DENVER COLORADO

An amazing trip to a mile high city comes to an end. Below are the details of 3 day trip, which will help you plan yours.

Day-1

1.       Downtown Denver [http://www.downtowndenver.com/] – Our first visit was to 16th Street Mall which is a must visit for any visitor to Denver. This is primarily pedestrian only area so you can walk at your own pace. It’s like a big party time here and its nice walk and window shopping. There is also RTD Denver bus which runs on this street. We bought a day pass for RTD which served us well for the entire day.

2.       Denver Art Museum [100 West 14th Avenue Parkway  Denver, CO 80204] – This is a must visit if you love to see artifacts from around the world. Ideally you need a day to go through all what they have, but since we are short on time we spent half a day seeing artifacts of ancestral and modern era.

3.       United States Mint [320 West Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80204] – As much as we would have liked to visit; the United States Mint was closed when we arrived and so we could not really get to see the place where dollars are printed.

Day-2

1.       Rocky Mountain [http://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/directions.htm] – We took a gray line day tour to Rocky Mountain National park. This is highly recommended unless you decide to drive all the way up. The tour picks up from Cherry Creek Shopping Center and consists of visit through Berthoud Pass at 11,314 feet above sea level. It takes through the Winter Park (ski resort place), Scenic Grand Lake and finally the Rocky Mountain National Park. Worth the money and recommended for anyone not planning to drive to the Rocky Mountain. You can book this tour online, but make sure that your credit card does not charge foreign transaction fees, as for some reason gray line charges you as UK merchant.

The highest peak is Mt. Evans at 14,264 feet, but we could not visit this due to time constraints. Also if you plan to drive here do check if the road is open to the peak.

Day-3

1.       Manitou Springs: Garden of the Gods [1805 N. 30th (at Gateway Rd) Colorado Springs, CO 80904] – We rented the car to visit the Manitou Springs and its surroundings. Garden of the Gods was the first place we visited driving down the traffic of Denver. This is really cool place to visit where you get to see the giant rock formation, but wait do not miss the HD Video show they have which seems to be quite knowledgeable. We did not get a chance to watch the show due to time constraint but you will appreciate the Giant rocks better.

2.       Pikes Peak [515 Ruxton Ave / PO Box 351, Manitou Springs, Colorado 80829] – This was our next destination where we were booked on the Cog railway to travel to the top of the peak. You can get a discount coupon from their website for some time slots, but make sure you take a printed copy of it [as they do not entertain the discount otherwise -- sigh]. The summit is at 14,115 feet which is an alpine beauty to watch. The cog rail is a fun as the rail ascends to the peak passing through aspen trees. We enjoyed the rail journey as we became chilled from being warm once we reached the top. Make sure you have nice shoes as the snow is thick and slippery.

The cog rail ended our 3 day tour of this wonderful visit to destination Colorado.

Useful links:
http://www.downtowndenver.com/
http://www.rtd-denver.com/
http://www.denverartmuseum.org/
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_tours/?action=startreservation
http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm
http://www.grayline.com/Denver/View_All
http://www.gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm
http://www.springsgov.com/sectionindex.aspx?sectionid=18
http://www.cograilway.com/aboutpikespeak.htm