October 19, 2022

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

6550 Gateway Rd, Commerce City, CO 80022

“The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is a 15,988-acre National Wildlife Refuge located adjacent to Commerce City, Colorado, in the United States. It is approximately 8 miles northeast of downtown Denver.” -  Wikipedia

As I have been traveling, I have started looking for wildlife refuges to visit, so I was thrilled when my Denver hosts, Beverly Ingle and Mitch Krayton, indicated they would like to take me to the Arsenal.

With Mitch driving we started the 11-mile Wildlife Drive through the refuge.  For the first three or four miles we didn’t see anything, and I was beginning to think the trip was going to be a bust, but at least the fall foliage was pretty.  Then soon after we crossed the “cattle-catcher” we saw some bison.  There were about a half-dozen relatively close to the road, but off in the distance you could see the large herds.  Driving a little further, I spotted what I believe were white-tailed deer.  As we continued, we saw two cars stopped along-side the road, we scanned the area and didn’t see any wildlife.  Mitch asked one of the drivers what they were looking at and she pointed to the top of the telephone pole right next to the car where a bald eagle was perched.  Next, we snapped some photos of the black-tailed prairie dogs in their village before spotting some mule deer.  At this point, as we neared the end of the drive, I was pretty happy with our excursion, when all of a sudden, we saw two white-tailed deer running, duck under the tall wire fence and quickly cross the road right in front of the car.  When they were safely out of our way we drove on while discussing how interesting that experience was.  Then we both saw something moving in the ditch ahead, as we got closer, we saw that it was a coyote (which is probably why the deer were running).  I believe our car had thwarted his plan to cross the road and chase the deer, so he turned and headed back into the brush.  Luckily, I had my camera ready and got a couple pictures of it, even though I was shooting almost directly into the sun.  The coyote was certainly the highlight of the trip.

I know if I lived in the Denver area, I would be driving the Wildlife Drive often.  I am so glad Beverly and Mitch enjoy the Arsenal so much they wanted me to see it.