Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge - August 2022

This is probably the best kept secret in Denver.  Highly recommend this place to anyone visiting.  This sits just outside the city to the northeast so it is very easy to get to and it’s free.  Yes – FREE! - great in a world where a cup of coffee is getting pretty expensive.

You may not think - “Hey – let’s bring the kids to an old chemical weapons factory!” is a good idea, but I think this place is awesome.

You can drive along a road and play a podcast that narrates you through the 11-mile drive.  There are also some hiking trails for certain parts of the preserve.  Being a hot day, the animals like the deer were seeking shade but apparently the bison don’t care. 

This one just walked right in front of the truck as we entered the gated section of the preserve.

This one just casually strutted in front of our car - there is no threat to them here so they just meander around as they please

The highlight of the park is the bison herd.  Within view of the Denver skyline, the bison roam the grounds and you can drive among them.  There are also deer and other critters in the preserve.  There are more prairie dogs than you can imagine and there is also a ferret exhibit.  I guess ferrets are capable of eating a ton of prairie dogs which helps keep them in check – who knew ferrets were such badasses?

Deer just lounging in the shade by the roadside away from the heat

Ferret food apparently

I also learned that these are bison - not buffalo. Buffalo are technically the water buffalo type animals you find in Asia and Africa and these things are a different species. Maybe someone should tell the University of Colorado about this info.

Apparently these are bison - not buffaloes - someone should tell the University of Colorado to change the name of their mascot

The visitor center provides a good history of the area.

Apparently back in the day, they made some pretty nasty chemical weapons here, not just things like chlorine and mustard gas, but stuff like Sarin (yes – Sarin gas – which like WTF? Right next to Denver?).

They made some really nasty stuff here back in the day (like Sarin) within a stone’s throw of a major metropolitan area

The area of course became extremely polluted and after the decommissioning the production of nasty stuff, the area became a superfund site.  After many years that included cleaning up the groundwater, the area is now a nature preserve.  A success story really in terms of what the other possible outcomes could have been for this place.

They are now building homes up close right next to the preserve.  So, some people have a home literally where the buffalo (bison) roam.