Traveler’s Log: Denver

Hey there everyone! This week my wife and I are taking a road trip across the American Southwest. Our first stop was in Junction City, Kansas to visit a friend, but we have been there before. Today, we are packing up after a two-night stay in Denver, Colorado. Here are my first impressions of the Mile High City.

Our Airbnb was located on Inca St. The location was excellent for accessing the places in Denver we wanted to visit. Our farthest destination was Red Rocks and that was only twenty minutes away. We did not enjoy the accommodations much, there were a lot of issues with keeping the room cool and our access was through a cramped space in the back. The sleeping was the worst part and the first night was rather miserable. It was on the cheap side, which is hard to get in Denver.

Denver is a pretty clean city. I was surprised at how green and environmentally conscious every location we visited was. We ate at some pretty awesome places: CityOCity (a vegetarian/vegan place), Racine’s (a restaurant that was dog-friendly), the Hive Bistro (inside the Botanical Gardens), and DiFranco’s (a small Italian place). All of the food was expensive but it was good quality and nothing was disappointing.

We visited Red Rocks park where there is a natural amphitheater.

The above photos are of the natural red rock and a monument to music legend John Denver. It is beautiful place for sight seeing and for hiking. We also went to the Art Museum of Denver and saw paintings from British History and art that messes with our understanding of light. In the afternoon we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens and we’re amazed at the variety of plant species present.

You can tell this is a really beautiful and tranquil place. We finished our evening at local bookstore chain called the Tattered Cover Bookstore.

All in all, we liked the places we visited but we were not impressed with Denver. The culture is a weird mixture of edgy hipster and outdoor enthusiast. The city is hard to navigate by car and we are not used to the altitude so we were scared to do a lot of walking. It is a very pet-friendly location, so if you want to bring pets there are a lot of good options. Denver is pricey so make it the destination on your vacation rather than a stop on a road trip.

And no, we did not smoke pot.

Next stop: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Update: As we were pulling out of Denver our check engine light came on forcing us to find a Toyota dealership. We spent a couple of hours there and thankfully it was a minor issue with the gas cap seal.