On Walkabout At: The Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center

Basic Information

• Name: Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center
• Where: Divide, Colorado
• Cost: Adult $15, Child $8 for standard tour (Link)
• Admission: Reservation only
• More Information: wolfeducation.org

Narrative

I have driven by the sign for the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center along Highway 24 so many times while heading up to the mountains and each time I would tell myself that I need to take my family there sometime.  Recently I decided to do just that and I gave them a call and made reservations to visit the wolf sanctuary.  The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center is located just outside of Divide, Colorado and the turn off on the left coming from Colorado Springs is easy to miss due to how small the sign on the right is:

The best thing to do is look for the big barn on the left after passing through Divide which is where Twin Rocks Road is located.  Once on Twin Rocks Road the wolf sanctuary is easy to find due to the big sign and wolf statue along side the road:

Like the sign says you must call and make reservations to visit the sanctuary; there are no drop in visits.  To confirm your reservation the personnel at the sanctuary will take your credit card information, but you have the option of paying cash when you arrive for your tour.  There was plenty of parking once we pulled into the sanctuary and something to remember is that the only public restroom is the porta-potty in the parking lot.  So make sure everyone uses the porta-potty before going on the tour that lasts about an hour.  From the parking lot we walked into the sanctuary and towards the visitor center to check in for our reservations:

As we walked through the grounds we found the facilities for the wildlife here to be first-rate:

The enclosures were all well maintained and had plenty of room for the animals to run around in:

Check in was easy and after a few minutes of checking out the visitor center we began our tour.  The tour group consisted of about 10 people so it wasn’t too large.  The first enclosure the guide took us to is where the few foxes they had are held:

I had never heard this before, but the white foxes in the enclosure were actually red foxes that breeders had changed their fur in order to claim it was more expensive arctic fox fur.  Through out the tour the guide made sure to educate everyone on the abuses that many of the animals in the sanctuary experienced before coming there. All the wildlife at the wolf sanctuary were rescued from either an abusive environments or given to them by people that no longer wanted the animals.  Because of how these animals were brought up in a domestic environment it makes it impossible for them to be released back into the wild and thus live out their days in the wolf sanctuary.

We next went over to the various enclosures where the wolves are held:

There are multiple enclosures because there are certain wolves that like being together and other that do not.  The sanctuary personnel know who likes who and thus keep them in their own enclosures:

I have only seen Mexican Grey Wolves before which are the size of dogs.  At the wolf sanctuary they have a number of timber wolves which I have never seen before and what surprised me more than anything is how large they are:

Though they are very large, they are also very tame with the sanctuary personnel routinely interacting with the wolves within the enclosures:

Since we were on a standard tour the guide just takes us around the outside of the enclosures, but the wolf sanctuary has other more expensive tours where visitors can actually go inside the enclosures and feed the wolves which when my kids get a bit older we will probably try out one day:

Here is a picture of one of the beautiful arctic wolves they had on display:

The final thing we did during the tour was get the wolves to howl.  The guide started make a howling noise and then had everyone in the group make howling noises as well.  My kids loved this.  It didn’t take long before all the wolves were howling too:

Conclusion

My family and I all had a good time at the Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center plus learned a bit about wolves in general.  The personnel at the sanctuary and very passionate about their work which shows in the quality of the facilities and tours.  So for people with an interest in wildlife in the Pikes Peak area I highly recommend making the drive up to Divide and checking out this great wolf sanctuary.