Where to Stay in Denver, Colorado

What is Denver known for?

Denver is known as the capital of Colorado, a high plains city on the South Platte River. The Front Range of the Rocky Mountains walls the western horizon. Culture centres on the museums, among them the Denver Art Museum, the Clyfford Still Museum, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The Rockies pull people west. From frontier outpost to state capital, the city grew into the hub of the Front Range Urban Corridor.

What are the main landmarks in Denver?

Denver keeps its landmarks close to the center, spread through downtown and the old mansion streets. The Denver Art Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum anchor the civic core, near the History Colorado Center and the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art. Grand old houses survive nearby.

The Molly Brown House, the Byers-Evans House, and the Colorado Governor's Mansion recall the wealth of the early city, while the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Botanic Gardens draw crowds north of downtown.

What is the history of Denver?

Denver was founded in 1858 as a frontier town on the South Platte River, at the western edge of the High Plains. The mountains rose just to the west. Settlers pushed onto the plains and built a rough supply town below the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, hard against the first peaks.

The river gave it water. Wagons and then railroads made Denver the meeting point of the plains and the mountains. The town swelled quickly.

Denver became the great town of the region. Colorado made Denver its capital, and the frontier town settled into a permanent city. It merged into a single consolidated city and county, unusual for the plains.

Grand houses went up. Families of new fortune built mansions like the Molly Brown House, and the Colorado Governor's Mansion took its place among them. The plains filled with suburbs, and Denver anchored the long Front Range Urban Corridor running north and south along the mountains.

The Rockies still frame every western view from the plains. What began as a river camp in 1858 became the capital of a whole mountain state.

Where is Denver?

Denver lies on the South Platte River at the western edge of the High Plains, just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The flat plain runs east for hundreds of miles, while the peaks wall the horizon to the west. Denver sits between the two.

The river threads through the center, and the Rockies rise close enough to reach in an hour. The Front Range Urban Corridor stretches north and south along the mountains.

What is the climate of Denver?

Denver has a dry continental climate, shaped by the high plains and the mountains beside them. Winters bring cold snaps and snow off the Rocky Mountains, though the sun breaks through often. Summers turn warm and dry.

Storms build over the Front Range on summer afternoons and roll out across the plains, and the sky stays wide and bright year round. Denver's seasons pull hard in opposite directions.

How do you get to Denver?

Denver serves as the main air hub for the whole Rocky Mountain region. Its vast international airport sits out on the plains east of the city, feeding flights from across the country and beyond. Highways climb from there.

Interstates run north and south along the Front Range Urban Corridor and west up into the Rocky Mountains, while rail lines cross the High Plains. Most visitors fly in and drive on.