A popular hiking and biking area near Golden was closed Monday morning because of “aggressive bear activity” in the area, according to Jefferson County officials.
announced the shortly before 6:15 a.m. Monday. The park will reopen “when it is safe to do so,” county officials said.
The nearly 800-acre Jefferson County park offers more than in Colorado’s foothills, including several that venture up Lookout Mountain, .
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is monitoring the bear situation, Jefferson County officials said, but no additional details about the “aggressive” activity were available on Monday.
State wildlife officials said last month that bear sightings are likely to increase in the Denver metro amid Colorado’s ongoing drought, which can deplete the animals’ natural food sources. When resources disappear in the wild, bears venture into human-populated areas in search of food.
“Bears have to eat, and they normally would be eating things like berries, cherries, nuts — things they can find in the wild,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife Public Information Officer Kara Van Hoose said in May. “When you have drought thatap affecting the bounty of all of these, … the easiest food sources are things like human trash, bird feeders, pet food.”
This is a developing story and may be updated.
