Things to do in Denver When You’re (Not) Dead

Alright Warren Zevon or Andy Garcia fans (and everyone else), about 10 years in it’s about time I wrote a post about things to do in our hometown, Denver Colorado. So, here goes. First, some history….

Brief History of Denver.

Denver was founded in 1858 as a gold-rush town where prospectors panned for gold at the confluence of the South Platte River and the Cherry Creek. Denver was named after the Kansas territorial governor James W. Denver by settler General William Larimer in order to try to curry favor with the governor to name the city the territory capitol. Colorado became a territory in 1861, and Denver became its capitol in 1867. Later, when Colorado became a state in 1876 Denver became the state capitol after a statewide vote in 1881. In 1863, sparked by high winds, a fire which started in downtown burned many of Denver’s wooden structures which is why, today, many of the buildings of the era, which were built to replace them, are constructed of brick. The permanence of these structures transformed Denver’s appearance from that of an outpost for miners and traders. Only a year after the fire, snow melt and heavy rains caused a large flood leaving many homeless. Subsequent floods returned in 1875, 1878, 1912 and 1933 until the Cherry Creek dam was constructed in the 1950s.

In the 1860s and 1870s, investors in Denver competed with those in nearby Golden to connect their cities with the Union Pacific railway in Wyoming to the north and to Kansas in the east. Denver’s investors won the race, and the railroad brought a surge in population to the city. The influx of population, more sustainable economics driven by the railroad and growth in agriculture and food processing industries and, subsequently, miners seeking silver in the late 19th century brought more hotels, culture and arts but also saloons, casinos, crime and brothels to Denver. Women’s suffragists led a temperance movement, self-governed vigilante groups imposed justice, while religious groups drove a progressive movement to try to stamp out crime.

After surviving economic hardship, driven by a national downturn, the silver bust and years of drought, in the 1890s, Denver started to modernize building an auditorium and civic center which enabled the city to host the 1908 Democratic National Convention after a successful marketing campaign assured the DNC that Denver was no longer just a frontier town. Cattle pens began springing up and Denver hosted the first National Western Stock Show in 1906 which helped give Denver the moniker “the queen of the plains”.

Like most of America, Denver was hit hard by the Great Depression and the dust bowl of the 1930s which led to about 25% unemployment in the city. FDR’s New Deal brought WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps projects to Denver which combined with the opening of Lowry Air Force base outside of Denver in 1938 brought jobs and attracted more people. More federal agencies opened offices in Denver after World War II and large corporations, like Honeywell, Ball Aerospace and Lockheed Martin, with government contracts followed. During the 1950s, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady brought beatniks and poets to Denver and in the 1960s the Family Dog Denver music club opened bringing The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and hippies to town.

Oil, gas and mineral companies arrived, and the 1970s energy crisis led to a boom in commercial development in downtown and in a second business hub, the Denver Tech Center, just to the south. When oil prices fell, Denver suffered and its overdeveloped downtown led to many vacant buildings but the 1990s brought revitalization, pollution control measures and public transit to help deal with sprawl and horrible traffic (which, sadly, still lives on today).

Things to do.

Parks and Rec. Even in winter, the climate can be temperate and sunny driving Denverites to spend a lot of time outdoors. The city has done a great job at preserving green space in which the locals can recreate. There are many, many smaller neighborhood parks, but these are some of the big ones:

1. City Park is the largest and includes a golf course and the zoo (we are not zoo people). It is also one of our least favorite of the parks, despite pretty great views of downtown with the mountains behind (a view of Denver from the City Park golf course is pictured at the top of this post).

2. Cheesman Park is right in the heart of the urban Capitol Hill neighborhood. It also offers some pretty fabulous views of the Denver skyscrapers from its southeast side and dishes up some pretty good people watching on a warm weekend day.

3. Sloan’s Lake Park is on the western end of Denver and presents Denver’s downtown from a different perspective.

4. Our favorite and go-to park is Washington (or “Wash”) Park in the neighborhood of that same name. All of these parks offer good walking trails, biking and some offer additional recreational activities. Walking in the park has been, and continues to be, one of our most favorite Denver activities.

Dining. Regular readers will know that we love a good night out and a great restaurant. I wrote about some of our favorite restaurants (a list I continue to maintain) 9 years ago. Most of the best restaurants in Denver are not in downtown, although in downtown Larimer Square is your best bet. Most of Denver’s neighborhoods are clustered around little mini-downtowns with great dining (and some shopping) options and neighborhood bars. Some of our favorite areas for this are Old South Pearl (navigate to S. Pearl St. and E. Iowa St.), West Wash Park (navigate to E. Bayaud Ave and S. Pennsylvania), Highlands (navigate to W. 32nd and Lowell) or the Lower Highlands neighborhood (navigate to W. 32nd and Tejon St.).

Museums. Denver’s got a rich compilation of museums. There’s the Colorado History Museum, the Museum of Nature and Science (formerly known as the Natural History Museum) and the Denver Art Museum. The U.S. Mint in downtown also offers tours if watching them make money is your thing.

One of our favorite Halloween traditions, when we are in town, is to head over to the Molly Brown House for their annual Victorian House of Horrors readings of Poe, Longfellow, Mary Shelley, et al by actors dressed in 19th century garb. When special events are not going, you can tour the home of the Unsinkable Molly Brown, Titanic survivor and early Denver socialite and suffragist. Historic Denver, which also manages the Molly Brown house, offers several historic walking tours of Denver’s various neighborhoods.

Denver’s Botanical Gardens. Speaking of events, the botanical gardens hosts concerts in the summertime, a festival of lights around the holidays and is just a great place to visit and check out the flora on a nice day. Located at York St. in between E. 11th Ave and E. 9th Ave.

The Arts. Check out the Denver Center for Performing Arts for theater, opera, musicals and concerts. Also conveniently located in downtown, there’s always something on at the performing arts center. Also conveniently located not too far from Denver is the Red Rocks Amphitheater which is one of the best places to catch a concert or a movie in the world.

Live Sports. Sports fans will not be disappointed. In almost any month, you can find live sports and most venues are a short walk from downtown. Both recent league champions the Denver Nuggets NBA basketball team and the Colorado Avalanche NHL hockey team play in what is currently called Ball Arena. The Colorado Rapids soccer team plays out of town a ways at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and the hapless Colorado Rockies play right in the heart of Lower Downtown (Lo-Do) at Coors Field finding a way to disappoint their legion of loyal fans annually. And if the Boston Red Sox are the religion of my native Massachusetts and Fenway Park is their cathedral, a similar devotion has formed for John Elway and Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos who play at the oft changing corporate sponsored but always and forever “Mile High Stadium”.

Golf. While we’re talking sports, Denver has many municipally run golf courses. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty challenging to get a tee time (too challenging) during the season and especially on a weekend, but mid-week and during Denver’s often mild late fall or mid-winter months the munis offer a great and convenient way to grab a round for a reasonable price.

Denver is a vibrant, outdoorsy city. It is the 19th largest in the U.S.A., but its diverse neighborhoods make it feel more like a big town. Finally, one of the best things to do in Denver is just take a cruise around and check out the stately homes along its parkways or take in the myriad of murals and street art you’ll find in its neighborhoods (one of the best places to check this out is in the RiNo (River North) neighborhood along Larimer St., as seen below). And at a mile high in altitude, always bring your water.