Ten Things to Know About the Mile High City

1. Denver really is exactly one mile high. By incredible good luck, there is a step on the State Capitol Building that is exactly 5,280 feet above sea level. In Denver's rarified air, golf balls go ten percent farther. So do cocktails. Alcoholic drinks pack more of a wallop than at sea level. The sun feels warmer, because you're closer to it, but your coffee is cooler, because water boils at 202 degrees. Mile High Denver is also extremely dry, so it is good idea to drink more water than normal. With less water vapor in the air at this altitude, the sky really is bluer in Colorado. But there's 25 percent less protection from the sun, so sunscreen is a must.
2. Denver has the 10th largest downtown in America. Unlike some Western cities, Denver has a definitive, exciting and walkable downtown. Within a mile radius, downtown Denver has three major sports stadiums, the nation's second largest performing arts center, three colleges with 30,000 students, an assortment of art and history museums, a mint producing 10 billion coins a year, a river offering white water rafting, over 5,300 hotel rooms, a $140 million amusement park, a $100 million aquarium with sharks and sea otters and well over 300 restaurants. The Colorado Convention Center is located within easy walking distance of over 7,000 hotel rooms and is within safe walking distance of 300 restaurants.
3. Denver is near the mountains, not in them. Denver might not be in the mountains, but the mountains dominate Denver. There are 200 named peaks visible from Denver, including 32 that soar to 13,000 feet and above. The mountain panorama visible from Denver is 140 miles long. State law prohibits building any structure that would block the view from the State Capitol. To penetrate the mountains west of Denver, required building the highest auto tunnel in the world (Eisenhower Tunnel) and the longest railroad tunnel in North America (Moffat Tunnel).
4. Denver has 300 days of sunshine a year. Located east of a major mountain range, Denver has a mild, dry and sunny climate with more annual hours of sun than San Diego or Miami Beach. Golf courses remain open all year and have been played as many as 30 days in January. The average daily high in February is 45 degrees--warmer than New York, Philadelphia or St. Louis.
5. Denver's history is short, but colorful. Prior to 1858, there were no permanent residents in the Denver metro area. Thirty years later, Colorado was a state with a population of almost 200,000 people. It was a Gold Rush that caused this boom, and in a 30 to 40 year period Denver saw some of the wildest events in the Wild, Wild West. This fascinating period lives again in museums, old gold mining villages and hundreds of wonderful, elegant Victorian buildings that can be found throughout the city, many of them now housing restaurants, shops and hotels.
6. Denver has the largest city park system in the nation. Denver has more than 200 parks within the city and 20,000 acres of parks in the nearby mountains, including spectacular Red Rocks Amphitheatre. There are 650 miles of off-street bike paths, 90 golf courses, one of the nation's largest urban trail systems and Denver owns its own ski area – Winter Park Resort. Denver pets fare well too. Denver was selected as the number 1 city for dogs and cats in May 2003 by the Purina Pet Institute. They rated Denver as the healthiest city for pets because the Denver metro area has the most veterinarians per capita and the fewest fleas.
7. Denver is a cultural city with the highest educated population in America. In its Old West days, Denver had a performance of Macbeth before it had a school or a hospital. That performance took place in a saloon. Today, the Denver Performing Arts Complex has nine theatres seating 10,000 people and is second only to New York's Lincoln Center. Denver is currently adding a new $75 million theatre to the complex; completing a $130 million refurbishing of the Denver Zoo; and adding a new wing to the Denver Art Museum, which will be designed by Daniel Libeskind, winner of the World Trade Center redesign competition.
8. Denver also loves its sports. Denver is one of only a few cities to have eight professional sports teams including the NFL Denver Broncos, the NBA Denver Nuggets, NHL Colorado Avalanche; Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies, Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids, the Arena Football Denver Crush, the Colorado Outlaws outdoor Lacrosse team and the indoor Lacrosse team Colorado Mammoth. Denver also has horse and dog racing, professional rodeo and an annual Grand Prix on Labor Day Weekend. Denver is the only city to build three new stadiums in the 1990s: 50,000-seat Coors Field; 75,000-seat INVESCO Field at Mile High, and 20,000-seat Pepsi Center.
9. Denver is a city of many colors and cultures with great diversity. Denver grew by 30 percent in the 1990s--an average of 1,000 new people a week, every week for ten years. In this period, the Hispanic population in Colorado increased by 73 percent. Today, 32 percent of the City of Denver is of Hispanic and Latino descent and 11 percent is African American. Denver's diversity is celebrated at numerous festivals and events including the nation's largest Cinco de Mayo celebration and the annual Juneteenth and Dragon Boat Festival.
10. Denver brews more beer than any other city. The first building in Denver was a saloon, so it's natural that Denver would become a great beer town. Coors Brewery is the world's largest. Denver's Great American Beer Festival is the largest in the nation with 1,400 different beers. The Wynkoop Brewing Company is one of the largest brewpub in America and Colorado's oldest brewpub. On an average day, Denver brews more than 80 different beers.

Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau
Check the Denver Tourism Guide, Know What The Locals Know (Adobe Flash required), or the Denver Post newspaper.