Bison grazing on the hillside. Near the Buffalo Bill Museum and Gravesite. Golden, Colorado.
August 15
We awoke to another hot day in Denver. I was seriously thinking that the Denver Visitor’s Bureau’s propaganda calling Denver as a cool city was referring only to its attitude and not its climate. Unfortunately, this day was yet another devoted to exploring the surrounding area. While we wouldn’t be going as far as Wyoming, we did expect to be out in the heat all day.
Instead of staying in Denver, we decided to explore some of the suburbs. We started off by making the 30 mile trek to Boulder. Boulder has a reputation around the United States for being the home of the University of Colorado, a bastion of liberalism, and the fictional home of Mork and Mindy (okay…I’m dating myself with that last one). I was looking forward to seeing if this semi-utopia lived up to its reputation.
We pulled into Boulder and parked near the Pearl Street Mall. We walked over to the mall and began looking for a good place to have breakfast. In the end, we settled on the Boulder Bookstore. Not only did they have an excellent selection of books and magazines, but they also had a wonderful coffee house inside the store. We bought some hot chocolate, muffins, and some newspapers. We then migrated outside the store to eat our breakfast while enjoying the ambience of the mall.
After our low-key breakfast, we walked the mall and did some window shopping. To be honest, the Pearl Street Mall didn’t look much different from other pedestrian malls that I’d visited. Having found nothing of great interest at the mall, we got back in the car and drove to the University of Colorado. We made a beeline for the bookstore and bought some t-shirts and sweatshirts. Having satisfied my university attire “cravings”, we decided to take a short walk around the campus. We were really impressed with the campus’ beauty. Most of that beauty came from the buildings, which were made of a red limestone that closely matched the red rock formations on the edge of town. The stateliness of the buildings made it clear why this university was the pre-eminent higher learning center in Colorado.
Overall, I couldn’t see what all the fuss about Boulder was about. Yes, it had a quaint pedestrian mall, a beautiful university campus, and a stunning setting. But, it also seemed somewhat crowded and lacked the distinctive character that I thought it would have. Perhaps if I spent more time there, I would understand what gives Boulder its reputation. But, I left there thinking that the reputation was more hype than reality.
We drove south from Boulder and went into Golden. We passed by the Coors plant, which stunned me with its size. After quickly proceeding through the town, we drove up Lookout Mountain. 15 minutes after we began our climb, we made it to our destination: the Buffalo Bill Museum and Gravesite. We spent about an hour visiting the grave and touring the museum. After we toured the museum, we continued west on Lookout Mountain Road. Dianne had read that the City of Denver maintained a buffalo herd at the junction of I-70 and Lookout Mountain Road. She wanted to get some pictures of the buffalo. When we reached that intersection, we found several signs declaring the buffalo refuge, but didn’t see any buffalo. We drove across I-70, thinking they might be on the south side of the freeway. But, all we found was that the buffalo refuge signs disappeared. I then noticed a tour bus disembarking passengers on the north west side of I-70. The passengers seemed to be taking pictures of the hillside. I then realized that it wasn’t the hillside that interested the passengers: it was the buffalo grazing on the hillside that kept their attention. We drove back across I-70 and parked next to the tour bus (and, if you’ve figured out that the buffalo were just a few feet from where we’d first looked for them, you are paying close attention to this travelogue). I must say that the buffalo are impressively large, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be standing in front of one without a fence between us. But, I think I would’ve been more impressed had they been running along the hillside instead of passively grazing. Still, seeing them was a welcome opportunity to observe animals that I would otherwise not have an opportunity to see.
We started to head back into Denver. I thought we’d be back at the hotel in about 30 minutes. But, our attention was diverted by highway signs announcing the Mother Cabrini Shrine. We both were interested in finding out what this shrine was about. So, we stopped and spent an hour touring the grounds and the chapels.
Our detour addressed, we made our way back to the hotel. It was on this return trip that I once again noticed a smell that I had noticed both the previous day and that morning. It smelled like a large pot of a wonderful beef stew was being made somewhere near by. I then realized that the smell was emanating from the Purina plant that sat next to I-70 just a couple of miles from the I-25/I-70 interchange. We were both embarrassed to admit that it smelled very good. So, we soaked up the scent in silence.
By now, it was about 4 p.m. Our room was extremely warm. Given the uncomfortable room temperature, we quickly showered and left for our evening entertainment: a Norah Jones concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Before we enjoyed the concert, we decided to go back into Golden and started looking for suitable dinner options. We settled on Woody’s Wood-fired Pizza & Watering Hole. It turned out to be a great choice. We had a large “half and half” pizza (half of it had my barbeque chicken topping, and half had Dianne’s pesto topping) for $13.95. And, when they say large, they mean LARGE. It was a great value. The only downside to the restaurant is that the non-smoking “section” is about five tables situated outdoors. The entire indoors is a smoking section. For Californians like us who are used to the smoking and non-smoking sections being reversed, this arrangement was a little jarring. But, the food made Woody’s a good choice if one is looking for dining options in Golden.
After dinner, we drove off to Red Rocks. I had tickets waiting for me at a will-call office. I had been warned that the will-call office was a little hard to find because it was about a half-mile from the amphitheatre. But, thanks to the directions that I found on the Red Rock webpage, I easily found the will-call office. We then parked just a short distance from the will-call office and began hiking to the venue. When I say hike, I mean hike. One must keep in mind that they are climbing in the foothills of the Rockies. So, getting to the venue meant traversing dusty trails and scaling rocks while moving uphill. Needless to say, I was a bit winded by the time we got to our seats. But, the venue made the hike all worth it. Simply put, it was one of the most beautiful concert complexes I’ve ever visited. The sheer red cliffs on either side of the seating and the view of Denver in the background just lend an otherworldly feeling to the amphitheatre. I spent a lot of the concert just staring around all sides of me, soaking in the incredible natural vistas. The only downside to the experience was the concert itself. Not to say that it was a bad concert, because it wasn’t. But, Norah Jones seemed somewhat overwhelmed by the venue and the large crowd. In fact, she said “You’re the nicest wall of people we’ve ever played for” near the end of the show. These overwhelmed feelings seemed to shake her a bit and dampen her show (By the way, I thought I might be alone in my feelings, because she got a huge response from the audience. But, the Denver Post ran a review of the show in the next day’s newspaper, which echoed my impressions.). Still, the lackluster concert didn’t offset the incredible setting. Everyone who goes to Denver should make a point of attending a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
We filed out of the show at about 11:30 p.m. After a 45 minute drive, we were back at the hotel. The room had cooled sufficiently to allow for a restless night of sleep. But, we were sufficiently tired that we fell asleep quickly, despite the temperature.
Next Day Home