Welcome to the Mile High City. Whether you’re relocating or just visiting, I’m sure you’ll love it here. With sweeping Rocky Mountain vistas and casual hospitality, Denver is a place rich in history, beauty, and excitement. Insiders’ Guide to Denver is designed to help you make the most of your time here.
For starters, chances are good that if you’re already in Denver reading this book, the sky will be a startling shade of blue for at least part of the day. The sun shines 300 days a year here, and sunglasses are highly recommended. In fact, bad weather is perhaps the biggest misconception about Denver. Put simply, snowcapped peaks in the Rockies don’t mean snow-covered streets in Denver. We do get the occasional blizzard, but most snows melt within a day or two, leaving fresh, clean air and sunny weather in their wake.
Beyond the great climate, Denver is a vibrant, growing city. It’s no surprise that Democrats chose it as the site of their 2008 National Convention; nor did all that national attention hurt Denver’s reputation as a great place to stage a mammoth party. Regardless of why you’re visiting, one of the first landmarks many visitors see is Denver International Airport (DIA), Denver’s gateway to the rest of the world. In addition to its spectacular tented terminal building, DIA is known for its beautiful stonework, whimsical artwork, great views of both mountains and open plains, and a location that provides easy access to Colorado’s interstate system.
Even die-hard Denver lovers find new things to treasure about our city. For instance, our city parks are vast expanses of green space with walking trails and flower beds. Denver has more than 850 miles of paved off-road bike trails. If what you really want is great shopping, you’re in luck there too. The Cherry Creek Shopping Center stands as the area’s top attraction, surpassing even the Mint, Coors Brewery, and the Denver museums in tourist draw, but it shares the retail arena with other regional shopping centers strewn throughout the Metro Denver area.
Denver is also a sports town, with modern venues for all its professional teams. Coors Field in Lower Downtown houses the Colorado Rockies baseball team. The glass and steel Pepsi Center, also in Lower Downtown, is shared by the Colorado Avalanche hockey team and Denver’s basketball team, the Nuggets. The Denver Broncos play nearby at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, and the stadium is also the venue for the Denver Outlaws professional lacrosse team. The Colorado Rapids, a professional soccer team, plays its games at the new Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. A new facility called the Broomfield Events Center was built on the northwestern edge of Metro Denver for two minor league clubs—the Rocky Mountain Rage hockey team and the Colorado 14ers basketball team.
There are so many things to do in or near downtown these days that boredom is out of the question. Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park is located in the once-abandoned Platte Valley area just west of downtown. Brewpubs are a way of life—in or out of baseball season. And the 16th Street Mall and Larimer Square (Larimer Street between 14th and 15th Streets downtown) are year-round destinations where visitors can experience Denver’s flavor and appreciation for historical buildings and the lore that accompanies them.
And more development is yet to come. Denver’s Union Station is set to become a regional transit/retail/housing center similar to Union Station in Washington, DC, and the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Commons Park continues to grow on the western edge of the transit site, and the metropolitan governments continue the expansion of one of the best urban trail systems in the country. If cultural experiences are also your interest, the Denver Art Museum opened the Frederic C. Hamilton Building in 2006, completing its seven-year, $90.5-million expansion project. The newly inaugurated Clyfford Still Museum houses the work of one of America’s leading abstract expressionist painters.
While no book can ever capture everything great about a metropolitan area as diverse as Denver, this one attempts to distill the best of everything into a format that will give newcomers the inside scoop, offer visitors a guide on what to see and experience, and bring even more information to longtime Denverites. So go forth and tour, buy a pair of cowboy boots, picnic in the park, and gaze at the mountains from the middle of the city while savoring the beauty.