Red Feather Lakes is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Larimer County, Colorado, United States.

Hikers strolling and cars cruising the scenic road will find ceramic elves and gnomes as well as fairy doors and faces among the trees, boulders and bushes.

[6][5] Other than Native Americans, only occasional hunters and trappers passed through the Red Feather Lakes area until the middle of the 19th century.

The first known settler was John Hardin, who built a cabin about 2 miles (3 km) from the current Red Feather Lakes village in 1871.

Interest in the area as a summer retreat for urban dwellers in Fort Collins and other Front Range communities grew rapidly, and in 1923, the name "Red Feather" made its first appearance when the Red Feather Mountain Lakes Association was formed with the objective of developing recreational homes (cabins) on 4,320 acres (6.75 sq mi; 17.5 km2).

The name was stimulated by Princess Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone, a Native American girl who was touring in concert with the composer Charles Wakefield Cadman.

The planning map included a golf course, tennis courts, rodeo grounds, a ranch school, a rifle range, and many other recreational facilities.

Several CCC camps operated in the region, including one on the site of the Manhattan ghost town and, starting in 1935, one not far from the village.

Young men working in the camps improved roads, cleared forests, engaged in firefighting, and constructed the original fire tower at the top of Deadman Mountain.

In the ensuing years, new buildings gradually changed the face of the village, including a fire station and library.