Hey y’all! Thanks for following along through my Colorado adventures! Click here to check out the first 5 days of my vacation with my husband in Colorado Springs, CO. Neither one of us had ever been to Denver, so we spent an afternoon checking out the city before heading to stay with family. This post will cover a few things to do in Denver and also what we did in some of the surrounding cities!
Where we stayed
My cousin was an awesome host and let us crash at his place in Arvada, which is about a half hour outside Denver. I really liked his city, and with a little over 100,000 people, it felt like the perfect size…not too big or too small…far enough away from Denver yet close enough to other cities for easy day trips. My cousin is the same age as me and my husband, although we’ve always lived far apart, so it was great to get together!
What we did
Although we flew in and out of Denver, we didn’t stay overnight in the city, just spent bits and pieces of days here and there. We landed in Denver and spent the late afternoon in the city before heading out to CO Springs. We had an entire day of things planned, but as you know, things always happen, right? So basically the entire US population decided they wanted to fly into Denver on my vacation weekend and drive up to “???” to see the big solar eclipse of 2017, so the airport and rental car agency were absolute packed sardine HELL… Cynical is an understatement… and all that waiting around without food or water had me extra dehydrated (something you never want when transitioning to a higher elevation), so a little rocky start, but the trip proved to be so worth it!
Denver
My favorite spot we visited in the city was the Denver Botanical Gardens! Something about gardens are so relaxing to me and a nice change from the hustle and bustle of a big city. We spent a good 2-3 hours here. Below are some of my favorite areas in the garden including the gigantic lily pads and the massive conservatory/green house that had really unique, exotic plants.
I was really excited to see the Chihuly glass sculpture (top right pic) because I had also seen some of his work in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum!
Denver has no shortage of other things to do including multiple art museums, a nature and science museum, an amusement park, a wildlife refuge, a huge outdoor mall downtown, and TONS of micro breweries in and around the city. So really we just touched on some things to do here.
Free Things to do Denver
As you know, I’m always looking for ways to be thrifty while traveling, and lucky for us, Denver had so many free activities to do! You could probably spend a couple days here doing nothing but free things around the city. I’m not going to list them all here because so many other sites have already done that, but I’ll name a few places we visited and a few we would have liked to visit. We did a quick 30 min tour at one of America’s original candy making factories, because who doesn’t love candy?? Hammond’s Candy Factory is a cool place to visit no matter what age you are, but definitely something to do if you’re traveling with kiddos. And also the part where you get free candy at the end…sign me up! It’s on the outskirts of town in a very industrial area away from the city center.
Another place we checked out was a contemporary art gallery called The Dikeou Collection in downtown Denver off 16th Street. I’m not really an art museum person, but I’ll make an exception for a free one! It’s meant to be interactive, so you’re allowed to handle and pickup most of the art (including some signed Babe Ruth baseballs) and are even forced to climb over/through rooms. The prize goes to a pair of giant awkward pink inflatable bunnies and the Lord’s Supper painted in chocolate sauce (Yes, chocolate sauce) that are starring you down when you walk through the door. It’s also the type of museum where you’d find some strange naked people drawings, so prepare yourself for different extremes. The collection was interesting and thought-provoking, yet weird at the same time, which I’m guessing is what contemporary art is about?? This was my attempt at being artsy for an hour… 😛 I was surprised and would give it a thumbs up!
A couple others, but definitely not all of the free things to do in Denver include free walking tours of downtown daily at 10 AM and tours of the U.S. Mint. Given more time, I would have loved to do both! Here’s a couple more pics from downtown as we drove around.
Union Station also seemed like a cool place to walk around downton. It’s an old historic train station that is still a hub for transportation but also features shops, restaurants, and a hotel today. My cousin brought us to eat at a cool restaurant near Union Station called Machete that specializes in good street style tacos!
Hiking in Boulder
So the next day we were up early and got a great workout hiking the Royal Arch Trail in Boulder with my cousin – and by workout, I mean almost died climbing an endless staircase to hell! 🙂 The Royal Arch Trail is one of many within the Boulder Flatirons, a series of gigantic sandstone rock slabs that hang off the side of Green Mountain. The views walking up to the trail are magazine cover worthy!
It was absolutely beautiful once we got to the arch at the top and saw the views of Boulder and the surroundings from 7000 ft, so YES it was worth it looking back (it just didn’t seem like it during the climb). And I learned that semi-out-of-shape people from Louisiana (aka SEA LEVEL) have no idea what hiking really is ha! And when you tell someone from Colorado that you want to go on a hike, you should be prepared! In reality, this hike is actually classified as difficult/strenuous, so I’m impressed that we made it all the way up and back without…ya know…dying. So if you’re up for a challenging hike, check out this one in Boulder. It would also be a great day trip out of Denver, and the views from the top won’t let you down!
Tubing in Golden
On the next day and our last day in Colorado, we went river tubing in neighboring Golden, CO. The town runs along Clear Creek where you can go tubing or kayaking and catch some good small rapids. We saw a lot of people with their own tubes, but there were also several tube rental companies within walking distance of the creek. There’s no cost to enter the creek and you can float down as many times as you can walk back up! Beautiful hot sunny day = perfect weather for tubing! The mountains in the background almost made you forget about the freezing alpine water in the creek. I’m purposefully leaving out the video of me busting my butt on one of the bigger rapids…conveniently filmed by the GroPro… 😉
Golden is also home to the Colorado School of Mines, a well-know engineering and science university, and Lookout Mountain, a foothill of the Rockies and burial site of “Buffalo Bill.” Think American scout, not Silence of the Lambs… Although we didn’t make it up, I’ve heard that Lookout Mountain is a great place to catch a sunset overlooking the city of Denver!
So my review of Colorado is that I absolutely loved it – like a ridiculously stupid amount – and that we were ready to move even before we got back to Louisiana. Everything there is just awesome…the food, the people, the mountains, the overwhelming amount of things to do! Also the elevation is no joke, so drink tons of water and don’t over stress yourself the first couple of days. I would have loved another day in Denver to do a bit more exploring, but I think 5 days is a perfect amount of time to spend in Colorado Springs. I usually get a little homesick toward the end of vacations, but this time I wished we had longer to spend away! Be on the lookout for Arkansas adventures coming soon, including a hiking/kayaking trip in southern Arkansas with some work friends!
Down the Highway My Way 
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