Nation’s first ‘Nature Library’ opens in Thornton

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.

The architecture is designed to blur the line between indoors and outdoors, with circular structures, expansive glass walls and landscaped gardens that invite visitors to move freely between the building and the trails. The majority of the book collection is nature-based and organized according to an Environmental Kinship Guide, though there’s still a popular browsing collection for new and notable titles. Part of Adams County’s Anythink Libraries system, which has been nationally recognized for reimagining what public libraries can be, the Nature Library is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 6811 E. 136th Ave. in Thornton. Guided tours for families and adults are being offered throughout August and September. It’s free, it’s Colorado, and you can borrow a kite.