Recently in Denver Category

For some great hiking just minutes from Denver, check out Castlewood Canyon State Park. Located south of the city in Franktown, it boasts excellent hiking, picnicking, rock climbing, and sightseeing. Trails range from just half a mile to four miles, and can be combined for longer journeys. Bring plenty of water and some snacks, because the winding Cherry Creek flowing along the canyon floor provides a host of gorgeous rest stops where your lunch comes with amazing natural views. Other highlights include a natural amphitheater and the Bridge Canyon Overlook Gazebo, which affords perfect photo-ops and plenty of romantic sunsets. You can even find remnants of local history in the ruins of Castlewood Dam, which burst in 1933, sending a 15-foot-high wall of water into Denver. Best of all, after a day of rigorous exercise, you can shower and relax before a fantastic dinner in town. Starwood has eight hotels in and around Denver, including the Westin Tabor Center, Denver.

[image via Colorado State Parks]

Tattered Cover is one of the biggest of the remaining independent bookstores in the United States. There are presently three locations to serve Denver, but we recommend the one in the lower downtown area, or LoDo (1628 16th St.), right near the historic Union Station. Two floors of classic and contemporary books, a newsstand, and coffee shop await. The store features a fireplace and is peppered with some of the comfiest couches and seats that we've ever seen in a bookstore. This is a place where reading and gathering is encouraged, and not discouraged in a shuffle to keep the cash registers ringing. Author events and signings are frequent.

Tattered Cover also holds an interesting place in legal history. Nine years ago, it was an unlikely focal point of a drugs manufacturing case when the store refused to cooperate with a search warrant of records relating to the defendant's book purchase at Tattered Cover, which was later revealed to be about calligraphy. Tattered Cover argued First Amendment rights all the way up to the Supreme Court of Colorado, where it eventually prevailed.

Bring your page-turners back to your comfy room at the Sheraton Downtown Denver and hit the sheets! Tattered Cover may sadly be a part of a dying breed, but we'd love to know, what are your favorite independent bookstores?

Like most guys, reading Jack Kerouac's On the Road was a watershed moment in my life. Its descriptions of the energy and excitement of the traveling life - everything flying by in a blur of parties, highways, and odd acquaintances - lit a fire in me as it did countless others. The protagonist of the book, Dean Moriarty, was based on Neal Cassady (left), a friend of Kerouac (right) who spent his formative years with his father in Denver. The city has capitalized on its literary connection by creating the Denver Beat Poetry Driving Tour, a self-guided journey into the Denver of the 1930's and 1940's. The tour visits seven destinations that shaped Cassady, Kerouac, and other Beats. Civic Center Park, for example, is mentioned in books by both Cassady and Kerouac and in the poem "The Green Automobile" by Alan Ginsberg ("Denver! Denver! we'll return/roaring across the City & County Building lawn...." ). Sonny Lawson Baseball Field, meanwhile, was where the young Cassady played baseball. Kerouac would later describe, "a great, eager crowd roaring at every play." Those who'd like to have a drink in the same bar that Cassady frequented (it only makes sense) should drop by My Brother's Bar on 15th and Platte Street, where Cassady's brother once tended bar. The owner even has a letter Cassady sent from reform school asking that his bar tab be paid. For the entire itinerary, click here and get those literary juices flowing. Starwood has hotels throughout Denver, including the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel and the Westin Tabor Center, Denver.

When was the last time you saw dinosaurs in a zoo? If it's been a few million years, it's high time for a visit to Swetsville Zoo in Timnath, Colorado. Granted, it's not a zoo in the traditional sense, but rather a sculpture park filled with the crazy creations of Bill Swets. The former dairy farmer and volunteer firefighter began crafting his whimsical creations in 1985, using discarded car parts and industrial junk of all kinds. The result has been an outdoor "zoo" filled with welded metal dinosaurs, bugs, animals, and creatures that defy description that draws upwards of 20,000 visitors a year. Although he has no formal artistic training, it's impossible to look at his three-piece alligator band - complete with drum and banjo - and not smile at the creative genius of this humble man. Swetsville Zoo is less than an hour's drive from the Westin Westminster.

[image via Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce]