Denver Metro area

Welcome to Denver, Colorado and it’s Scenes-to-see. Our goal is to help you find what you’re looking for in the Denver Metro area and if you have a question about an area that we’ve not covered, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you have a specific question, we will try to get you some specific answers to help you out. Come with us for a quick overview and a short trip through virtual Denver.

Where is Denver Colorado?
Denver is situated on the plains, immediately east of the mountains. The Denver metro area sits in big geographic bowl, with the natural outlet being to the northeast, along the South Platte River basin. The center of the area is near the intersection of I-25 and I-70, just a few blocks from downtown. Denver is also the closest major city to the geographic center of the United States, which causes Denver International Airport to be a major hub in the nations air traffic.

Planning a trip to Denver?

Are you planning a vacation to the Denver area? Or maybe a weekend getaway…either way, will you allow Scenes-to-see to help you with your Denver hotel planning. We also have B & B’s and vacation rentals available for your extended stay. If you have already set your dates in stone, here are a list of accommodations available during your time frame.

Airfare and Airline schedules …we’ve got that covered also! If you fly into town, you’ll probably want to hire or rent a car once you are here. The Airlines and Cars are based on a destination of Denver International Airport, although a shuttle is available from DIA into downtown Denver, where you could also elect to rent a car.

Thank you for allowing Scenes-to-see.com to help you with your rest, relaxation and vacation plans.

When you arrive in the Denver Metro Area

Whether you arrive via I-25, I-70, train ( Amtrak stops here at Union Station), or by air at Denver International Airport (DIA), the first thing you’ll probably notice when coming to Denver are the mountains, just west of the city. They really are an impressive sight. There are several cities that have a view of one or two mountains that create a beautiful scene. Here, the entire western skyline is outlined by the foothills, and the Continental Divide towers over all, cradling the foothills, framing the city and seeing the plains and at over 100 miles of “skyline” they create one of the most majestic scenes you’ll ever see!

Be sure to look west during sunrise or sunset, and be prepared to be amazed at the scenes the mountains create in concert with the sun and moon. On most days, the view is awe-inspiring, if you’ll just take the time to appreciate and capture it with your mind’s eye. It nearly always offers you a great photo opportunity.

Speaking of impressive sights and Scenes-to-See, if you arrive in Denver (during the evening and night) from the west on I-70 and pay close attention as you crest the hill at Genesee Park (just east and north of Evergreen), the lights of the city will appear like magic! Another great place to admire the same lights are from the area around Buffalo Bills Grave on Lookout Mountain along the Lariat Loop scenic byway. Any time of the year, on a clear night, from these vantage points, and with just a little imagination it appears as if the stars are both above and below you!

Denver is also known as…

Denver has been called many names over the years. It has been known as The Queen City of the plains, Gateway to the Rockies, The Mile High City, Little “D” (Dallas was the Big “D”, it’s a little bigger), Cowtown (a reference to the National Western Stock Show) and Colorado’s Capitol City. The shopping capitol of Colorado, it’s the business capitol of the region, Colorado’s largest city, among other titles. Whatever name you call it, when you’re here, you’ll be in a very Cosmopolitan, Victorian and Modern city all at the same time. Around Denver you can find shopping such as The Cherry Creek Mall and shopping district, dining (too many great restaurants to mention here), and recreational facilities (such as the REI Flagship store) that are varied, many and world class.

The Denver Metro area has been a leader in the Rocky Mountain region for more than 100 years and shows no signs of slowing down now.

The weather in Denver

Contrary to popular belief, the area really doesn’t get much snow on average. A heavy snow fall happens occasionally (once every 3 or 4 years), but for the most part, it snows one day and melts the next. At times, it even melts the same day! We have so much sunshine that’s it pretty odd when we go a whole day without it! And yes, the humidity is low here in comparison to most of the rest of the country, so the heat in the summer is usually very bearable. Click here for current weather conditions.

A lot of people say their favorite time of year here is late spring (last half of April through May) and the “Indian Summers” (warm weather after the first cold snap, usually late September through October) are usually fabulous! Temps in the mid 60′s to mid 70′s, low humidity, lots of sunshine and plenty of blue skies! Around here, blue skies are the rule, not the exception.

Even when it’s cold outside, the sun usually warms you (because of the elevation, we have less atmosphere for the sun to penetrate) so it doesn’t seem nearly as cold as it is.

When the thermometer says it is 30 degrees outside don’t be surprised to see people in shorts and a sweatshirt, it is not an uncommon sight!

Plenty to Do in Denver

With attractions like 300 + days a year of sunshine, nearly year round golfing, an abundance of beautiful and big parks, the Rocky Mountains, a vibrant downtown, several world class shopping centers, many varied and fantastic restaurants, every major league sport, mild weather most of the year, and lots of scenes to see and things to do, the Denver Metro Area is a great place to be and to base you vacation from.

Are you a fan of concert venues? If so, then a must see is Red Rocks, the class of the world in Amphitheatres!

If you are spending a holiday or vacationing here, you’ll find a tremendous number of scenes to see, places to go and things to do at all times of the year. In addition Denver is a convenient place to begin your Rocky Mountain sightseeing trip and photography excursions from. With miles and miles of hiking and biking trails added to the possibilities I’m sure you will find the greater Denver Metro area are an impressive sight-to-see and will become a preferred place to visit. With something for nearly everyone, this area just about has it all.

What to see around Denver?

Things to do in Denver, now where does a person start? There are too many things to do in Denver to list them all on this page, so we’ll divide and conquer the options on future pages, accessible from this page. For now let’s just talk about a few options. What are your interests? Do you like art museums? How about pro sports? Denver is one of a handful of cities to have teams every major sport. What about fishing? Lots and lots of mountain streams close by and there’s some pretty good angling in town also. Don’t forget about the Denver Performing Arts Complex…(the largest performing arts complex in the United States with 8 theatres under one roof!) is in the heart of Downtown Denver.

Maybe hiking or biking is your thing, with well over 100 miles of trails within the Denver Metro Area to explore. What about Shopping? The shopping here almost seems endless. Regional malls, neighbourhood centers, specialty shops, it’s all here. There are even 4 factory outlet malls within 75 miles of downtown Denver! Art galleries galore in the area also, so if you’re looking for something special to take home, we’ve got just the shop for you! Is it museums your interested in? Read on…

Museums in and around Denver

Are Museums more up your alley? What kind of museum would you like? We have all sorts of museums in and around Denver. Such as The Colorado History Museum, Natural History and Science Museums, Transportation museums like the Forney, the Wings over the Rockies Air & Space Museum and the Colorado Railroad museums. Also, we have (Shelby American cars including the Shelby Mustangs), just a few minutes north, in Boulder. Also in Boulder (just a few minutes north on U.S. 36 is the Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art, a must see if you like either western art or gift cards!

We have the Denver Fire-fighters museum, the Black American West Museum, in addition to the Buffalo Bill and Molly Brown museums, the Golden Western Pioneer Museum, and a very nice Children’s Museum with the best staff in the world!.

If that’s not enough to fill your day we also have several art museums, such as Contemporary Art, Modern Outdoor Art, the Vance Kirkland Museum and The Denver Art Museum with it’s world famous American Indian Art collection that accentuates the Museum.

We’ve already got a Quilt museum, and , and the Mizel Museum of Judaica.

We’re also getting a UFO museum (MUFON is headquartered here in Morrison). While in the Morrison area playing at Red Rocks, learning about UFO’s or watching races at Bandimere, don’t forget about Dino Ridge visitors center and Museum. I’m sure this one will surprise you as it’s an outdoor museum, with the dinosaurs still in the rocks! You’ll find a picture and more details on our page.

This is just the tip of the museum iceberg in and around the area!

Butterflies and Books!

Are Butterflies and insects your thing? We’ve a huge Butterfly Pavilion and Insect center. The scenes there are unrivaled, with the exception of Nature, of course.

And speaking of both Nature and Butterflies, one can experience quite a bit of both at the Denver Botanical Gardens. It truly is an impressive collection of plants, plant history and Denver history. Once you are inside the gardens it seems as if you’ve found a slice of heaven right in the middle of the city!

How about Libraries and research? The Denver Public Library recently has been voted the Best in the Nation for 2 years in a row! We also have the Gates Planetarium at City Park and the University of Denver in the University Hill section of the city. In the heart of the city we have the Auraria Campus, which houses the Community College of Denver, The University of Colorado at Denver and Metro State College of Denver. The University of Colorado at Boulder is only a few minutes north on U.S. 36 and The Colorado School of Mines is in Golden, on the western edge of the Denver Metro area.

Parks, hiking and recreation in and around Denver

How about city parks and playgrounds for the kids of all ages? Denver’s park system is very extensive and the largest in the nation. With over 390 parks in the city and over 30 mountain parks. Just in the foothills and mountains there are over 14,000 acres under the Denver Mountain Parks name. These parks include some famous parks such as Winter Park Ski Area (A Denver Mountain Park, but under private management), Buffalo Bills Grave and Lookout Mountain Park, Echo Lake Park and Lodge (just below the summit of Mount Evans), Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Park (consistently named as one of the best amphitheatres in the world!), and Genesee Park where, on most days, one can watch, photograph and marvel at a herd of Buffalo and see a spectacular view of the Rockies!

In these parks there are several hundred miles of hiking and biking trails to test all abilities of fitness, strength and endurance! We will highlight some of these trails for you in future updates of the Scenes-to-see site so check back often for our new items of interest. The real beauty of Denver is that if you get tired of the city, the Rocky Mountains are just a few minutes away with most major ski areas within 2 hours of Denver. Lots of hiking, biking, fishing, hunting, photography, and nature are within a short car ride.

There are yet, many more impressive things to do and Scenes-to-See all around town!

Professional Sports in Denver

Are you looking for professional sports? We’ve got all the major sports here. In the National Football League, there is the Denver Broncos and their home stadium, Invesco Field at Mile High. We were also in the Arena Football league with the Colorado Crush, the 2005 Champions!. In Baseball, we have the Colorado Rockies baseball club and their stadium, Coors Field. In the National Hockey League we are represented by the Colorado Avalanche and in the National Basketball Association we’ve got the Denver Nuggets. They both play at the Pepsi Center.

All three stadiums are in the Downtown Denver area and are pretty easily accessible by most of the Metro area. In February 2005, Denver was the host to the NBA All Star Game and the area was seen on a lot of television sets internationally!

In Lacrosse, we’ve got the Colorado Mammoth, and our entry in Soccer (football for most of the rest of the world) is the Colorado Rapids.

Racing and gambling in and around Denver

The Denver area also had Greyhound racing at Wembley Park in Commerce City, until August 2008 (live racing ceased because the racing laws wouldn’t allow year round racing) and Horse racing at Arapahoe Park in Aurora. Are you looking for Auto Racing? The Denver Grand Prix was last held in August of 2005, but never fear, because from mid spring (16 May, 2009 is this years start date) until mid autumn we’ve got drag racing at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison. If spectator sports is your hobby, you’ve got lots of choices around here. We have limited stakes gambling in nearby Central City and Blackhawk, nature and riches… exactly what attracted the miners to the area over 140 years ago, is still working today!!

Amusements and fun activities in and around Denver

Are Amusement parks your passion? We’ve got Six Flags at Elitch Gardens and Lakeside Amusement park. We also have several indoor and outdoor Go Kart race tracks.

How about racing down an alpine slide, trying to beat your friends and your best time without biffing and burning on the way down several hundred feet of track? We’ve got one in Golden at Heritage Square (you come down the side of a large foothill, most flatlanders call it a small mountain!) within an easy, 20 minute drive of downtown Denver. And 2 more GIANT tracks in the Mountains! And, of course, we have two locations of the World Famous Dave and Buster’s entertainment centers.

Movies as diverse as Die Hard, Vanishing Point and the Any Which Way series of movies (starring Clint Eastwood) were all partially filmed here in the Denver Area.

Something I’ll bet you didn’t know about Denver

And speaking of celebrities, not the modern type, but the type that stories and legends are made of….Did you know that the Richtofen family (Baron Van Rictofen also known as The Red Baron, of world war I fame) built a home here? In the late 1800′s in east Denver the Richtofens built a castle complete with there own private zoo! At the time it was a very large compound (around 1 square mile). The castle they built, still stands today and is a private residence, complete with a very large replica of the Baron’s plane in the front yard! Now that is a real sight to see!

Come back when you can as you can see Denver has a lot to offer and the metro area has something for nearly everyone in and around it. We’ve just touched on a few things here and we’ll go more in depth as time permits. We hope the info here and on all the pages in this site help you enjoy your virtual visit to the Denver Metro Area.

Check back often as we will be adding new items all the time! Hope to see you soon at Scenes-to-see.com and around Denver!

When you have any comments, suggestions or questions, please don’t hesitate to use the form on the About page.

Plays, Theatres and Movies around Denver

We are blessed with some of the best dinner playhouses including the Boulder Dinner Theatre among others. I believe you’ll find them very good, both the food and the actors/actresses. The Arvada Center (in Arvada, on the northwest corner of the metro area) puts on some fantastic plays, with accomplished and up and coming actors and actresses. The schedule of poetry readings, art, music, ceramics and photography classes makes the center a very valuable and busy gem in the metro area.

Do you remember the Woody Allen movie called Sleeper? The house that was used in the “starring” role, is less than 10 minutes west of Golden (the western edge of the metro area) on I-70. It’s easy to spot as it is the one on the south side of I-70 that looks like a spaceship on a pedestal. It’s just east of Genesee Park and just west of Golden. It was designed in the early 1960′s by local Architect Charles Deaton, he called it the “Sculptured House”. Most of the locals call it either “the spaceship house”, “the sleeper house” or “the Deaton house.” I believe after taking a look at it, you’ll call beautiful, captivating and magnificent.

Denver was a favorite of the actor, Raymond Burr, and was used in a lot of his shows, such as Perry Mason and The Father Dowling Mysteries were also partially filmed here.

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