Denver area weekend, what do?

[RobertD]

This has been asked before but I want to stir the topic around some more.

Will be flying into Denver for a long weekend in late May. I've been to CO a few times but only the southern end of the state.

I'm sure there's plenty to see and do, and if I draw a tag I'll spend one day driving to and around my unit. Unlikely though so I'd love to hear your suggestions both in the city and surrounding area.

Bonus points for Western history or hunting related, or some good goat/sheep glossing spots.

Edit: Should add my girlfriend is coming too, so good restaurants/coffee shops etc. welcome as well. Thanks everyone.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

You could go up to Georgetown, there is a herd of sheep that tend to hang out pretty close to the highway/bottom of Guanella.

Georgetown is a cool old mining town that's till going though it changed a lot.. Red Ram burned down last year which was probably the coolest bar in CO.

 

[LuketheDog]

Avoid downtown, it's not a great place to hang out anymore...

They just reopened the cog railway up Pikes Peak, that should be cool!

 

[TOGIE]

waterton canyon is probably the easiest and most convenient way to look at sheep. nice pretty hike/walk too.

 

[DouglasR]

If you’re into sporting goods the rei flagship store is kinda cool.
Lots of items like sleeping pads in stock and on display so you can check them out.

 

[TOGIE]

and if you do find yourself at the downtown REI get burgers at My Brothers Bar

 

[COEngineer]

It's a couple hours of driving, but if Mollie Kathleen mine is open near Victor, it's a cool tour (live demos of mining equipment, 1500' descent down mine shaft, etc) and there's lots of historic mining sites in the area, etc. Make sure to check out the overview that looks down into the active gold mine - it's just up the road from Mollie Kathleen.

 

[rwc101]

Get on the connecting flight to Laramie.

 

[BoulderBulls]

Lots of wildlife to check out in RMNP. I don't believe you need reservations until the end of May.

 

[WyoDoug]

This has been asked before but I want to stir the topic around some more.

Will be flying into Denver for a long weekend in late May. I've been to CO a few times but only the southern end of the state.

I'm sure there's plenty to see and do, and if I draw a tag I'll spend one day driving to and around my unit. Unlikely though so I'd love to hear your suggestions both in the city and surrounding area.

Bonus points for Western history or hunting related, or some good goat/sheep glossing spots.

Edit: Should add my girlfriend is coming too, so good restaurants/coffee shops etc. welcome as well. Thanks everyone.

National Rodeo Hall of Fame, Colorado Springs Colorado - worth the extra tip
Denver Zoo and Museum, both worth a visit, takes well more than a day to see it all
Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado
Colorado Model Railroad Museum, Greeley Colorado
History Colorado Center on Broadway
Denver Art Museum, has some western art
Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Has one of the largest gold nuggets ever found
Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, home of American philanthropist, activist, and socialite Margaret Brown. Brown was known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" because she survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Four Mile Historical Park in Denver, goes back in time and has a lot about gold mining in Colorado

Quite a few, I could go on but these would keep you busy all day and bet you don't get a chance to see them all if you only got a day or two to spare.

 

[SFC B]

I am in the Springs and avoid Denver like the plague, especially in the last year. If you head down this way there is Pikes Peak (although the summit center is still under construction), the Rodeo Hall of Fame is right down the street from my house, the Santa Fe Trail if you want a nice bike ride, Garden of the Gods, the Air Force Academy, the new Scheels store (I work there-full disclosure), lots of good breweries and restaurants down here. There is the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave just off I 70 that is fairly interesting, farther out I 70 are the resort towns (of them I like Steamboat the best- still just a lil bit cowboy), fishing etc on the River.

 

[Glockster]

Go downtown and enjoy the homeless. 16th street use to be a good time with good food.

“I challenge anyone to walk a single block on the 16th Mall, the heart of downtown, and not see, smell or step in all of the five P’s — pee, poop, puke, pot and panhandlers,”

 

[WyoDoug]

Go downtown and enjoy the homeless. 16th street use to be a good time with good food.

“I challenge anyone to walk a single block on the 16th Mall, the heart of downtown, and not see, smell or step in all of the five P’s — pee, poop, puke, pot and panhandlers,”

Enjoy the tents and feces encrusted sidewalks too. And litter all over the place.

Denver's traffic is a nightmare. I used to commute that daily in the 80s and it's murder now. Almost as bad as LA and NYC.

 

[TOGIE]

Denver's traffic is a nightmare. I used to commute that daily in the 80s and it's murder now. Almost as bad as LA and NYC.

it took me nearly 30 minutes to get to my costco yesterday, which is only a 4.6 mile drive

i mean holy shit, it's hard to think of any legit reasons to live here anymore. it's a daily headache to leave your house, to go anywhere, ever. if it weren't for both my parents and my in laws living here and future plans to have children we would have promptly sailed away a while ago i think.

 

[WyoDoug]

it took me nearly 30 minutes to get to my costco yesterday, which is only a 4.6 mile drive

i mean holy shit, it's hard to think of any legit reasons to live here anymore. it's a daily headache to leave your house, to go anywhere, ever. if it weren't for both my parents and my in laws living here and future plans to have children we would have promptly sailed away a while ago i think.

Ya and I thought it was bad when I lived in Thornton and commuted south the the Denver Tech Center. I took the side roads mostly or accepted the night shift when I could get it. I moved out of Colorado in 2004 and Cheyenne's traffic is like a small town still.

I did a St Baldricks event for childhood cancer in Englewood that should of taken me a half hour to get there from my mom's house. It took 2 1/2 hours.

Denver still has a lot to do but the traffic and the homeless problems are huge turn offs to me.

 

[nrpate05]

Denver's traffic is a nightmare. I used to commute that daily in the 80s and it's murder now. Almost as bad as LA and NYC.

I often think CO legalized weed to help people deal with the traffic issues. On that note, the OP could always grab a bag of pot an wander around chatting with the homeless!

 

[RobertD]

I often think CO legalized weed to help people deal with the traffic issues. On that note, the OP could always grab a bag of pot an wander around chatting with the homeless!

Thanks but looking for things I wasn't already planning on doing

 

[cedahm]

waterton canyon is probably the easiest and most convenient way to look at sheep. nice pretty hike/walk too.

It's almost hard to not find sheep up the canyon. If "glassing" up some sheep (you will not need binoculars) is a prioirity, it's a nice hike or bike ride. Would avoid on weekends.

Nearby Waterton - Carboy Winery (good wine made on premise, small plates of very well done food, generally great folks), Breckenridge Brewery (mediocre beer, decent food but a stunning location) and a few exits away on 470 is MaxTaps (~50 tap handles of all-CO beers). Carboy also has a location on 7th avenue that is even better.

Go downtown and enjoy the homeless. 16th street use to be a good time with good food.

TBH, 16th street proper never had much in the way of good food unless we are defining the Cheesecake factory as good. And homeless have been there since I moved to CO in 1996. It most certainly hasn't gotten better, but it was always a touristy little strip full of generic T-Shirt shops and chain stores that's basically only useful because of the free shuttle bus that takes you across downtown.

 

[WyoDoug]

Lot of sheep in Georgetown. I always ran into them when I lived in Colorado and went deer hunting on western side of the state. Sometimes they clog up the highway crossing.

 

[Corn king 60]

I mean wow didn’t expect so much bad news about Denver
I have been in Colorado but not downtown Denver
sounds sad