Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge is located in an intermountain glacial basin south of Walden, county seat of Jackson County, Colorado. The basin is approximately 35 miles wide and 45 miles long. It is the northernmost of four such "parks" in Colorado and is known locally as North Park. North Park opens north into Wyoming and is rimmed on the west by the Park Range, on the south by the Rabbit Ears Mountains, on the southeast by the Never-Summer Range, and on the east and northeast by the Medicine Bow Range. Numerous slow, meandering streams are interspersed on the basin floor and eventually come together to form the headwaters of the North Platte River. Most of the flood plain along the streams is irrigated meadow, while the low rises adjacent to the flood plain and sagebrush grasslands characterize the higher rises on the refuge.