If you want to explore Colorado’s wildest corners, you’ll first need to pass through Denver. Often called the gateway to the Mountain West, Denver is a portal to the rugged peaks, rolling sand dunes, and rippling aspen forests that lie beyond its doorstep. But this city isn’t just a stepping stone to adventure; it’s a worthwhile stopover in its own right. No Colorado visit is complete without a weekend in the Mile High City.
Before Colorado’s national parks existed, these landscapes played host to explorers, naturalists, fur trappers, and thriving Native American nations. All these people and cultures converged in Denver, bringing maps, plant and animal specimens, and profound environmental insights with them. Over the last 175 years, that rich knowledge transfer has turned Denver into a city that is deeply connected to the natural world. Today, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science contains some of the state’s earliest animal specimens, as well as fossils from the Colorado Rockies. Botany enthusiasts will want to tour Populus, the head-turning hotel that looks like an aspen tree, or visit the Denver Botanic Gardens to learn how researchers are preserving the nation’s rarest alpine flowers. More interested in the cultural history of our national parklands? Sample traditional recipes at Tocabe, a Native American restaurant that highlights Indigenous-grown food; or grab a drink at Buckhorn Exchange, a 19th-century bar once frequented by miners, fur traders, and presidents alike.
A city built by and for outdoorspeople, Denver is one of the best places on the planet to spark your curiosity before your adventure west. Here are eight of the best spots to prepare you for the outdoor experience of a lifetime.
Established by one of Buffalo Bill’s right-hand riders, Buckhorn Exchange has been operating since 1893—and hasn’t changed much in that time. Over the years, the restaurant has served astronauts, mountaineers, Native American leaders, and presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, the father of America’s National Park System. The Exchange’s signature Navy Bean Soup (a favorite of Roosevelt’s) is still on the menu today, as is a unique selection of wild game, from Rocky Mountain Oysters and marinated rattlesnake to juicy elk steaks and buffalo prime rib. That said, history isn’t the only thing that recommends this quirky tavern. There’s also the decor: the walls of the Exchange are lined with a playful menagerie comprised of more than 500 taxidermied animals, most of which are antique specimens of Colorado wildlife. The building also has a few secrets up its sleeve, including a secret passageway (now sealed off). During prohibition, patrons could flee into the passage during police raids to hide themselves—and any alcohol—until the coast was clear.
1000 Osage St, Denver, CO 80204
Famed for its extensive bonsai collection, rare orchids, and 10-foot-diameter lily pads, the Denver Botanic Gardens (DBC) is a sprawling maze of flora from all over the world. If you’re new to Colorado, this is also the perfect place to get a handle on the types of vegetation you’ll see out in the wild: DBC hosts an astonishing collection of native blooms. The garden works on the front lines of local plant conservation, as well. It operates a research plot of fragile alpine herbs and flowers on top of nearby Mt. Blue Sky, and it works with Rocky Mountain National Park to track down rare plants and collect seeds for restoration work. Visit in July or August when the garden is in full bloom. If you can, get there early: DBC hosts morning yoga classes in the garden all summer long.
1007 York St, Denver, CO 80206
When Ben Jacobs co-founded Tocabe 17 years ago, he had no idea that sharing his family’s traditional Osage recipes would propel his tiny restaurant to nationwide fame. But today, Tocabe—one of the nation’s first American Indian eateries—is both a culinary thought leader and a hometown favorite. Try the bison ribs with blueberry BBQ sauce, a sweet and succulent signature dish (and one of Jacobs’s favorites). Like most of Tocabe’s ingredients, both the blueberries and the bison are home-grown by Indigenous Tribes; in fact, the restaurant sources nearly all of its ingredients and recipes from Native communities across the U.S. “A huge part of what we do is support Native food production,” Jacobs says. “We’re creating opportunities for our farmers and ranchers—our caretakers of the land and water.” Much of the menu draws inspiration from Colorado’s original residents, including the Ute Mountain Ute, Arapahoe, and Osage Nations. Tocabe’s Indian corn and blue corn, for example, come from Ute Mountain Ute growers near Mesa Verde National Park, and its bison meat comes from Rock River Ranch near Colorado’s Pawnee National Grassland.
3536 W 44th Ave, Denver, CO 80211
Attend a camping, climbing, or rafting trip in Colorado, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see at least one flask of whiskey making its rounds at the campfire. But while many folks already consider whiskey the adventurer’s beverage, Laws Whiskey House takes things a step further. The distillery—located in Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood—produces a bourbon specifically designed to protect the places where Coloradans play. Laws crafts its Headwaters Bourbon with Rocky Mountain snowmelt and donates the proceeds to the Shoshone Water Rights Project to help conserve the Upper Colorado River. The conservation connection makes sense: Laws relies on the Colorado River to make its whiskey, and on the surrounding landscape for that whiskey’s unique taste. “We use exclusively Colorado grain from two family farms,” says Laws CFO Peyton Mason. “The San Luis Valley, where our wheat, rye, and barley are grown, is one of the highest agricultural regions in the world and is on an ancient sea bed, which imparts a unique salinity from the soil as well as very rich, intense grain notes.” It’s truly the taste of Colorado.
80 W Arkansas Ave, Denver, CO 80223
Before you head into the mountains, fuel up the way Colorado’s original explorers did. The Fort restaurant was built in the 1960s by a family of historians who wanted to serve visitors a taste of the Old West. First, they hired adobe artisans to create an exact replica of an 1830s trading post. “Then my mother hired antiquarians to collect rare cookbooks and historic Western diaries so she could research what they ate in the 1830s,” says Holly Arnold Kinney, daughter to the founders and the restaurant’s current owner. A number of those recipes—including Rocky Mountain oysters, buffalo bone marrow, and buffalo tongue—made it onto the menu and are still there today. (Kinney also recommends the Gonzalez Steak, a bison tenderloin bathed in green chile that The Fort has been serving since 1960.) Try to time your visit to coincide with one of the Fort’s many workshops, Indigenous art showcases, or historic lectures, and be sure to linger: the restaurant is located on a 50-acre swath of prairie, and the sunsets here are otherworldly.
19192 CO-8, Morrison, CO 80465
Once you start looking for Topo Designs gear, you’ll start to see it on everyone. This Colorado-based outdoor apparel company was founded by a pair of Colorado State University alumni in 2008, and it has since become one of the region’s most beloved brands—particularly among hikers and campers. One of the reasons is Topo’s playful yet functional approach to design. The other is its commitment to sustainability. Most products include recycled material and organic cotton, and Topo’s national park-branded packs and apparel help support the National Park Service. The brand also holds regular volunteer events to help maintain trails around Rocky Mountain National Park. Want to be part of the club? Stop by Topo’s Larimer Street flagship store to get outfitted with Colorado-made gear ahead of your next hike or camping trip.
2500 Larimer St, Denver, CO 80205
If you’re headed to or from Great Sand Dunes National Park, this South Denver gem is a worthy road trip stop. Stretch your legs by exploring the grounds of Four Mile Historic Park, a 160-year-old homestead and near-perfect replica of what life would have been like on the Front Range around the time of the national parks’ founding. The working farm sits right alongside the historic path of the Cherokee Trail, once an Indigenous trade route and later a wagon path that ran north to Wyoming. As a nod to that history, the park works with Spirit of the Sun, a local Indigenous community group, to inform its dazzling garden of native plants. Arrive between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM for a tour during the park’s open days, or come in the evening to catch some twilight tunes at Four Mile’s summer concert series.
715 S Forest St, Denver, CO 80246
Here’s a local’s secret: You can catch some of the best mountain views in the whole city from the roof of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The museum’s west-facing Leprino atrium boasts three floors of wall-to-ceiling glass windows, but for the best vista, head straight to the top: the rooftop terrace offers unobstructed views of City Park, the Front Range, and 14,259-foot Longs Peak. Get an eyeful (and use the handy diagrams to identify the peaks in your view) before heading downstairs. There, you’ll find exhibits on local wildlife, ancient fault lines, dinosaur bones, and the world’s oldest fossilized bean. (While you’re there, keep an eye out for a few of the museum’s easter eggs: painted elves concealed amid the wildlife dioramas.)
2001 Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80205
It’s not hard to see why there’s so much buzz around Denver’s newest luxury hotel: for starters, it’s built to look like an aspen trunk with dark, arched windows set in an alabaster facade. But the nature motif doesn’t stop there. The rooms are decorated with pressed native wildflowers. The hotel’s in-house restaurant, named Pasque after Colorado’s first spring bloom, relies on quintessential Colorado ingredients like trout, cherry, lamb, and peaches. Even the elevator music is composed of aspen forest sounds collected by a local sound artist. But best of all is the restaurant’s eco-conscious mission: it plants a tree on Colorado’s Western Slope for every nightly booking, and thanks to its use of renewable energy and sustainable materials, it has become Colorado’s first carbon-positive hotel.
240 14th St, Denver, CO 80202
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