Montbello Open Space Park

Once an empty lot strewn with trash and dry weeds, this 5.5-acre property has been restored to native shortgrass prairie, with trails, interpretive displays, art designed with help from local students, and a climbing boulder. It was the first climbing wall completed in partnership with The North Face as part of the company’s “Walls Are Meant For Climbing” campaign, designed to create more free climbing walls in city parks around the country—starting in neighborhoods where kids face the highest barriers to exploring the outdoors. The 11-foot-tall boulder offers a way to climb without having to find a ride to the mountains or shell out for specialized gear or a gym pass.

Trust for Public Land partnered with Denver nonprofit Environmental Learning for Kids (E.L.K) and the City and County of Denver, establishing the first open space park in the Montbello neighborhood and Denver’s first nature education park. This project will bring much needed open space to far northeast Denver and provide opportunities for healthy and active recreation and learning. An environmental education center will become ELK’s new headquarters—the home base the group has sought for almost 20 years.

Over the course of a decade, we transformed 5.5 acres from vacant lot into a restored shortgrass prairie ecosystem with native plants, green infrastructure to filter stormwater, outdoor classroom, educational art, walking trails, and interactive nature play spaces. The nature education center will assist ELK in accomplishing a mission to provide outdoor programs to youth who may otherwise not have the opportunity to engage in science and science-related careers.

In June 2021, we celebrated the park’s opening, and that summer launched Trust for Public Land’s CORE (Community Outreach with Resident Experts) program to further support youth. The ELK Education Center and Montbello Open Space will serve more than 42,000 youth and families annually in the Denver area.