Denver

As a major regional centre, Denver is the cultural focus of the Rocky Mountain States. The Denver Art Museum features art from around the world, and it has particularly splendid exhibits of Naive American art. The Colorado History Museum features detailed historical dioramas and a large and fascinating collection of photos of life in the Wild West. The Black American West Museum presents a lively picture of black pioneers, prospectors, cowboys, and outlaws. Finally, the Children's Museum of Denver attracts lots of visitors each year to its friendly environment. Other attractions in and around Denver not to be missed are listed below.

Black American West Museum
3091 California Ave
(303) 292-2566
The Black American West Museum tells the forgotten story of African American cowboys, who made up as many as one third of all the cowboys on the great cattle drives. Housed in the home of Dr. Justina Ford, Denver's first African American doctor, the museum has exhibits, historic photos and artefacts that tell the story of the many contributions made by Blacks in settling the West.

Buffalo Bill's Grave & Museum
987 Half Lookout Mountain Rd
(303) 526-0747
This museum is filled with memorabilia honouring the famous frontier scout, showman and Pony Express rider, William F. Cody. Exhibitions include gun collections and posters from the Wild West Show. A beautiful view of the mountains and the plains is visible from his gravesite.

 
The Children's Museum of Denver
2121 Childrens Museum Dr
(303) 433-7444
The Children's Museum of Denver is a unique participatory museum for children and families. This museum features interactive exhibits and activities. Children can learn to ski on Kid Slope, shoot baskets, compare measurements in SizeWise, sample the latest in computer software in CompuLab, and much more.

 
Colorado's Ocean Journey
700 Water St
(303) 561-4450
Colorado's Ocean Journey is a world-class aquarium that takes visitors on two journeys following two rivers that both start 12,000 feet above sea level. On one side, visitors follow the Colorado River through red rock canyons and flash floods on its way to the Sea of Cortez. On the other side, visitor’s twist through tropical rain forests following the Kampar River through the mountains of Sumatra on their way to a coral reef filled with sharks and colourful fish.

Colorado State Capitol
1475 Sherman St
(303) 866-2604
The Colorado State Capitol stands a mile above sea level with a plaque on the 15th step to mark the spot that is 5,280 feet (1,609 m) high. The dome is covered with 200 ounces of pure gold and there is a beautiful view from the rotunda of the entire Front Range, from Pikes Peak, all the way north to the Wyoming border, a distance of over 150 miles.

Denver Art Museum
100 W 14th Ave
(303) 640-2793
Denver Art Museum has what is considered to be the finest collection of American Indian art works in the world covering all tribes, as well as 30,000 other art objects in seven curatorial departments. The museum celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 1993 with newly remodelled Asian, Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial galleries and renovated African and Oceanic galleries. It is the largest art museum between Kansas City and the West Coast.

Denver Botanical Gardens
105 York Street
(303) 331-4000
The Denver Botanic Gardens has a large conservatory, an alpine garden with rare tiny flowers, a Japanese tea garden, as well as a water garden with hundreds of water lilies that bloom in late summer. It is just one of 506 public gardens in Denver where over 240,000 flowers are planted each year.

 
 
Molly Brown House
1340 Pennsylvania St
(303) 832-4092
The Molly Brown House honours "Unsinkable Molly Brown," the heroine of the Titanic disaster with mementos from her life preserved in her beautiful home on Capitol Hill. Molly was one of the most colourful characters to come from Denver's gold rush period. While sailing on the Titanic, she took command of a lifeboat and was credited with putting down a panic. Her life story was the inspiration for the hit musical and film, "Unsinkable Molly Brown."

Red Rocks Amphitheatre
12 mi west of Denver in Morrison Colorado
Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a 9,000-seat natural outdoor arena carved out of huge, 500-foot (152 m) high, red sandstone cliffs, all overlooking Denver and the plains. With its views and geologic wonders, it's one of the world's most famous concert sites and has played host to everyone from the Beatles to symphony orchestras. Seventy million years ago, the rocks were the beach of an ancient inland sea that covered eastern Colorado and Kansas. Today, it's a wonderful site for hikes, picnics and concerts.

 U.S. Mint
W Colfax Ave & Cherokee St
(303) 844-3582
The U.S. Mint is where over five billion coins are made each year and there are free 20-minute tours on weekdays. It is also the second largest storehouse of gold bullion in the U.S. after Fort Knox. The gift shop has many unique coins not available anywhere else, and there is a small museum on the history of money. Unfortunately there are no free samples available!

Don’t miss out on a trip to the top of Denver's State Capitol building, the view from which, showcases the Rocky Mountains that rise to the city's west. Informal free tours allow visitors to climb to the top of the capitol and take in the view, both of the bustling Denver downtown and the beautiful landscape surrounding the city. Visitors can now look down and see the new Ocean Journey Aquarium; opened in 1999 the aquarium must be in the running for the “worlds furthest away from the ocean aquarium award”. You can also see Denver's ever growing suburban neighbourhoods. From this panoramic viewpoint visitors to Denver can recognise the cultural attributes of the city and enjoy the stunning natural beauty that surrounds the city.

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