Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

Fifteen Thousand Acres Of Shortgrass Prairie Ten Miles From Downtown Denver, On The Site Of A Chemical Weapons Plant Once Described As Among The Most Contaminated Places In America. A National Wildlife Refuge Since 1992, With A Free Ranging Bison Herd. · Commerce City, Colorado

The Army made mustard gas and napalm here during the Second World War, and Shell made pesticides here afterwards, and by the 1980s this was described as one of the most contaminated square miles on the planet. Then somebody noticed bald eagles roosting in the cottonwoods. Because the land had been sealed off for forty years, the prairie underneath the contamination was effectively undisturbed, and the eagles had found the only large piece of open ground left in metropolitan Denver. That observation started an argument that ended with a two-decade cleanup and a national wildlife refuge, declared in 1992 and cleaned through to 2010. Fifteen thousand acres of shortgrass prairie now sit ten miles from downtown, with bison reintroduced in 2007, deer, coyotes, raptors and an eleven-mile wildlife drive from which the animals are watched without anybody having to walk. It is free, it is ten minutes from the airport line, and most of Denver has never been.

6550 Gateway Road, Commerce City, Colorado, 80022, United States

Open daily during daylight hours year-round and free of charge, with the visitor centre keeping its own hours and closing on some holidays. The eleven-mile wildlife drive is open to vehicles during posted hours and is the main way visitors see the refuge. Trails and some areas close seasonally for wildlife, and portions of the former arsenal remain closed permanently. Early morning and late afternoon are when the animals are active; midday on the prairie is often empty.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos