leadville national fish hatchery

Hike up the nature trail to get to the playground at the top. It's a nice easy hike for family members of all ages.

This fish hatchery has been around since 1889 and is now on the National Registry of Historic Places. The nature trail on the hatchery's grounds makes a nice, short, kid-friendly hike, and the visitor center itself has some interesting exhibits (though I've not visited those in a few years).My main use of the hatchery is as the trailhead for some terrific hikes, all of which provide access to the Colorado Trail. The Highline Trail is my favorite, and climbs fairly steeply to the Colorado Trail at 11,000 feet (about a thousand feet above the hatchery itself). As you pass the Evergreen Lakes while still on the hatchery grounds, you get a really great view of Mt. Elbert, the highest summit in the Rockies, across one of the lakes. If you continue directly across the Colorado Trail onto either the continuation of Highline Trail or Native Lake Trail (the first of which morphs into the other at some point; I'm not sure where), you will eventually get to a beautiful high point and then descend about 500 vertical feet to a wetland, where, if the water is not too high, you can continue on all the way to Native Lake, a gorgeous but challenging hike.Or you can start at the Rock Creek Trailhead at the edge of the hatchery and continue on to the Colorado Trail, an interesting hike by Rock Creek but requiring a thick slathering on of mosquito repellant when done during the summer.A third option is to find the Kearney Park Trailhead by parking in the hatchery lot and hiking north a short distance alongside the road running by the hatchery (carefully! the road winds a little and the view from an automobile can be obscured) and looking for the trailhead to your left.All of these trails should be considered strenuous, Rock Creek least so but most likely to result in blood loss to ravenous insects.

We visit NWR any chance we get, and Leadville Fish Hatchery was a real surprise. The nature trail was awesome, the original building was so cool and well maintained. The rangers were so nice and helpful. It was cool to see the state fish being raised too. This is one of my new favorite FWS places for sure.

The Fish Hatchery is always a great place to take the kids! They get to feed the fish as well as see how they're raised.

Was really neat to see the fish hatchery there were several different stages and not far from the Mt Massive Golf Course. This was all in Leadville an historic and interesting little town.

I thought you just went to a river and threw in your line to catch a trout. I found out it's not that simple! There is a tremendous amount of effort that goes into raising and restocking the rivers of Colorado with trout. Here they are also working to find methods of preventing the extinction of the Green Cutthroat Trout. This was a very informative visit and we got to feed the trout with fish food, watching them churn up the water to be the first to get the food. Children would also enjoy this.

This was the perfect stop to break up the road trip with two little ones and go for a hike and have lunch. The nature trail is one of the best I have seen, it is well marked and maintained. Perfect one mile loop to do with little kids or just to stretch your legs. There is a fun play/picnic area half way into the hike.

Today 7/26 is the Hatchery's 125th Anniversary. We were so fortunate to be traveling thru Leadville. We had a great time with all the separate tours and functions they had going. The hatchery itself is a very beautiful building and the grounds are as well. Lions Club was serving a great lunch for a very moderate price. Great piece of history.

We passed through Leadville on our way home from Vail and enjoyed a stop at the fish hatchery. This was a first experience for my wife and kids. We all loved seeing the mass of trout in each tank and the kids loved feeding the fish. The building has a self-guided tour in which you can see everything in 10 minutes.It was a great stop to stretch our legs and enjoy the mountain air and scenery.Hiking trails are on the grounds, but we didn't do anything other than view the fish and take a quick walk through the building.

Shortly after moving up to Leadville we made it a priority to check out some of the surrounding area's. The Fish hatchery does not disappoint. The kids love to get the pellets and feed the fish. Some jump out of the water a little bit so added to the excitement for them. Walking the grounds there is lots of informational's about the area. Looking around the grounds you also find some nice homes on the grounds which offer rich history and a beautiful setting. There is also some hiking trails and a nature trail you can explore as well. The kids love the nature trail, it has so many little surprises once you get back there and in the middle of it all you have a play area, swings, horseshoes, picnic area. I won't ruin it for you but the scenery is ever changing and there is a lot to learn about what used to be back there ;) It's easy enough for the kids to hike and still enjoy themselves. You also have some great scenery of Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert. If you enjoy nature but don't want to drag the kids to far back into the woods this is a great place to start. It's also a good place for first time hiker's to start out as well.

My husband and I have made it a priority to visit this hatchery every few years as this is where we got married--on the hatchery grounds. Family history aside, this is just a great place to visit with kids of all ages. The buildings and raceways you see are only one small part of the hatchery, as its property extends up into the Mt. Massive Wilderness Area. After touring the hatchery raceways and building, which is on the national register of historic places, walk up the road to where the lakes are and it is like stepping back into time. There was once a luxury hotel up there. Though the building is long gone, there is a nice spot to sit and reflect on what it must have been like to vacation in that spot.This particular trip was a pleasant surprise as an obviously massive effort has been made to improve the signage, paths and the picnic area. What was once a rundown, forgotten part of the hatchery is now a wonderful spot to spend an afternoon. Now there are paths, a playground, a huge covered picnic area, a labyrinth, horseshoe pits, and, of course, the many small lakes to explore. We noticed that you can even fish in some of the lakes. There are restrooms up there.According to signage and a fantastic brochure/map they have produced (only $1), a volunteer organization, The Friends of Leadville National Fish Hatchery, have been advocating to keep this national treasure open and available to the public. I am assuming they are responsible for the improvements as there normally are not enough federal dollars to make improvements as we saw them. Kudos to the volunteers and the hatchery management to make all that happen. Check out the website to see what you can do to help keep the hatchery open: http://mercury.pr.erau.edu/~lyallj/FLNFH/If you are a little more adventuresome, the map mentioned above can help you find the trails that take you up into the wilderness area behind the hatchery. Its water source, Rock Creek, starts high up in the mountains and you can hike along it for a great day out in the woods. Be forewarned, we hiked up there in late June and still ran into snow on the trail higher up.

Having never seen a hatchery before, it was really neat to see this place! It was simple and easy to walk around at your own pace. I wish we would have had more time to hike!

We had a really great time at the Leadville Fish Hatchery. We came in a little late and the buildings were not open. Had the whole place to ourselves. We absolutely loved the fish runs where you could feed the Cutthroat and Rainbow trout. Pellets are a quarter for a handful. Could have done this all day had we brought more quarters.Definitely going to visit again in the summertime. We just loved this!!!The lake was very close but was still frozen over. Going to visit again to see the beautiful lake.

I like animals and knowing where things come from. This was perfect. So many fish. It was a cool visit.

The historic buildings, information signage and actual fish runs (working!!) are so fun to see. There is also a 1 mile nature trail with informative signs just on the south side of the property. There are neat little picnic areas and a pond with HUGE trout in it that visitors can purchase pellets to feed. You are allowed to feed the fish in the runs as well. Really fun place to take the kids!