Things to do / Travel Guide
The eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies region is pretty much the easternmost point on a trip to the mountains and deserts of the western United States. Because of this, Denver has been as a transportation hub since its inception.
Flying to Denver, Colorado
Denver International Airport (DEN) is one of the busiest airports in the country, and has been acclaimed as the best and the most on-time in the U.S. Virtually every major US airline operates at one of its three concourses. It is world-famous for its efficiency, and it's the largest airport by area in the U.S. (twice as large as Manhattan in terms of land area covered!). Bear in mind that it's a good 40 minutes Northeast of the city center, off I-470. There is public transportation available from the airport into the city by means of Denver's Regional Transportation District. You can take its DASH (Denver Airport Shuttle), which departs every half-hour. By reservation it will come to pick you up at your hotel. It's a bit of a ride to the airport, usually around 40 minutes from downtown Denver, at a cost of around $50.
Additionally, if Boulder is your destination, you can take the Boulder Supershuttle from the airport. Pick-up at the airport and from Boulder is once an hour, and from Boulder you can call in advance and they'll pick you up from your hotel.
Alternatively, you can fly from Las Vegas, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, the major California airports, and a few other cities directly into Colorado Springs. Flying into the Colorado Springs Airport (COS) is a somewhat more expensive way of reaching the region, but it might be ideal if your vacation plans don't take you to the northern areas of the region. The airport is located just outside the city to the southeast, and you can reach the city via the Colorado Springs Shuttle. The shuttle stops at the major hotels in the area.
Taking the Train to Denver, Colorado
Union Station provides a station stop for Amtrak's California Zephyr line, which whizzes daily through the Great Plains, and sometimes tunnels underneath great mountains between Chicago and San Francisco. Other stops along the route include Omaha, Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Reno, and Sacramento. It takes 17 hours from Chicago to Denver, and over 30 from San Francisco. One arrives at Denver's Union Station, on the west end of 17th Street in LoDo. LoDo, for the as-yet uninitiated, is one of Denver's main centers for entertainment, food, shopping. The station is also the terminus for the C Line light rail route.
Driving to Denver, Colorado
Denver is also pretty convenient to arrive at by car. It's located along I-70, which splits the nation north-south from Pittsburgh to Salt Lake City, and I-25, which runs from Montana to the Mexican border at El Paso. Denver is also the termination point of I-76. I-76 meets up with the great I-80, which, running from Chicago to San Francisco, passes through Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming.
If Denver isn't your destination, then the other main east-west highways crossing the region are I-80, passing Cheyenne and Laramie, and I-70, reaching and terminating at Colorado Springs from the east.
Below you'll find the approximate distances and driving times to Denver from other places outside the region:
- Chicago: 1000 miles, 16.5 miles
- Yellowstone: 565 miles, 12 hours 45 minutes
- Salt Lake City: 530 miles, 9 hours
- Las Vegas: 750 miles, 12 hours 45 minutes
- Albuquerque: 445 miles, 7.5 hours
- Dallas: 880 miles, 14 hours 45 minutes
- Kansas City: 600 miles, 10 hours
- Aspen: 160 miles, four hours
- Durango: 340 miles, 7.5 miles
- Grand Junction: 240 miles, 4.5 hours
Airports Serving Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Cheyenne Wyoming and the Eastern Rockies
Getting-There
Denver International Airport (DEN)
Peterson Field Airport (COS)
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