*Originally published on September 17, 2018
Updated on September 10, 2024:

We bet you didn't know Colorado has alligators ...

There's a popular Twitter (now X) account called "Florida Man" who bills himself as the "world's worst superhero" and documents all the insane things people in Florida do.

That said, what if you want to see an alligator? Colorado is all windswept plains, majestic peaks, and high desert. Not exactly alligator territory. You'd have to go to Florida and brave all the chaos if you wanted to see an alligator... right?

Wrong. You can see an alligator—more than one, actually!—at the Colorado Gators Reptile Park in Mosca (which I am not making up, by the way).

It's actually a nice thing. Most of the rescued alligators and other assorted reptiles at the Colorado Gators Reptile Park, known colloquially as the Alligator Farm, used to be pets. The farm opened to the public in 1990 after the owners bought 100 baby alligators for the dead fish on the 80-acre farm they had bought in southern Colorado. The alligators grew quickly (the water is quite warm there), and folks wanted to see them.

Eventually, the farm turned into a sanctuary for former exotic pets. They offer reptile handling classes and alligator wrestling classes. Let me repeat that: Alligator. Wrestling. Classes.

Please don't channel your inner Ace Ventura ...

It's going to be "Colorado Man" soon, isn't it?

Also, did you know that an alligator used to live in a Denver park? So, it looks like alligators are more common in Colorado than we initially thought ...