A Day in the Vicinity of Golden, Colorado

If you are in the Denver area but don’t necessarily WANT to be in the Denver area, good news! You can go to the expensive-to-live-in Golden area. Or if that’s not expensive enough for you there’s Boulder, but that is a topic for another day.

So Golden. I’ve talked about some of the awesome trail running you can do there. What about other stuff? Well, here’s a few ideas if you are in the area.

On the bike ride up Lookout Mountain

• Drive or bike up Lookout Mountain
  • I have driven to the top and visited the Buffalo Bill Museum (ehhhh..). I have biked to the top while crying on the inside. Either way – the views of Golden and Denver are excellent, there are paragliders floating around to mesmerize you, and if you huff and puff on your bike up it means an exhilarating flight back down.

The view from Lookout Mountain

• Bob’s Atomic Burgers
  • If you’re looking for a hole-in-the-wall burger, here is the place for you! You write what you want on a bag and then when it’s ready they call your pseudonym (Elvis Presley!). Isn’t that fun? The onion “petals” are delicious. Get fries and the onion petals if you have two people…or just you. And since you don’t know if my taste is good, rely on the glowing reviews from hundreds of other people with unknown taste.
• Coors Brewery tour
  • Since you just ate a burger at Bob’s Atomic Burger, why not walk across the street for a tour in the world’s largest single-site brewery? ONLY IF you are are OK with going to The Man’s brewery and not being your independent, quirky microbrewery-loving self for a few hours. Three free beers after, which include more than just Coors Light. I wouldn’t do this tour regularly but it was interesting to visit once. YOLO.
• Golden City Brewery
  • My favorite of the Golden breweries. Outdoor seating, delicious beers, and food trucks. The pretzels + mustard are also amazing. The only downside is that they close at 6:30 or “later if [they] feel like it”. For non-beer drinkers they have hard cider on tap.
• Rock Climb at North Table Mountain
  • Great for climbing in the cold months. From Mountain Project: “this popular cliff band faces south & west so it makes for comfortable winter/cold weather rock climbing. Most routes here are tightly bolted and generally short (60 foot range), so a 50m rope and 10 quickdraws will be sufficient for most routes. Top-roping routes is easy to do, with quick access to the top and bolts just below the top of the cliffs.”

    

    Dan setting up an anchor on North Table

• Bottles and Barrels
  • A brewery that also has many wines and beers from other breweries on tap all in one convenient, hipster-y place. That and WINE SLUSHIES. DID YOU HEAR ME??  Also, large tables where you can pretend to be social with other imbibers and a big foot sign on the wall worth $150.
• Red Rocks Amphitheater
  • Not quite in Golden, but not far either. Lots of people meet there to work out on the stairs. We saw Ben Harper there on a clear night and it was an amazing concert venue.

In the harsh reality of daylight

• Thai Gold Restaurant
  • Decent, cheap Thai food. I know, a glowing review. But it can break up the breweries and pub-type food in the area..
• Woody’s Pizza
  • Delicious pizza in a dark environment. All-you-can-eat pizza if you please. So less shame for eating all the pizza in a dark environment – people can’t see your self-loathing as clearly!
• Walk along Clear Creek
  • Walk along the creek and look at kayakers and weird statues and a creek that feeds the Coors Brewery.