Ventured out with family including our dog to hike. As mentioned in previous reviews they do have an auto tour you can take and hiking trails. We were able to see some mule deer and birds on the auto tour likely because we arrived around 9 am. Please know that there is no longer a lake in this area or prairie dogs. We did the Grassland Loop and Cottonwood Canyon Birding Trail. I would definitely recommend if you visit to hike the trail otherwise you will miss the beauty of the Cottonwood Canyon. It does seem that the refuge has seen better days but we felt that this was likely due to possibly lack of sufficient precipitation to the area. Overall our family enjoyed spending a few hours here and learning about National Wildlife Refuge program.

There is very little lake. This is primarily a wildlife refuge. You can hike, picnic, do some birding, camp and/or drive the auto route. It costs $2 per person to enter the refuge. On the day we went here, we were the only people visiting. We enjoyed a very peaceful and quite drive. There is no longer a prairie dog village. It is very run down and the prairie dogs are no longer there. Even though we enjoyed ourselves, we did notice that the refuge is not kept up. We would still recommend visiting if you want to be somewhere away from people or if you are into birding.

We enjoyed the birding trail and auto loop with educational signs. I only rated 4 stars because I was disappointed to only see prairie dogs from really far away. We did see birds and deer. Beautiful serene morning in Canyon.

If you are looking for a scenic drive with beautiful views, this is your place. There isn’t much to do but I loved the educational signs along the way. It looks like weather and lack of water has played a big part in its change but it’s worth checking out while it’s free! There was no camping or picnicking when we visited.

Beautiful location for bird watching. Very enjoyable. It is a little out of the way and not easy to get to, but it is well worth it.