COLORADO
Denver's greatest assets are all out in the open
With spectacular vistas and 300 days of sunshine a year, Denver is an easy choice for lovers of the outdoors.
Posted on Sun, May. 18, 2008
BY BILL WARD
Minneapolis Star Tribune
MARK RIGHTMIRE / MCT
Inside the Buckhorn Exchange restaurant in Denver, Colorado.
DENVER --
''Check it out,'' my friend Mike said, pointing out beyond Coors' Field's left-field wall -- way, way beyond the wall -- at the sun dipping into the Rocky Mountains. ``That's where the Broncos got their colors.''
Indeed, the vibrantly orange puffs of cumulus and matching solar orb, playing off a cerulean sky, were a spot-on match for the National Football League team's original colors. And quite the icing for some kind of cake: the Front Range, the majestic purple mountains rising abruptly from the valley west of the Queen City of the Plains.
Those indelible, incandescent sunsets are but one of countless reasons why Denver denizens spend the bulk of their time in the truly great outdoors. Three new big-league open-air stadiums lure large crowds in this sports-crazy city even when the teams are struggling. The public spaces, even the downtown streets, feel more open than in virtually any U.S. city, the better to sneak peeks at the nearby peaks. Perhaps the biggest factor: an average of 300 sunny days a year.
Taking full advantage of these amenities was the prime goal of my four-day weekend in Colorado's capital city, as Mike, his wife, Becca, and I dined on rooftops and patios, checked out major league baseball and soccer games, and trekked to several nearby mountain towns.
CREATURE COMFORTS
Even the interior spaces give a nod to the great outdoors. Denver's oldest restaurant, the must-be-seen-to-be-believed Buckhorn Exchange, is festooned with what must be the most stuffed critters per square inch of any eatery extant. It's a place for gawking and chowing down on rattlesnake, elk, slabs of beef or the lamb for which Colorado is justly renowned. Most of the stuffed animals are heads, although there also are full-size cougars, bears and jackalopes (yee-haw!).
Almost as old-(cow)boyish is the Brown Palace, a hotel so venerable that city streets were built off the grid around it. Abutting its dazzling, stained-glass-laden open lobby is the Ship Tavern, where, after careful deliberation, we opted for a Chimay on tap rather than the $450-a-pour cognac. That gave us plenty of time to check out the massive tile seafaring map and marvelously intricate model ships bathing in the natural light afforded by outsized windows.
On the other side of that glass lay several Denver landmarks. A moving war memorial stands on a vast grassy mall between the Old Europe-style City-County Building and the State Capitol; on the Capitol's 15th step we found a plaque designating the site as 5,280 feet above sea level, not to mention yet another spectacular vista.
Nearby we caught a free electric-powered bus, its lack of fumes a boon for the pedestrian-and-transit-only 16th Street Mall. After the last stop, sculpture-laden Writer Square, it was a short jaunt to Larimer Square, where the city was founded in 1858. The cabin that Gen. William Larimer built at the frontier settlement, which he dubbed Denver City after the governor of the Kansas Territory, is long gone. In its place stands a dandy little Tex-Mex hotspot called Tamayo, where we lunched on the rooftop, that ubiquitous Front Range looming to the west.
SIDE TRIPS
As many and varied as Denver's attractions might be, there's no denying that a lot of visitors use it as a springboard to the rugged beauty and outdoor activities afforded by the continent's most spectacular mountain range. Sojourners bound for Colorado Springs, Vail, Aspen and points west can produce the kind of slow-and-no-go interstate traffic jams that almost justify having a DVD player in one's vehicle.
But there's no shortage of closer-to-town destinations, including Estes Park, the semi-idyllic nexus of Rocky Mountain National Park, and Boulder, a lively college town with its own pedestrian walkway -- and home of Frasca, the most buzzed-about Italian restaurant between the two coasts.
Frasca's menu and wine list more than lived up to the hype. Every bite of every dish Mike, Becca and I sampled seemed to elicit a sigh or gurgle of delight. Being able to eat outdoors on a gorgeous August evening wasn't half-bad, either.
To get a fuller sampling of the region's terrain, we had taken a circuitous route to Boulder. At our first stop, outside the fabled Red Rocks Amphitheatre, hippie-ish mini-throngs were playing Hacky-Sack while awaiting a sold-out show by the String Cheese Incident.
A breathtakingly steep and winding ride brought us to Evergreen, which has made the transition from Old West mountain town to arts-and-craftsy village without going overboard on the Ye Olde Quaint Shoppe factor. Our destination was a genuine saloon, the Little Bear, for a matinee performance by the Clay Kirkland Band.
The aging-boomer ensemble laid down some seriously tasty blues-rock licks, but the driving force was a fabulous bass player named Jimmy Stofer, who was plenty young enough to be the son of any of his bandmates. Turns out he was the most recent touring bass man for the platinum-selling pop band the Fray.
''The weather here is unbelievable,'' Stofer said later. ``You are always a short trip away to the mountains for hiking and skiing. And it's sunny all the time.''
Just like my disposition throughout 100 shiny, happy hours in the Mile High City.
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