Golden
Founded In 1859 As Golden City And The Capital Of Colorado Territory From 1862 To 1867, Before Denver Took It. A Main Street Under A Welcome Arch, With The Coors Brewery, The Colorado School Of Mines And A Whitewater Park In The Creek Running Through It. · Golden, Colorado
Golden was the capital of Colorado Territory for five years before Denver took the title, and it has never entirely stopped mentioning it. An arch across Washington Avenue says HOWDY FOLKS! WELCOME TO GOLDEN, which sets the tone for a town of about twenty thousand people fifteen minutes from the edge of Denver that behaves like somewhere much further out. Clear Creek runs straight through the middle of it, with a whitewater park built into the channel where people kayak and tube within sight of the shops. At one end sits the Coors brewery, the largest single brewing site in the world; at the other, the Colorado School of Mines and a geology museum full of the state's rocks. Above it all, on Lookout Mountain, is Buffalo Bill's grave, which Cody's family always said was the wrong place for it - Cody, Wyoming has never accepted the grave and the argument has run for a century. The creek itself is the best of the town: a whitewater park in the channel, free to watch from the bridges.
Washington Avenue, Golden, Colorado, 80401, United States
A year-round town fifteen minutes west of Denver. Shops and restaurants on Washington Avenue keep ordinary daytime and evening hours. The Coors brewery tour, the Colorado Railroad Museum, the School of Mines Geology Museum and the Buffalo Bill Museum all operate on their own schedules, with the brewery tour ticketed and frequently booked ahead. The Clear Creek whitewater park is open and free whenever the water is running, with flows highest in May and June. Lookout Mountain Road is open year-round but narrow and steep in ice.