Denver, Colorado, United States

Summary

Airport Rating ****
Reception of locals ***
Cost: £££££

• The largest city in Colorado famous for its natural landscapes and proximity to the Rocky Mountains
• Open city with energy spread out over a large area and across many different neighbourhoods
• Generally positive experiences as a Sikh with no issues at the airport or the city, but people stare a lot 
• Main Sights: Coors Field, Union Station, Boulder Mountain Park, Golden, Red Rocks, RiNo

The Gateway to the West

I’ve been waiting to check out Denver for a few years now. I’ve been to both coasts of the United States several times, but other than Chicago and a few short excursions into the interior, I’ve only ever flew over the main continental part of the country. The part between the two coasts is a place that is romantacised in films, so I was very excited when I got the opportunity to finally check a part of it out myself.

Denver's origins trace back to the mid-19th century when it was founded as a mining town during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Named after James W. Denver, a Kansas Territory governor, the city quickly grew as prospectors flocked to the area. Unlike many boomtowns of the era, Denver managed to avoid decline after the initial rush because of its strategic location as a supply hub for new mines in the region. The arrival of the railroad in 1870 solidified Denver’s status as a key economic centre in the West which led to more growth.

Today, Denver is the 19th most populous city in the United States. The actual city has less than a million inhabitants and the greater Denver metropolitan area is only home to over 3 million people - so it’s slightly smaller than the Birmingham and West Midlands area in the UK. The city is magnet for young professionals from around the American Midwest, and the city reflects the demographics of the broader Midwest (although Denver and Colorado aren't officially part of the Midwest) which is largely of a Northern European descent. The city’s proximity to the Rocky Mountains makes it a landing place for hikers and climbers, and the area around Denver is also famous for skiing. 

Illuminati confirmed

It’s hard to talk about Denver without first talking about the airport. ​Did you know that Denver International Airport, opened in 1995, is the largest airport in North America by land area and the second largest in the world? I’ve visited some huge airports like London’s Heathrow, Singapore’s Changi, and the large airports in Dubai and Istanbul - but this airport just felt so open with so much space.

The airport is known for its unique architecture, designed by Fentress Architects, its most iconic feature is the peaked roof, reminiscent of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Given its location in the country, it's a major hub for domestic and international travel, connecting millions of passengers each year. You can catch a flight to pretty much any part of the States from Denver.

A second thing is, I’ve never visited an airport with a tornado shelter. While it was just a small sign, it quickly reminded me that I’m in a completely different part of the US than the coastal areas that I usually visit. 

I'd read a fair bit about the numerous conspiracy theories that surround the airport when I was younger, the most prominent being its alleged links to the Illuminati. The "Blue Mustang" statue ("Blucifer") is notorious for its glowing red eyes and the death of its creator, Luis Jiménez, during its construction. Inside the airport, murals depicting apocalyptic scenes and the Masonic capstone with the "New World Airport Commission" inscription have fueled speculation. Conspiracy theorists claim these symbols and artworks suggest a hidden agenda, possibly linked to secret societies and global elites.

It’s definitely one of the most stories airports around the world.

The transport connection to city is pretty straight forward - a train runs from the airport right the way into Union Station in the city. The journey is a strange one as the train passes through miles of nothingness that just reinforces the size of the US which has so much land, even close to large metropolitan areas. I had a nice experience while queuing to wait to buy a train ticket as a couple of lads in front of me accidentally got two tickets even though they had paid for one, so they passed on the spare ticket on to me which was very nice of them. This was positive. But then walking into the train, there was a lot of staring - a lot. This was less positive.

First impressions

The train arrives in Union Station, a beautiful train station that opened in 1881 and was rebuilt in 1914 - also doubling up as a bus station.

Its architecture is beautiful, and it provides the focal point of the local area. The area around the train station is known as the Gulch and reflects the rise, fall, and redevelopment of American rail travel. As rail travel declined in the middle of the 20th century, so did the neigbourhood around Union Station, but beginning in the new millennium it began a period of redevelopment and rejuvenation. This includes a lot of new glass fronted office and residential buildings and a host of bars and restaurants.

I had a little walk around and liked what I saw, but it was during this initial walk that I came to understand why Denver is called the mile high city. The city is a mile above sea level which can lead to altitude sickness. I didn't feel any, and maybe it was a placebo effect, but it did feel like I was getting breathless quicker (maybe I'm just getting out of shape).

As a first impression of Denver, it makes a really good one.

My next impression was the copious amounts of rooftops dotted around the city. In every neighbourhood there seems to be a variety of rooftops, from the city centre to the areas around the city core and the few that I visited were fantastic. 

And then there is Meow Wolf - an immersive art museum that is one of the strangest places I have ever seen. I don't think there are words to describe the experience, but it reminded me of an analogue version of the TeamLabs exhibits that I visited in Tokyo and Singapore - only stranger. I can only assume this place is built for people taking advantage of Denver's liberal drug policies because it is floors and floors of the strangest art you'll ever see. I really enjoyed it, but after an hour or so, the trippiness of the place started to give me a headache. But I think that's a good thing! The only problem is that at $60 a ticket, it is ridiculously expensive.

A laid back city

The rooftops and Meow Wolf were a great primer for the rest of the city, and it was just as cool as those first impressions.

​I spent most of my time in The RiNo (River North) neighbourhood which is just north of downtown Denver. The area is a fantastic example of urban revitalisation, transforming from an industrial zone to one of the city’s most vibrant and trendy areas - think Digbeth in Birmingham or Shoreditch in London. 

The area was originally an industrial and warehouse district, and it housed various factories, foundries, and other heavy industries that were integral to Denver's economic development. The area remained largely industrial through much of the 20th century, but by the 1980s and 1990s, many of these industries had moved out or shut down, leaving behind a landscape of vacant warehouses and underused buildings - a story we see in western cities across the world.

The transformation of RiNo began in the early 2000s when artists and creative professionals started moving into the area, attracted by the affordable large spaces that were perfect for studios and galleries. In 2005, the River North Art District was officially formed, promoting the area as a cultural and artistic hub.

Today, RiNo is a blend of art, culture, dining, and nightlife. The neighbourhood is home to art galleries, studios, and murals, with street art being a particularly prominent feature. It’s still quite a spread out area so again, unlike Shoreditch and Digbeth which concentrate energy in a small area, this has pockets of energy spread out over several blocks giving it a more laid back sort of vibe.

The district's industrial past is still visible in the architecture, with many former warehouses and factories repurposed into trendy lofts, offices, restaurants, and breweries. The popularity of RiNo has surged in recent years and it’s not hard to see why. It has its own train station that connects it quickly to both the airport and the city centre. During the daytime, the cafes (which are very trendy if not slightly overpriced) are packed with dog walkers, and in the evenings people from around the city seem to flock to the many bars and restaurants in the area. I attended a silent disco one evening, the first one I’ve done in like a decade and absolutely loved it.

Baseball at the Rockies

I’ve seen baseball in both the US and in South Korea and on both occasions I’ve enjoyed it. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t understand the sport and I didn’t really follow the scores in either New York or Seoul, but I really enjoyed the chilled out experience of hanging out with friends in what is low intensity viewing for spectators. It’s not like a trip to Villa Park or Wembley where you’d be out your seat singing and shouting for 90 minutes.

Denver has a popular and famous baseball franchise - the Colorado Rockies - that play at​the 50,000 seater Coors Field. The stadium is located in the heart of Denver and is one of Major League Baseball's most iconic ballparks. The stadium has been home to the Colorado Rockies since its opening in 1995. Its design reflects the history and architecture of Denver, incorporating elements of the city's traditional red brick buildings. Denver's altitude has a significant impact on the game, as the thinner air allows baseballs to travel farther, making Coors Field famously hitter-friendly.

I love seeing these stadiums in the middle of cities, it gives each stadium a bit of unique character, and Coors Field has it in bucketloads. During game, tens of thousands of people congregate in the bars around the stadium (which makes those places pretty impossible to move about it) but the vibe is electric. The stadium itself has everything you’d expect from a modern stadium - it’s big, clean, with a lot of overpriced food and drink (although the food in Coors Field is the best I’ve had in any sports stadium anywhere). 

There is something about baseball stadiums that I really like. English football stadiums are very tightly packed, you feel as though you are on top of the pitch. It makes for an electric atmosphere but it's very intense. Baseball stadiums are very open and the opposite - laid out over a large surface area which I think adds to that chilled feeling.

I saw the game against Pittsburgh Pirates, and for what it’s worth there were a lot of home runs (more than usual I’m told). I had a great time even though I spent most of the game talking with friends and eating. Don’t get me wrong, their chants are definitely cringe, and it’s nothing as we would understand sports in the UK - but it’s just as a good in a completely different way. I loved it and baseball continues to be the American sport I most love attending.

The Red Rocks Amphitheater 

Denver is a little strange because the city itself doesn’t have a standout landmark. There is no equivalent of the State of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge, and the city instead relies on its proximity to the Rocky Mountains as a selling point.

But if there is a landmark that is uniquely Denver, then it is the ​Red Rocks Amphitheater. The amphitheatre is just outside Denver, located near Morrison in the foothills of the Rockies, and is an iconic open-air concert venue that is world famous for its natural acoustics and incredible scenery.

The history of the Red Rocks dates back millions of years. The striking red sandstone formations that form the amphitheatre are part of the Fountain Formation, created approximately 290-296 million years ago. The formations were sculpted by erosion over millennia which have led to the rocks that we see today.

The first known concert at Red Rocks took place in 1906 and by the 1930s that Red Rocks Amphitheatre began to take shape. In 1941, the project integrated seating and stage structures into the natural landscape and today the modern seating and stage area are really built into the ancient red rocks. The amphitheatre has played host to some of the most famous artists in the world, and it is instantly recognisable. The venue also hosts fitness classes such as yoga and group workouts, capitalising on the landscape surrounding it.

The surrounding area is amazing, with the Red Rocks Park providing hiking and biking trails. The park's visitor centre is built into the hill and includes exhibits on the geological and musical history of Red Rocks. It’s one of those places you have to see to believe. The fact that it is open air makes it feel much bigger than it actually is. The landscape is insanely beautiful and I’d love to come back again and join a fitness class or attend a concert here. But seeing it (relatively) empty also gave me an idea of the scale of the place.

​And even on a random day, there were people doing all sorts of fitness exercises - some straight forward like running up and down the stairs, and others more extreme like doing handstands all the way down the venue.

The landscape

The real beautify of Denver lies beyond the city boundaries and heading into the Rockies where there are endless hiking trails. I visited the ​Flatirons Vista, located just south of Boulder (a city located right on the edge of the Rocky Moutains), an area renowned for its stunning views of the Flatirons and the Rocky Mountain foothills.

The Flatirons are iconic rock formations that dominate the landscape of Boulder. The Flatirons Vista Loop, a 3.3-mile trail, is one of the more famous hikes and I did a very small part of it. It is a relatively easy trail that offers expansive views of the Flatirons and the surrounding countryside. That countryside has large swathes of untouched land with native grassland are forests that contains numerous birds and mammals. But it’s also a reminder of the history of this area that was inhabited by Native American tribes (the Arapaho and Ute) but were driven away by European colonisation from their own lands. 

The trails are well-maintained, so much so that many people do a lot of mountain biking. Once you get away from the highways and roads, the whole place feels so big, and it made me feel tiny in this natural landscape. It’s both beautiful and humbling and it’s incredible that people living in this area have something so large and expansive on their doorsteps.

​It really helped me understand the popularity of Denver and Colorado more broadly. If you’re an outdoorsy person, I can’t imagine too many cities in the world better to live in than here.

Golden - a historic mining city

As you can see, Denver is as much about the surrounding area as it is about the city itself, and that sort of decentralisation is pretty cool. ​One place that is between Denver and the Rockies is Golden, a historic mining city founded in 1859 when gold was discovered attracting people from across the region - it was briefly the capital of the whole state for five years in the mid 1800s.

Today, Golden feels like the type of “real” America that you imagine when you think of small communities in the middle of nowhere. The US that you read in books or see in films. The downtown area is a mix of historic buildings, boutique shops, restaurants, and breweries. Washington Avenue, the main thoroughfare, is lined with shops and landmarks like the Golden History Museum and Park, which provides insight into the city's past through exhibits and historical artifacts.

I was surprised to learn that Golden is the home of Coors Brewing Company, one of the largest breweries in the world. I don’t like talking about alcohol on this blog given how it decimates our community but this was an insanely strange fact I learned when I saw the huge brewery on the trip back to Denver.

Golden has a strong community feel and I visited a park during a cultural event celebrating its European heritage. I saw everything that I expected to see - random folk dances, BBQs and beers, and a lot of pro-gun and pro-“freedom” signs. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t see a single black or brown person in Golden and while I liked to visit, it’s not somewhere I’d feel comfortable living.

Sikhs in the city

But the weird thing is, even out here, there is a thriving Sikh community, centred on Denver - close to their airport where most Sikh communities usually are.

While exact figures are challenging to determine due to the lack of specific census data on religious affiliations, estimates suggest that there are approximately 2,500 to 3,000 Sikhs in the Denver metropolitan area so it’s a very small number and I didn’t see any Sikhs around the city.

The presence of Sikhs in Denver is part of a larger narrative of Sikh migration to the United States, which began over a century ago. Early Sikh immigrants primarily settled on the West Coast, engaging in agriculture and the lumber industry. Over the decades, the community expanded, with many moving to cities like Denver. This migration wave has resulted in a community that spans multiple generations, from elders who have witnessed the community's growth firsthand to younger generations born and raised in the area.

But even out here, there is a Gurdwara, and a pretty large one (you can read more about American Gurdwaras here).

The Gurdwara is located in Commerce City, a suburb of Denver. It’s completely surrounded by farmland so you can see it from miles away. It’’s quite a large size and has a huge driveway that leads to the front of the Gurdwara. I attended on a Sunday morning and the Gurdwara was very busy. Interestingly. It seemed around 80% were of Panjabi or South Asian descent with the other 20% being white Americans. It’s something that happens quite a lot in large western Gurdwaras, but the ratio here had a very strong white American composition and that was really nice to see.

The architecture is very much Panjabi / Sikh style, but there is considerable American influence. The space that the United States affords means that the Gurdwara is built largely on one floor rather than the multiple floors we are used to in the UK. I visited during a particularly hot day and there was melted rubber on the tarmac which reflects the unique challenges of architecture in places that get so hot during the summer.

Would I recommend visiting Denver?

I like Denver, but for me it's a place I'd like to live in. To visit? It makes sense if you like the outdoors and you want to do hiking or visit the mountains. It's not a city where you'll be visiting a shedload of landmarks or famous attractions, but there is certainly enough to do to keep you busy.

As a Sikh, I didn't experience too many issues. The airport was a breeze, and in the city I felt largely comfortable, although the stares got tiresome after a while - especially when I was on my own - when I was with my friends, it didn't seem to happen so much.

​Overall, Denver gets a thumbs up!