruth Carol and Glenn Cushman are the authors of Boulder Hiking Trails,

available on Amazon.