| s/y Nine of Cups Around & About Denver, Colorado...the Mile High City June 2012 |
| More National Parks & Monuments ? American Odyssey -Part I (Las Vegas to Denver) American Odyssey - Part II (Denver to Boston) American Odyssey...Part III? (Boston to Vegas) Roadside Americana? Birds of North America? Wildflowers of North America? |
| Why the Mile High City? Because the average elevation in Denver is ~ 5,280' above sea level...a mile high in the sky. |
| They say you can never come home again, but, of course, you can. It's just that everything changes while you're gone. With a metro population of about 2.7 million, Denver is a vibrant city and there's always something new to explore in and around the city. We had some business to take care of here, lots of friends and relatives to visit and general catching up for having been on the road for the past month. Beyond that, we planned an itinerary which would take us to some new places and re-visit some familiar places we hadn't seen in awhile. |
Denver Facts and Trivia...
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| The thirteenth step at the front of the Capitol is one mile above sea level. |
| We're always in search of interesting, free things to see and do. Our first activity in Denver was a tour of Denver's gold-domed Capitol building. Begun in 1886, the building took 22 years to complete at a cost of $3million. The dome is covered in real gold plate and the interior of the building, fashioned after the national Capitol in Washington, is carved marble and granite. As you would expect, the Colorado legislature meets here. Far right is the Senate chambers. |
| Rare rose onyx marble from Beulah, CO is used as wainscoting throughout the building. This coloration of marble has never been found anywhere else in the world. |
| Mount Evans Auto Road |
| At 14,264', Mount Evans is one of Colorado's 54 peaks above 14,000' and one of two that have road access to the top...the other is Pike's Peak. |
| The Mount Evans Auto Road is the highest paved road in North America. The 28-mile road twists and turns its way to the just below the summit where a cold scramble over boulders allows visitors to ascend to the top of the world. The local mountain goats have no problem with the altitude and seem to thrive on the snow and minerals. |
| The National Geological Survey marker at the summit parking lot - 14,130' |
| The views from the top were stupendous. Summit Lake Park (12,830') is the highest park in the Denver Mountain Park System and the lake was still frozen. A couple of yellow-bellied marmots sunned themselves on rocks. |
| A stop at the Mt. Goliath Natural Area (11,540') on the way back down the mountain netted us a look at some bristlecone pines thought to be nearly 1,000 years old. A close-up of the pine cone clearly shows the reason they're called 'bristlecones'. Wildflowers were just beginning to bloom in this area at timberline. Goldflowers aka angelita daisies and brilliant blue skypilots lent lots of color to the mountainside. |
| Denver citizens contribute more public funding for the arts per capita than any other US city. |
| Lookout, Buffalo Bill and Dinosaurs |
| Finding fun things to do around Denver isn't hard at all. One day, David, Taylor and I decided to drive a portion of the Lariat Loop to see what we could see. One of the first historic byways in the country, the Lariat Loop Scenic and Historic Byway has provided access to foothills scenery and western experiences since 1912-1914, when the City and County of Denver built roads to bring residents and tourists to its new Denver Mountain Parks system. The 36-mile route loops through Golden, Evergreen and Morrison. |
| Our first stop was at a Lookout Mountain park for a picnic lunch and a chance for Taylor to try out his skill with his new boomerang. |
| Buffalo Bill's gravesite |
| William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846 –1917) was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the LeClaire, Iowa Terrirtory, but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US Army as a scout. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill became famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes, which he toured in Great Britain and Europe as well as the United States. (from Wikipedia) |
| The Buffalo Bill Museum on Lookout Mountain in Golden illustrates the life, times and legend of William F. Cody. It includes exhibits about Buffalo Bill's life and the Wild West shows, Indian artifacts and firearms including Sitting Bull's bow and arrows, Buffalo Bill's show outfits, Frederick Remington's "Portrait of a Ranch Hand," and many other objects from the Old West. |
| One exhibit allowed the "cowboys" to mount a horse, dress in cowboy gear (including chaps) and try to lasso a calf. Looks cool from a distance, but as you'll note in the third photo, the horse was rather "short". |
| Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley.... |
| Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison, CO was designated the Morrison Fossil Area National Natural Landmark in 1973, in recognition of its uniqueness and its historical and scientific significance. The interpretive trail has hundreds of dinosaur tracks, a quarry of dinosaur bones and interesting geologic features. |
| Tea, Tornadoes and Tastings |
| Celestial Seasonings had its humble beginnings in 1969 in Aspen, CO when 19-year-old Mo Siegel gathered wild herbs in the forests and canyons of the Rocky Mountains and made them into infusions (teas). Today Celestial Seasonings offers more than 100 products and produces some 8 million tea bags...per day! Unfortunately, we were not allowed any cameras for the 45-minute factory tour. The highlight was visiting the very intense "peppermint room" which really cleared our sinuses! |
| Besides the factory tour, we sampled teas ... lots of them. We got a chance to meet their mascot "Sleepytime Bear". Note even the streets in the Celestial complex are named after their best selling products. |
| NCAR is a scientific research lab. Their mission is to understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related systems and to share this knowledge. This is a free admission facility and its three floors of interactive weather, climate, solar and technology-focused exhibits are wonderful. |
| Nestled at the foot of the Flatirons, the NCAR facility is outstanding. We learned about sunspots and global warming. We created lightning and whipped up a tornado. What an afternoon! |
| Denver's public art is wonderful. We drove around one day just trying to take it all in. Above a highlight (from left) "The Yearling" in front of the Public Library; the big blue bear (2 stories high) peeks into the Convention Center window; and "The Dancers" grace the lawn of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. |
| Pagliacci, an Italian opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, is anything but a sad clown when it comes to our favorite, romantic, Italian restaurant in Denver. We celebrated "something" with a special dinner night out. Fantastico! |
| Getting campy... |
| We hadn't camped out for years, but when our youngest son, Brad, suggested we camp out with the grandkids for a weekend, we thought it was a grand idea. We joined Brad, his wife, Catrina, their three kids Jacob, Kaileah and Danielle plus another grandson, Coleman, at Red Feathers Camping area for a weekend camp-out. Despite sore backs and bones, we really enjoyed our time in the great outdoors and in fact, decided we'd camp out for several nights on our way to Boston. Above from left, Brad and David start pitching the tents (we had 4 of them); the guys really didn't have much time to fish themselves because the four kids kept them busy rigging, baiting and de-tangling lines. Our youngest granddaughter, Danielle, was very serious about her fishing. The great outdoors had some surprises for us...like a moose (and then 3 more) sharing our campground. |
| As always, our time went way too quickly. We began prepping for Part II of our American Odyssey which would take us (slowly) from Denver to Boston. The route would be circuitous as usual. We had a rather aggressive itinerary planned including visits to several national parks and monuments, lots of "off the beaten path" type venues and of course, visits with friends along the way. Come with us...it's guaranteed to please. |