Recreation in and around Denver

There's just so much to do in and around Denver! Our weather is amazing (more than 300 sunshine days per year), providing the perfect environment for getting out and enjoying our spectacular environment. It is a short drive to the mountains, allowing you to ski in the afternoon and be home in time for dinner. We have museums, theaters, and a fabulous zoo. Denver offers something for everyone!

Museums and Indoor Activities

Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is the Rocky Mountain region’s leading resource for informal science education. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help Museum visitors experience the natural wonders of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. Must see facilities include the Phipps IMAX® Theater and the Gates Planetarium.

Denver Art Museum
Founded in 1893, the Denver Art Museum has the largest and most comprehensive collection of world art between Kansas City and the West Coast. Its American Indian, pre-Columbian, and Spanish colonial art collections are widely considered among the best of their kind. Other collections include American and European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; Asian art; African and Oceanic art; modern and contemporary art; textile art; twentieth-century design; and art of the American West.

The Children's Museum of Denver
Denver's best hands-on experience for children newborn to age eight and their grown-ups is both educational and just plain fun. Programs and playscapes are designed for newborns through age eight-year-olds and their adult caregivers.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Founded in 1972 and dedicated to excellence in the arts, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, an award-winning multi-media production facility, a national training school for actors, and the site of a voice clinic and research facility.

Black American West Museum and Heritage Center
The Black American West Museum & Heritage Center's mission and goals are the interpreting, collecting, housing, displaying, exhibiting, and preserving of historical artifacts, documents and other memorabilia which tell the history and relate the stories of Black men and women who helped settle and develop the great American West. This approach allows visual artistic inculcation of the rich and colorful contributions of Black pioneers in the western United States.

Buffalo Bill's Grave and Museum
See Sitting Bull's bow and arrows, Buffalo Bill's show outfits, Frederick Remington's "Portrait of a Ranch Hand," and many other objects from the Old West in the Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum. Begun in 1921 by Johnny Baker, Buffalo Bill's foster son, the Museum illustrates the life, times, and legend of William F. Cody. It includes exhibits about Buffalo Bill's life and the Wild West shows, Indian artifacts, Western art and firearms.

Colorado History Museum
Imagine covered wagons, a rendezvous of fur trappers, Indian buffalo hunts, mining the Rocky Mountains, and life in early Denver. Discover the diversity of Colorado from its earliest inhabitants to its pioneer families. Explore Colorado's own museum with fascinating collections, detailed dioramas, historic photographs, artifacts, and more.

Downtown Denver Aquarium 
The Downtown Denver Aquarium (formerly "Colorado Ocean Journey") features a public aquarium boasting more than a million gallons of underwater exhibits that highlight fascinating ecosystems around the world. Downtown Aquarium houses over 500 species of animals, the interactive Stingray Reef touch tank, Aquarium Restaurant, Dive Lounge, the Nautilus Ballroom and amusements for the entire family.

MillerCoors Golden Brewery Tour 
The Coors Brewery offers free tours of the largest single brewery in the world. Colorado brews more beer than any other state and this Golden brewery brews more beer than any other place on the planet.

Denver Firefighters Museum
The Denver Firefighters Museum is located in historic Denver Fire Station No. 1. The building was constructed in 1909 and served as a working fire station until 1974. Hands-on activities combined with the Museum's exhibits, provides information about fire safety and prevention as well as the history of the Denver Fire Department and historic Fire Station No. 1. Try on firefighting equipment, slide down a pole and ride on our fire truck designed just for kids as you pretend to put out fires. Or watch videos and play video games to find safe ways out of the house on fire.

Molly Brown House and Museum
The Molly Brown House honors "Unsinkable Molly Brown," the heroine of the Titanic disaster with mementos from her life preserved in her beautiful home on Capitol Hill.

US Mint at Denver
The U.S. Mint is where over five billion coins are made each year and there are free 20 minute tours on weekdays. It is also the second largest storehouse of gold bullion in the U.S. after Fort Knox.

Outdoor Activities

Denver Parks and Recreation
Denver citizens are very proud of their parks and recreation system. We have 397 urban parks and pathways, 29 recreation centers, 14,000 acres of Denver Mountain Parks, and 2,500 acres of Natural Areas.

Denver Zoo
In 1896, a small, orphaned black bear named Billy Bryan became the first resident of the Denver Zoo. A gift to the mayor of Denver, Billy's adventurous and sometimes mischievous spirit helped mold the Zoo's personality. Today, the Denver Zoo is home to 4,000 animals representing over 750 species and is one of the most popular zoos in the United States. With an exciting 15-20 year master plan in place, the 21st century will see the Denver Zoo transformed into an exciting conservation center that will continue to further the evolution of superb zoo exhibitory.

Denver Botanic Gardens
With more than 32,000 plants from such far-away places as Australia, Africa and the Himalayas, Denver Botanic Gardens is recognized as one of the top five botanical gardens in the United States. There's something for all ages -- and all five of your senses.

The Butterfly Pavilion
As the first stand-alone nonprofit insect zoo in the nation, The Butterfly Pavilion is a 30,000 square foot facility covering five acres Westminster, Colorado. Visitors to the facility find themselves surrounded by more than 1,200 free-flying butterflies while walking through the lush, tropical conservatory.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Nestled in the Rocky Mountain Foothills fifteen miles west of Denver, there stands a symbol of nature's unparalleled majesty. Red Rocks is a geologically formed, open-air Amphitheatre that is not duplicated anywhere in the world. With Mother Nature as the architect, the design of the Amphitheatre consists of two, three hundred-foot monoliths (Ship Rock and Creation Rock) that provide acoustic perfection for any performance.

Elitch Gardens
Rock, ride and fly at Elitch Gardens! Colorado's Coaster Capital features world-class thrills, plus family rides, awesome concerts during spring and fall music festivals, and the tropical island Kingdom water park - free with your theme park admission. Come experience Mile High Thrills in the heart of downtown Denver!

Colorado Ski Country USA
With 24 ski and snowboard resorts, 300 days of sunshine, and 300 inches of snow each year, any time is a good time to visit Colorado. Add our world-class events, ever-expanding terrain and the coolest resort towns on the continent, and you have a mountain paradise. Come to Colorado, the epicenter of mountain sports culture. Getting here is easy. The hard part is leaving.

Bike Denver
BikeDenver came into being in the summer of 2001 with organizing help and guidance from Bicycle Colorado. The group provided input to the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee concerning the Denver Bicycle Master Plan Update, produced a safety brochure for cyclists, developed a Web site and created the capacity to provide bike parking at major Denver public events and festivals.