Breck’s Wildlife Preserve: Cool As a Cucumber

Cucumber Gulch Wildlife Preserve You’d be forgiven for assuming that between the cozy mountain town and the snow-packed slopes, there isn’t much else in Breck. But you’d be wrong. Between the town and the mountains — more precisely, between the Gold Rush Parking Lot and Peak 8 — is one of the country’s most matchless … Read more

The Wild Animal Sanctuary: Keeping Creatures Safe in Keenesburg

The Wild Animal Sanctuary: Keeping Creatures Safe in Keenesburg 1

Lions and tigers and bears – plus wolves, bobcats, coyotes and other large carnivores – call the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, home. The sanctuary, 30 miles northeast of Denver, provides 320 acres of grassland habitat and shelters to more than 200 animals rescued from horrible living conditions around the world. Visitors can see … Read more

Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

Fittingly for a former toxic site now made environmentally friendly, the new Visitor Center at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge was designed and built to be “green,” with outdoor solar panels, renewable cork flooring and Colorado beetle-kill wood. The $7.6 million Visitor Center opened in May 2011. After a massive $2+ billion cleanup … Read more

Kitty, Kitty!: A Wild Kingdom on the Plains

Kitty, Kitty!: A Wild Kingdom on the Plains 2

The unpaved highway rises and dips like a lazy rollercoaster as we roll along on the plains east of Colorado Springs toward Calhan. At the last crest, the animal refuge appears at the bottom of the hill, a glinting compound of chain-link fences where the big cats of Serenity Springs live — more than 120 … Read more