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Swetsville Zoo

January 14, 2022

A quirky, off-beat roadside attraction right along the Poudre River in Ft Collins, the Swetsville Zoo features 180+ metal sculptures, most of them animals or Franken-creations that are perfectly whimsical and all-around smile-inducing.

The pieces were created by artist Bill Swets starting in 1985, and the popular attraction has been a beloved local attraction ever since. 

The first time we visited the Swetsville Zoo in 2020, I couldn’t believe I had somehow missed this cool little hideaway of art. We wander the random corners and tucked away places to find the best hidden gems, after all, and this curious collection of rusty dinosaur skeletons had somehow evaded us.

Still, we found it! Whew! And at a great time too as the future of this free public sculpture park seems a bit uncertain. Swets put up the land for sale in the summer of 2019, and the land remains on the market as of our visit in January 2022. 

If you’re assembling a bucket list together for fun and delightfully odd roadside attractions in Colorado, we highly recommend visiting the Swetsville Zoo ASAP as it’s probably only a matter of time before this 34-acre parcel gets snatched up for development.

Photography and Text by Elaine Skylar Neal / Travels and Curiosities

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