Things to do in Colorado
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Outdoors Geek
This mom-and-pop gear outfitter is a lot friendlier to deal with than fighting through the mobs at REI. It works like this: you call and talk to Will, who puts together a package of top gear for hiking and camping and either ships it to you or arranges a time for you to pick it up at his Aurora distribution center.
This personalized service, along with high quality goods, is the reason we love the Outdoors Geek. Also, the website is perfect for novice campers as well, with tips that will help dispel the anxiety of getting out into nature for the first time.
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Yobel Market
Their motto is, 'inspiring awareness and promoting justice.' The stock is all fair trade and sustainable wares made by craftsmen and women from around the world. They have African market baskets, wonderful beaded jewelry, groovy T-shirts and handmade soaps.
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Ruebens Burger Bistro
An owner-operated temple to the all-natural, hormone-free, gourmet burger, all christened with cycling-themed names. The Mountain Biker comes with avocado, arugula and swiss cheese, while the Paris Roubaix is topped with whole roasted green chilis and swiss and cream cheeses. Ruebens also offers intriguing dishes like a build-your-own mac and cheese, and moules frites.
It's a good bet the owner shaves his legs.
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Dushanbe Teahouse
No visit to Boulder is complete without a meal at this incredible Tajik work of art, a gift from Boulder's sister city (Dushanbe, Tajikistan) that boasts incredible craftsmanship and meticulous painting. The fare ranges from Amazonian and Mediterranean to, of course, Tajik. Outside is a lovely, shaded patio. It's an intimate place to grab cocktails or dinner on a warm summer day.
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Range Gallery
Local photographer, Kathleen McFadden, owns and operates this sweet storefront gallery in Old Colorado City. There's a quirky Americana sensibility to her work. You'll see shots of old rusted gas pumps, lonely roadside diners and fish-eyed horses, and curved-frame prints of cascading rivers and gnarled trees. Impressive and transporting.
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Med
A Boulder classic, this friendly, festive joint brings all the many flavors of the Mediterranean under one roof (and patio). Think wood-fired pizza, gyros and terrific tapas from gambas to bacon wrapped dates to bruschetta. There's a full bar and some fantastic deserts. Terrific happy-hour deals and a fun crowd most nights.
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Manitou & Pikes Peak Cog Railway
Travelers have been making the trip to the summit of Pikes Peak (14,110ft) on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway since 1891, when Spencer Penrose built it. Katherine Lee Bates was so impressed by her 1893 trip to the summit that she was inspired to write 'America the Beautiful.' Diesel-powered, Swiss-built trains smoothly make the round-trip in three hours and 10 minutes, which includes 40 minutes at the top.
The train makes no official stops, but engineers will drop hikers at Mountain View, where you can hike the 1.5 mile to the six-mile mark of the Barr Trail at Barr Camp (9,500ft), which makes for a 7.5-mile hike up. It's the best way to day hike Pikes Peak, and you may as wel…
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University of Colorado at Boulder
It is possible for prospective students and curious visitors to tour one of the finest public universities in America, and one of the best schools overall. It's a beautiful campus set above downtown, on what is known as the Hill. Free tours begin with a one-hour informational session followed by a 90-minute walking tour.
As you stroll, remember you are moving in the footsteps of notable alumni such as astronaut Scott Carpenter (one of 17 astronauts with CU diplomas), Apple's Steve Wozniak, Sidney Altman (one of six Nobel Laureates), Robert Redford (didn't graduate), South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (smoked a ton of dope, did graduate), actor Jonah Hill (stop…
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WC3
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
Next door to the famous tavern in ramshackle Woody Creek, this community center cum cafe is just as groovy but in a different way. Instead of drunken antics and mishmash wallpaper there's local art, a sweet front garden, plenty of indoor seating and healthy, soulful lunch fare.
Choose one of four kinds of curry or tuck into a bowl of gumbo or a panini. The vegetarian soups have earned high praise, and the coffee is tasty too. Plus there's a range of used books for sale. Lots of them. Including a corner dedicated to the Good Doctor himself. We're talking about a terrific selection of Hunter S Thompson's masterworks, including some vintage Rolling Stone issues from the 1970…
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Boulder County Farmers' Market
A massive spring and summer sprawl of colorful, mostly organic local food. Here you can find flowers and herbs, as well as brain sized mushrooms, delicate squash blossoms, crusty pretzels, vegan dips, grass-fed beef, raw granola and yogurt. The market stretches from Arapahoe to Canyon along Central Park and around the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, which offers free admission on market days.
Prepared food booths offer gyros and tamales. Live music is as standard as the family picnics in the park along Boulder Creek.
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Bitter Bar
In places like NYC, LA and San Francisco, prohibition-era cocktails have gone from back alley whispers of the impossibly hip to mainstream in a few short years. Boulder now has their version, and who cares if it's set in modern pan-Asian environs. These cocktails, and the rums, whiskeys, tequilas and gins used to alchemize, are the best sips in town.
It also offers monthly classes at $35 per person, which buys you the knowhow to mix two drinks that would make a Mad Man weep. You'll leave with three recipes and a gift from the barkeeps. Check the website for dates.
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T-Lazy-7 Ranch
Saddle up onto a snowmobile in the winter, or onto a fine steed in the summer at this working ranch down the slope from the Maroon Bells Wilderness Area. It calls itself the oldest working ranch in Aspen. Rides will take you into the spectacular Maroon Bells Wilderness and are highly recommended for families.
Overnight rides ($450) take you all the way to Crested Butte. Snowmobile tours run up to Klondike Cabin in the White River National Forest or Maroon Lake in the Maroon Bells Wilderness. It does sleigh rides in the winter too.
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SAME Café
- Denver, USA
- Restaurants › Café
This nonprofit cafe was founded by two former food-bank workers, who wanted to provide healthy, by-donation lunches for those who were struggling to make ends meet. The standard American cafeteria fare is delicious. Walk-in volunteers are welcome, though you can reserve a spot in advance online.
Volunteering here or dropping in for lunch is one of the most unique and heart-warming dining options in Denver, and demonstrates the most progressive thinking in the city's sustainable, local, community-oriented food movement.
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Salt
One of downtown's newest and most happening spots also serves damn fine farm to table cuisine. We're talking small plates like crispy pork belly BLT, heirloom tomato salad and local beet carpaccio. Entrees include fresh fettucine and slow-roasted leg of lamb, and several fresh seafood options. Cocktails are creative and personalized.
The house always feels good, whether you dine downstairs in the basement pub or in the bright brick-wall dining room with a glimpse of the open and rocking kitchen.
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520 Grill
A (mostly) healthy (kinda) fast-food grill, if there is such a thing. Sandwiches are creative, spicy cococtions. The achiote chicken is grilled and piled on the pita with roasted red peppers, avocado and cheese. The Veg Head is an alchemy of roasted portobello mushrooms and garlic, with a pepper medley dressed in balsamic.
It also serves a good-looking much loved kale and quinoa salad along with epic traditional and sweet potato fries. Locals are devoted to it. The best part? It's affordable!
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Frasca
Frasca has been considered Boulder's finest restaurant since it opened. The service is top shelf and the rotating menu features the freshest farm-to-table ingredients available. Reservations must be made days or even weeks in advance.
The menu includes dishes like braised pork shoulder canneloni, house made gnocchi and grilled quail served with local peppers, leeks and wilted pea shoots. This restaurant is as fancy and as snooty as Boulder gets.
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Boulder Cafe
Score a sidewalk table and check out the Pearl St Mall street performers while waiting for your buffalo burger. The perennially popular Boulder Cafe is one of those 'all things to all people' kitchens, which means anything from shrimp enchiladas to penne pasta or skillets of trout and teriyaki steak to a damn fine raw bar can be yours.
From 3pm to 6:30pm, all appetizers and drinks are half-price. That's the time to go raw.
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Sundown Saloon
Only come here if you can stomach outhouse chic bathrooms, throwback tunes, an impossible-to-distinguish odor upon descent into the basement, pick-up shouting (it's straight impossible to hear in late night), vicious competition on the shuffle board or pool tables (free 'til 10pm) and waking up hungover from the cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon ($6 pitchers).
Every town needs an 'end up bar,' and you will end up here.
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Dancers
Frozen in joyful two-step, Jonathan Borofsky's whimsical 'Dancers' invite rushing traffic to stop and play. The centerpiece of Sculpture Park, they supervise live music and lounging picnickers in summer and rise eerily from the snow in winter. Initially a controversial buy for conservative citizens, they're a symbol on scale with Denver's ambition to be the cultural capital of the West.
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Mateo
A casual new dining hall with minimalist panache, an upscale but not fancy-pants, crowd, and a damn fine kitchen specialising in French comfort cuisine. Think braised lamb shoulder served over pasta, pork belly over organic rice, and moules (mussels) frites. Cheeses are artisanal, ingredients mostly local and the wine is quite fine. Half-priced moule frites ($6) on Mondays.
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Dagabi Cucina
Hidden away in a North Boulder minimall off Broadway is this brickhouse of a Mediterranean joint with Italian and Spanish roots, and a popular tapas menu at happy hour (5pm to 6:30pm). That's when you can devour olives, bruschetta, grilled asparagus, steamed clams, and pancetta wrapped shrimp on small plates for just $3 to $6 each. Or there's always paella Mondays ($12).
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Pearl Street Pub
Sorrows are drowned with multiple pints at the scarred wooden bar upstairs, where the vibe is shabby chic meets Old West. Downstairs, 20-something locals pound shots by the pool tables, soaking up the beer-drenched atmosphere at this town's favorite trendy dive. Come for Friday-night happy hour, when there is often live music at the packed upstairs bar.
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Sink
- Boulder, USA
- Restaurants › Pub
Waiters bob and weave under the low-slung, graffiti scrawled ceiling of the Sink, a Hill classic that's been around since 1923. Colorful characters cover the dimly lit, cavernous space – a scene almost worth a visit itself. Almost. Once you've washed back the legendary Sink burger with a slug of a local microbrew, you'll be glad you stuck around.
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Boulder Creek Bike Path
The most utilized commuter bike path in town, this fabulously smooth and mostly straight creekside concrete path follows Boulder Creek from Foothill Parkway all the way to the spilt of Boulder Canyon and Four Mile Canyon Rd west of downtown – a total distance of over 5 miles one-way. The path also feeds urban bike lanes that lead all over town.
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North Boulder Recreation Center
- Boulder, USA
- Activities › Gym
If you need a workout and the weather isn't cooperating, book some some gym time here. The weight room and indoor hoops court are more than adequate, and the 25m lap pool is fabulous. Or perhaps you'd prefer a game of raquet ball or a yoga class? They have it all for a simple 24hr day-use fee. Bring your own towel or rent one for $1.
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