Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge | Denver, Colorado

Pets & Animals
Published on Nov 13, 2025
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge is one of the country's largest urban wildlife refuges. With a 15,000-acre combination of prairie, lakes and wetlands, the refuge is home to over 330 species of plants and animals, including burrowing owls, great blue herons, snowy egrets, pelicans, black-footed ferrets, coyote, mule and white-tailed deer and even bison - all within sight of the Denver city skyline.

The Refuge is a convenient getaway from the city or a nice daytrip from anywhere in the Colorado Front Range. It’s free and open year-round.

We started off by exploring some of the trails. They are all relatively short, ranging from 0.2 to 1.8 miles and they allow you to easily explore several different ecological habitats - grasslands, woodlands and wetlands.

While the trails are all centered in a relatively small area near the entrance, the 11-mile Auto Tour takes you out into a broader area of the refuge, passing by lakes and forest and then more open prairie. We saw white-tailed deer, mule deer and prairie dogs, but no luck with the burrowing owls or black-footed ferrets I was hoping for. The bison herd was a highlight, ranging from first year young one’s to truly huge adult males who were feeling feisty and pushing each other around a bit.

#VisitDenver #RockyMountainArsenal #Colorado

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Learning to Travel, is a travel video & social media company formed by Joyce & Daryle Dickens to help others identify and realize their dreams of “traveling more”. After years of “traveling more” talk with too little action, we finally went all-in on a life-changing 14-month journey to 23 countries and 23 US states. Since then, we’ve heard far too many people say “I wish I could do that” which has made us realize that most people need a little push to believe their travel dreams are possible and a little guidance to turn those dreams into reality. That inspiration and guidance is what https://LearningToTravel.com is all about.

Thumbnail image credit: John Carr / USFWS

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