If you are looking for tourist attractions in Denver you may be expecting to find signs of its “Wild West” origins. You can find that and more. The Museum of Western Art features paintings by Albert Bierstadt, Georgia O’Keefe, and Frederick Remington. Four Mile Historic Park features the oldest standing home in the city, a farm, carriage rides, and an opportunity for children to pan for gold. If more recent history is your interest, you may also wish to visit the US Mint. Opened in 1863, the Denver Mint is one where you can see coins being produced. Be sure to plan ahead if your interested, because bookings need to be done in advance. While you’re in “Mile High City,” you might also wish to visit the Colorado State Capitol, where the thirteenth step on the buildings west side is literally a “mile high.”
Among the many tourist attractions in Denver, professional sports is another big draw. In Denver proper, you can find the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team, which plays at Coors Field and the Colorado Rapids Major League Soccer club, which plays at Dicks’ Sporting Goods Park. Pepsi Center is a busy stadium, as home field for the Denver Nuggets NBA team, the Colorado Mammoths Major League Lacrosse team, the Colorado Crush Arena Football League, and the Colorado Avalanche NHL team. Not far away to the southeast, you can see the Denver Broncos Football Team at Invesco Field at Mile High, where the Denver Outlaws also play major league lacrosse. And that’s only the beginning because we haven’t even mentioned rodeo, drag racing, and extreme sports, all of which are easy to find. And if you’re looking for participatory sports, you can find everything from skiing to ballooning.
Some of the most popular tourist attractions in Denver are in the realm of performing arts and music. With opera, ballet, symphony, rock band, and theater performances, there are always many event to choose from. Multicultural festivals and events, such as the Annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, the Downtown Denver Arts Festival, and the Annual Teddy Bear Picnic add to the variety.
An interesting thing to note about tourist attractions in Denver is that you can find the standard fare mixed in with the unexpected. In among offerings that may seem usual—like the Denver Zoo, the Downtown Aquarium, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the Denver Botanic Gardens, and the Denver Art Museum—you can find the unexpected. For example, the Denver Zoo has a growing family of Golden Lion Tamarins, of which there are only 1000 remaining in the wild, with babies born in 2007 and 2008. The Denver Botanic Gardens has an annual Birdhaus Bash, in which birdhouses of all descriptions — including some with celebrity autographs — are auctioned. At the time this article was being written, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science had the second largest gold nugget in the world on display.
What are other tourist attractions in Denver? Well, depending on the time of year, you might find a county fair in full swing. The Arapahoe County Fair, for example, features rodeos, carnival rides, a demolition derby, and 4-H exhibitions, as well as concerts, shows, and contests. You might also enjoy a day at one of the amusement parks, such as Water World, the largest family water park in the US, Elitch Gardens, which includes the Island Kingdom Water Park, or Lakeside Amusement Park, which features both major and kiddie rides.
