Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

 This morning I packed up camp at Chatfield State Park and hit the road before sunrise. I wanted to get to City Park to take some photos of the Denver skyline at sunrise. It took me a little longer to get to City Park than I had anticipated, but I was able to get a decent photograph of the city skyline before the light got too harsh. 

From City Park it was a fairly quick drive over to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. I entered the refuge and found a pullout to eat breakfast: a bagel with cream cheese. Then I made my way over to the lakes area to go for a hike and look for wildlife. Just before arriving at the Lakes area, I found part of the refuge bison herd and watched the bison for a little bit, including a calf who seemed to enjoy running around.

From there I found a place to park and headed down to the loop trail that encircles the small Lake Mary. Immediately, I was able to observe a cormorant diving below the surface to look for fish.

From Lake Mary I headed over to Ladora Lake. There's a nice 1.8 mile loop around Ladore Lake and I was able to observe wildlife including a few great blue herons,

cormorants,

and a hairy woodpecker.

After the short hike, I made my way to the Wildlife Drive where I got a nice view of a bison with mountains in the background,

the distant Denver skyline,

and a closeup view of part of the herd.

After the Wildlife Drive I left the refuge and headed northeast to Greeley to pick up some beer at WeldWerks before making my way home.