June 08, 2026

On a late afternoon walk at Denver’s City Park, I found myself at Duck Lake, which backs up to the zoo. The setting sun was illuminating a trompe l’œil mural that really does fool the eye into seeing a crumbling wall and half-revealed Roman ruin.

Haven is the work of Oregon muralist and illusion painter John Pugh, who transformed one of the zoo’s concrete walls — the back of an animal enclosure, presumably — into a fantasy of post-civilization ruins where wild animals co-exist in Edenic harmony.

Bring your binoculars to discover all the different animals painted in.

Duck Lake is also home to a large cormorant rookery. As evening fell, they lake-swooped and settled atop snags and manmade roosting platforms.

You can imagine the chattering.

Coming in for a landing

Duck Lake is a peaceful place — even with cormorant chittering — to stroll or just sit and observe.

And after all, it is called Duck Lake, so no surprise to see a few fuzzy ducklings here too.

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