See Inside a Giant Freezer Full of Prehistoric Ice in Colorado

There are all kinds of hidden gems in Colorado, many of which not just everybody knows about. One of these places is quite intriguing in nature and is in a part of Colorado that you very well may have driven past and not even realized what was inside.

This place is home to a giant freezer full of ice specimens, some of which have been around for hundreds and thousands of years, and is known as The United States National Ice Core Laboratory.

What is Colorado's United States National Ice Core Laboratory?

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The United States National Ice Core Laboratory is an interesting place. It's located at the Federal Center Building 810 in Lakewood, Colorado, 80226:

Yep, just up the road from Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater in Lakewood, Colorado is a facility filled with ice, some of which is very old. In fact, the oldest ice at the facility is an estimated 420,000 years old and is studied by scientists in order to understand the history of climate on our planet.

The samples come from the Arctic, mainly Greenland, and the Antarctic, and are stored in freezers that stay around -36 degrees Fahrenheit.

Essentially, these samples tell stories about global temperatures for as many as 850,000 years. They have rings that signify seasons, similar to trees, as well as things like volcanic ash which also tell a story.

Take a virtual tour of this very unique facility located right here in Colorado known as the United States National Ice Core Laboratory: