Denver Recreation Guide

Overview

With 300 days of sunshine a year, it is no wonder Denver is a recreation capital. More than 70 golf courses are scattered throughout the area, and more than 143 FREE tennis courts. This, of course, is in addition to the slew of opportunities for skiing, river running, hiking, fishing, camping, horseback riding, sailing and mountain biking all located within a short hour or so drive from town.

Denver’s newly opened Ocean Journey combines the best qualities of aquariums and sea life parks in an exciting, interactive experience that is both fun and educational. Located in Denver's Platte River Valley near the new $125 million Six Flags Elitch Gardens amusement park and the new $141 million Coors Field baseball stadium, Ocean's Journey is a $93 million world-class aquarium that is divided into four sections exhibiting water and aquatic life in all its forms, from the seas of the world and the creatures that rely on them to the ocean's headwaters in Colorado's mountains. The new park is linked to Denver's Children's Museum by a historic light rail trolley that follows the banks of the Platte River. The open-air trolley, similar to ones that operated in Denver at the turn of the century, starts at the Forney Transportation Museum, passes Ocean's Journey and the Children's Museum, and continues to Mile High Stadium.

As far as spectator sports are concerned, Denver has a full range of professional sports teams, including the National Football League’s 1998 Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos, the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets, Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies, and the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche, who won the 1996 Stanley Cup on June 10th becoming Denver’s first national championship team. Other spectator sports include the world's largest rodeo held each year at the National Western Stock Show in January and pari-mutuel dog and horse racing. Also, witnessing a major concert at Red Rocks, a true canyon sculpted into an amphitheater, is an experience like no other.

Half of Colorado is public land open to all forms of recreation with two national parks, six national monuments, 11 national forests, three national recreation areas and 30 state parks. In fact, Denver has the nation’s largest park system located inside city limits, proving there’s no shortage of recreation in this town. Lastly, we feel that, because this a recreation overview, and because there are many forms of recreation, it is pertinent to mention that Denver brews more beer than any other city in the world—just in case you need a break.