Entry No. 67 — the Denver file — filed under: science
NSF Ice Core Facility
“suit up in cold-weather gear and step into a room full of frozen time”
On the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, behind unremarkable government doors, sits a walk-in freezer kept at -36C that holds more than ten miles of ice cores drilled from Antarctica and Greenland, some of it hundreds of thousands of years old. The NSF Ice Core Facility curates the physical archive of Earth's climate history, and almost nobody outside the geology community knows the public can actually tour it. You suit up in cold-weather gear and step into a room full of frozen time. Roughly 100 tours a year, free, booked months out.
The move: Request a tour well in advance, bundle up together for the freezer room, then thaw out over coffee debating how a chunk of 100,000-year-old ice ends up in a Lakewood warehouse.
📍 Before you go The catch nobody warns you about: this sits inside the Denver Federal Center, a secured government campus, so you arrive at a guarded gate (visitors use Gates 1, 4, or 5) and need a valid photo ID to get onto the grounds. Build in buffer time for that and to find the right building. RTD W Line riders can take the train straight to Federal Center station, which has a large park-n-ride if you drive. Wear closed-toe shoes and warm socks under the issued gear. Tour availability shifts and has been limited by nearby construction, so confirm well ahead. Afterward, Belmar is the closest spot to thaw out over coffee.
- 📍 Lakewood (Denver Federal Center)
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: Denver Federal Center, 6th Ave & Kipling, Lakewood, CO (NSF Ice Core Facility / USGS); tours by online request form only
Hours: Free tours run roughly 8-11am and 1-4pm on scheduled days, no drop-ins, must be requested months in advance via the online form. NOTE: as of mid-2026 tours are curtailed due to adjacent construction; confirm availability on icecores.org before requesting.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Atlas Obscura · icecores.org · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-06-07