Visit Colorado’s Wild Animal Sanctuary: The Nation’s Largest Refuge for Lions, Tigers and Bears!
Did you know the largest sanctuary for animals in the United States is just 30 miles northeast of Denver?
The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a 720 acre refuge for large animals! Currently the sanctuary is home to about 300 rescued lions, tigers, bears, wolves and other animals. It’s an incredible place where you can watch animals freely roam!
The Wild Animal Sanctuary started in 1980 on a family farm. Today the nonprofit serves as the country’s oldest rescue for large exotic and endangered carnivores. The sanctuary not only gives a home to rescued animals, it provides them with professional veterinary care. They are considered foremost leaders in education on protecting large carnivores.
The sanctuary is devoted to ensuring the animals’ environment is conducive to their health and happiness. So visitors can tour the grounds on elevated walkways and observation decks. This allows the animals to be undisturbed (as they do not consider the space above them as territorial).
When animals first arrive to the sanctuary, they go through a long acclimation process. Their stay begins in a rehabilitation center: a unique 7,000 square foot, temperature-controlled round house. As animals become healthy and adapted to the area, they’re taken on field trips to “neutral zones” where they gradually interact with other animals. Eventually they graduate to larger spaces where they can roam more freely with their “family” of animals (which can include a mix of species). So you can imagine how remarkable it is to see tigers and bears swimming in the compound’s natural lakes!
The Wild Animal Sanctuary is an amazing place to visit and an experience! It is open year round for visitors, with the exception of major holidays. During the summer, it is open from 9 am until sunset.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary
1946 County Road 53, Keenesburg, CO 80643
Entrance for Adults 12 yrs+ is $15 ($7.50 for children).
Important Note: If you are planning on visiting from Denver, make sure you stay on the Interstate all the way to Hudson. Some GPS programs have people exiting early, forcing them to travel some rough, unpaved roadways to get there.