Colorado Front Range Favorites with Friends

 

As I mentioned in my last blog post, we had friends visiting and staying at our home last weekend.  They flew in from Pennsylvania on Saturday, and we caught up after many years of not seeing each other. I went to high school and nursing school with my friend Pat in Brooklyn, New York, and was part of her wedding party, so we go back a long time! She and her husband Dennis now live in a suburb of Philadelphia. They flew out to Colorado to go skiing in Steamboat Springs, Colorado but wanted to adjust to the altitude at our elevation for a few days and it was the perfect time to catch up with us!

We live only minutes away from Red Rocks Amphitheater, so it is always a place we bring visitors. Since moving to Colorado we've attended many concerts at Red Rocks, one of which you can read about here,  It is a magnificent outdoor music venue!  It was built into the natural formation of rocks along the foothills of Morrison, Colorado, in the years 1936- 42 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which you can read more about in this post.   We visited the amphitheater's indoor museum and reminisced about the many musical groups that have performed there over the years.  The list grows longer every year!

The city of Denver, Colorado, can be seen in the distance from Red Rocks Amphitheater.  Even though it is situated on the relatively flat prairie, twelve miles (19 km) from the foothills, it is a mile high (5280 feet or 1609.344 meters) above sea level! 

Pat and Dennis standing in front of the northernmost red rock of the amphitheater, called "Creation Rock."

More views of the interesting red rock formations around the area.

We then drove over to the nearby town of Golden, Colorado.

Golden is a picturesque town with many shops and restaurants,

It is also home to the Colorado School of Mines, which is a top-rated science, engineering, and research public university.  In the past my husband and I visited the interesting geology museum located at the school--you can read about that here.

Golden is also the location of the Coors Brewery!  This is a statue of the founder, Adolph Coors, Sr., and a plaque about him on the main street of Golden, Washington Ave.  Please click on the photo collage to enlarge the photo to read the plaque, and to see a view of the brewery from Lookout Mountain.  Unfortunately, the wonderful Coors Brewery Tour was not being conducted during our friend's visit. The website said it was being upgraded.  My husband and I have brought many a visitor to the tour.  You can see a blog post I wrote about the tour on this link.

We walked along Clear Creek in Golden for a bit.  It was one of the first places gold nuggets were found and the location of the most intense early mining activity during the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859.

Our next destination was a drive up Lookout Mountain in Golden!  It is a winding, switchback drive up and up to its summit at 7,377 feet (2,249 m).  I blogged once about driving up during a snowstorm--here.  

The views from the top are beautiful!

This view is looking northeast, where North Table Mountain can be seen, as well as the suburbs of Golden.  We once climbed to the top of North Table Mountain which you can see on this blog post.

This view is direct east with Denver, Colorado, in the distance

This view is looking west at some of the Rocky Mountains in the distance.

Buffalo Bill's grave is located at the very top of Lookout Mountain. If you enlarge this photo by clicking on it two times you can read the plaque that tells the story of why Buffalo Bill is buried here.  We did not walk up to see his grave, as there was a lot of snow on the path, but if your read this post, it will tell you more about Buffalo Bill Cody and show his gravesite.

We drove down the west side of Lookout Mountain and continued west at bit on the Lariat Loop Scenic Byway

At one point, traffic came to a full stop to allow a herd of elk to cross the street.  They all took their time and the head of the herd, a big bull, looked like he had been in many a battle during the rut, as his antlers were broken.

As we passed through Evergreen we could see the large lake was frozen and we saw ice skaters and ice fishermen who had set up their tent on the ice to fish.

When we returned to our community, we stopped to show our friends what remains of the Bradford Perley House.  The first occupant, Robert Boyles Bradford, built this house in 1860 and set up the Bradford Wagon Toll Road to convey miners and settlers from Denver, first to "Bradford City" and then into the foothills to what is present-day Conifer, and then to the mining camps in the mountains, to Tarryall, Fairplay, Leadville and eventually to Breckenridge.  You can read more about Bradford and see more photos of the house, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places, on this blog link.

It was a very full, fun day and we returned to our house to watch the Superbowl! We had some dips and crudites and chips, and then for dinner during halftime we had an Italian-style feast of eggplant parmigiana, sausage and meatballs, chicken cutlets, and a salad that I had prepared ahead of time.  

In my next post, I'll show you more favorite and beautiful places we visited the next day with some more surprise wildlife that we encountered.

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