Mile High City Adventures: Ten Days in Colorado

In late February/early March, I went on an epic trip to Colorado, spending 10 days in the state known for the Rockies, amazing snow, plenty of outdoor activities, and microbrew beers.

The ambitious plan – I’d fly into Denver solo the first weekend to get in a couple of snowboarding days, then work out of the new Denver office during the week, and finally meet up with a group of 8 friends flying in from the Bay Area and New York for a second snowboarding weekend. The logistics would be complicated, involving a lot of bookings, reservations, and on-the-fly planning. I was excited and couldn’t wait for the trip!

First Weekend

I flew into Denver International Airport Saturday afternoon. After chilling at the airport before my car rental period started, I picked up an almost-new Dodge Durango and drove out of the city in the late afternoon. My destination was Gypsum, a small mountain town about two-and-a-half hours west of the city.

Luckily, the weather wasn’t too hairy on the way. The drive itself was filled with amazing mountain scenery, complete with tunnels dug into rocks, a flowing river to the side of the highway, and just a bit of snow at Vail Pass. I reached my first Airbnb of the trip after a quick dinner break. I met the host (and the family dog, Odin) before settling into my huge room which took up most of the downstairs floor. This was the start of a fun and relaxing weekend one.

The next couple of mornings, I’d make the early drive out to the ski resorts – Beaver Creek on Sunday and Vail on Monday.

It was especially cold at Beaver Creek Resort on Sunday morning. The heated steering wheel and seats were incredible as I found a parking spot and quickly realized my mistake of gearing up outside my car. No longer able to feel my fingers, I grabbed my mitts and warmed up on a couple of runs, battling the chilly wind on the ski lifts.

By mid-morning, the weather had gotten much better and I was having a ball looping runs with next to no lines at all. Beaver Creek was on the smaller side of well-known Colorado ski resorts, but it more than made up for that with the amount of fun it offered. I spent that day on a variety of fun runs, mostly working on my carving and switch, before calling it a day. That evening, after an incredible pulled pork meal at Smoke Modern BBQ in Glenwood Springs, I relaxed in some natural mineral hot spring pools at Iron Mountain Hot Springs, which overlooked the Rockies.

I repeated the same schedule Sunday morning, this time driving out to the famous Vail Ski Resort. After snagging a free parking spot at Donovan Park and taking a smaller lift off to the side of the resort, I entered Vail and spent the rest of my time there in the back bowls, enjoying the wide, expansive runs.

After lunch came the tricky part – getting back to Denver to check into my next Airbnb and returning the rental car to the airport on time. I left some extra time to get back to the car. Vail was just that big and required quite a bit of traversing. But I made it to the lot by 2pm, drove the car to Denver without any issues, dropped off my stuff at the Airbnb, and finally dropped off the car at Denver Airport before taking the RTD Rail back to the city. It was an exhausting but fun day of snowboarding, driving, traveling, and figuring things out. Still I was glad to meet the couple I was staying with in the Capitol Hill neighborhood before calling it a night. Now came the next part of my trip – a shortened week of work at the Denver office.

Commuting to Work

On Tuesday morning, I woke up and got ready for work. That involved stuffing my large work laptop into my REI 18L day pack, gearing up with my puffy jacket and gloves, and walking about 12 minutes through the neighborhood to the Civic Center bus station.

Denver has a free bus line running the length of the 16th Street Mall called Free MallRide. Probably because a bunch of commuters started to use it (it’s more for shoppers and tourists), the city began offering a special commuter line called Free MetroRide with fewer stops and the same endpoints. It was this bus that pulled up to my waiting spot at the station. I was shocked to see the double-section bus at just under a quarter full. As we pulled up to the final stop at Union Station about 15 minutes later, I still couldn’t get over how stress-free the commute was. Definitely a night-and-day difference compared to the Bay Area.

Since our company’s Denver outpost was still fairly new, our employees were located at WeWork Union Station, a co-working space that companies could rent by the month. It was my first time at a WeWork, so it took a little bit to get used to the four-person work pods that the space uses. I appreciated the nitro cold brew on tap, the many dogs at the pet-friendly office, and the mingling of employees from various companies renting out the work pods.

Over the next three days, I met up with my coworkers, telecommuted to the SF team, and got some good work done. In the evening, I’d take the MetroRide back to Capitol Hill, stop by a restaurant for dinner on my walk back to the Airbnb, and chat with my hosts at the Airbnb. It was an awesome setup and gave me a very local experience – by the end of my stay, I was even mistaken as a local by my Lyft driver!

Denver Vibe & Activities

I particularly liked the vibe in Denver. Over the four days total that I stayed, I noticed plenty of similarities and differences compared to my current home in San Francisco. Both places had lots of construction going on, especially with new apartment complexes and roadwork. The food also reminded me of the Bay Area – tons of hip new spots along with classics offering a diverse set of cuisines.

However, Denver had a much more chill vibe overall. There’s just so much more room and fewer people. It’s much less stressful to get around. There’s a growing tech scene, but it’s not pervasive or overbearing. The weather is a bit more extreme, but not by much. And the cost of everything was a far cry from inflated Bay Area prices. I think a mural I came across on my last day in the city summed it up perfectly – Denver is just cool.

Since I was working during the week, I didn’t get out too much. But I did do several fun activities during my stay, and I got to walk around some well-known activity hubs.

Since my office was at LoDo (Lower Downtown), I stopped by Union Station quite a few times. There are a bunch of shops, cafes, and restaurants inside the recently restored station, and it’s right at the edge of the well-known 16th Street Mall, an outdoor mall with big-name stores and restaurants.

On Tuesday afternoon, my co-worker gave me an idea to look for cheap tickets for upcoming Nuggets basketball games. After a quick search, I couldn’t believe my luck. There was a Nuggets-Clippers game later that night, and I snagged a Row 4 courtside ticket for $50. The game at the Pepsi Center was a lot of fun. I’d never sat that close during an NBA game, so it was a treat watching some incredible players in high definition. To make things even better, the arena announced that every ticket holder got $10 to spend on concessions. Cheap courtside tickets and free concessions – another impossibility in the Bay Area. I enjoyed every minute.

On my last day the following Monday, I visited the History Colorado Center, a museum with exhibits about Denver’s history, culture, and art. It was time well-spent as I saw interesting exhibits covering the city’s trading post and gold rush days as well as the city’s many current events and attractions.

Denver Food

You’re probably curious to know how the food scene stacks up in Denver – I’m glad to report that it’s solid! During my stay in the city, I enjoyed a wide variety of good food at reasonable prices, and I didn’t even scratch the surface. I’ll include the standout restaurants I tried out below, plus the links to their respective Yelp pages.

Mellow Mushroom was located at the 16th Street Mall and served delicious, handcrafted pizzas, topped in their signature sauce swirl. Birdcall was a semi-automated fried chicken sandwich spot inside the Whole Foods next to my office, great for the lunch crowd. Pho-natic was the perfect answer to a very specific pho craving I had on a colder, rainy day. If you’ve ever wondered what cream cheese in a hot dog tastes like, Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs is the place to go (hint: it’s delicious). Shish Kabob Grill served one of the best chicken shawarma plates I’ve ever had. Both The Kitchen and Chop Shop Casual Urban Eatery offered delicious New California-style meals, and ZEPS Epiq Sandwiches did indeed have epic sandwiches, including a very tasty spicy Sriracha fried chicken sandwich.

Links to the Restaurants I Visited:

• Smoke Modern BBQ
• Mellow Mushroom
• Birdcall
• Pho-natic
• Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs
• Shish Kabob Grill
• The Kitchen
• Chop Shop Casual Urban Eatery
• ZEPS Epiq Sandwiches
• Lost Cajun
• Bagalis Restaurant
• The Club House
• Ollie’s Pub & Grub
• Prosit

Second Weekend

Starting Thursday afternoon, the crew flew in from both coasts to join for a second weekend of snowboarding (and skiing) fun. I met up with the earlier group and we drove another rental car to Frisco, a ski town we first stayed at during last year’s trip. We enjoyed dinner at the Lost Cajun and checked into our massive Airbnb just off Main Street. The second group got in a bit later, and once everyone was there, we were ready for the weekend.

On Friday, about 5 of us spent the day snowboarding at Breckenridge Ski Resort, a massive (and high-altitude) series of peaks with plenty of challenging and fun runs. We conquered the T-bars, and my highlight of the day was meeting my YouTube snowboarding hero Ryan Knapton, who just happened to be standing in front of me in line for the T-bars. I said hi to him and we chatted a bit about boards, and I even ended up in his video (as the guy standing in the background of the shot) – check it out:

Saturday was the big day. All 9 of us drove out to Vail, and we spent the entire day exploring the vast terrain of the resort. While I was in the lift line right before lunch, I realized that I’d dropped my iPhone on the previous run. Andrew and I went back out to retrace our steps, getting in a couple more quick runs in the process. When we reached that run, we called the phone and found out that someone had already picked it up and turned it in – back where we’d started. A couple of lift rides later, I was reunited with my phone, thanks to a kind stranger and good vibes.

That night marked the Second Annual Frisco Bar Crawl, a tradition we’d started the previous year. Frisco is a pretty small (but well-established) ski town, and we spent the evening hitting up several bars along Main Street. It was a ton of fun with a large group, and we got in some foosball/pool table/shuffleboard practice during the crawl. The crew ended up going to The Club House, Ollie’s Pub & Grub, and one of our faves – Prosit, a German food and beer hall, before calling it a night. We had one more snowboarding day and were determined to make the most of it.

A small group of us returned to Breckenridge on Sunday, and it was one of the most relaxing snowboarding days I’ve had in recent memory. We did some fun, easy runs, took a long lunch break, and even got in a few afternoon runs just as the snow started to cap off the day. It was the perfect ending to 5 epic days of snowboarding over a couple weekends, and to make things even better our trip back to Denver went by without a hitch, despite the snow and traffic.

All in all, my trip to Colorado this time around was as smooth as it could be. I had plenty of solo adventure time during the first weekend and during the week, living like a local and experiencing the awesome food & activities of Denver. I also had a wonderful time with great friends continuing our snowboarding tradition in Colorado over the second weekend. I can’t wait for the next year and future trips to come!

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Rocky Mountain Adventures at www.RandomTidbitsofThought.com.
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