Things to do / Travel Guide
As most of the eastern Colorado and Wyoming Rockies region is mountainous, spread out, and relatively sparsely populated, organized tours basically take place within the cities themselves.
Denver-based Organized Tours
You can get an upbeat historical tour of LoDo, Denver's heart and the heart of her shopping district, with The LoDo District, Inc., which specializes in promoting all things LoDo. Learn about the historical buildings, who lived in them, and the significance of all the alleys and streets. Tours depart on Saturday afternoons, from Larimer Square.
Another fun touring option in Denver is to commandeer a horse-drawn carriage for a pleasant ride. In Denver you'll be able to tour LoDo and 16th Street Mall (the two entertainment, food, and shopping hot spots), the Capitol, and other areas. You can also tour nearby Golden. This antiquated mode of transportation is excellent for a nice tour, and the carriage-driver/tour guide will only speak and comment as much as you want him or her to.
An excellent custom tour can be arranged with The Colorado Sightseer, which specializes in individualized and interactive tours. You tell them your conditions, and they'll do their best to accommodate. They offer organized and group tours of historic Denver, the Denver foothills, Boulder, the Pikes Peak area, and others.
- A tour of historic Denver takes about four hours, and includes the Brown Palace, the Colorado State Capitol, the historic neighborhoods, and the two Denver stadiums, Coors Field and Mile High Stadium.
- A tour of Pikes Peak takes closer to nine. On the tour you visit the United States Air Force Academy, with its famous campus of modern and awesome buildings, reach the top of Pikes Peak via Pikes Peak Highway, and then walk the premises of Garden of the Gods, outside Colorado Springs.
- A scenic bus tour driving through the region's beautiful and majestic mountains can last eight hours. You can tour around Mt.
Evans, Clear Creek Canyon, as well as the mining town of Idaho Springs.
Children get discounted rates, and reservations are preferred. Buses usually transport the tours from attraction to attraction.
Mining Town Organized Tours
Excellent tours and tour guides can be found in Central City, Black Hawk, and Idaho Springs. In Idaho Springs, in particular, you'll probably stop at the “Mighty Argo,” the city mill that was responsible for the processing of $100 million of gold ore! You'll tour the place, learning all about the mine and mill, and the life of a miner, and they'll even teach you how to pan for gold. In other mining towns you'll hear all about the main streets, the side streets, the particular famous buildings, the cemeteries, and who lived where. Some of these tours start quite a distance from the city centers, so you'll need to drive to get to them.
In the mining area around and off I-70, many of the tours are offered by the Gilpin Historical Society, located in Central City. In Cripple Creek, mining tours are given at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine. Many of the same opportunities are given at these mining tours as at the Mighty Argo.
Rural Tours
One, more traditional way to tour the more rural areas of the region, is on horseback. You can tour canyons, meadows, and mountains on horse with a guide knowledgeable in all things outdoors. The region's dude ranches offer these, free for guests of the ranch but for a sometimes high price for non-guests. Wilderness Aware Rafting offers horseback tours in addition to rafting: They run tours along the Colorado Trail, which stretches from Denver to Durango, in the southwest portion of Colorado. Also offered are off-road jeep trips and mine tours.
Cheyenne Organized Tours
Take an inexpensive ride on Cheyenne's old trolley line, which now runs just for tourists. Guides explain all about the passing attractions: the Governors' Mansion, the Wyoming State Capitol, and the historic homes of the area's late-19th-century cattle barons. On Fridays dare to take the ghost tour, in which tour guides clue you in to all the sightings of passed buffalo and roaming dead former governors. The two-hour city tours depart every weekday at 10:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., at 1:30 p.m. on Sundays, and at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays.
|
|
|