Only in Colorado would someone look at a library and think, “This needs hiking trails.” The Anythink Nature Library, the first public nature library in the entire country, officially opened its doors on Aug. 8 in Thornton, about 20 minutes north of downtown Denver, and it’s not your grandmother’s library. Unless your grandmother hikes in snowshoes she borrowed from the reference desk.
The 33,000-square-foot building sits on a 15-acre campus adjacent to the 140-acre Aylor Open Lands, and it blends traditional library services, books, rooms, Wi-Fi, story times, with immersive outdoor experiences including hiking trails, gardens, creative spaces and a one-mile trail loop through shortgrass prairie. But here’s the part that makes it truly wild: the “TryIt” collection. Visitors can borrow snowshoes, binoculars, hammocks, kites, guitars and board games, with the library eventually planning to offer more than 1,500 items and kits…