I have another goal to visit all 50 state capitol buildings in the US. Even though I visited all 50 states, the capitals I’m still lagging behind. Colorado was the first capitol building I visited after making it to every state. It had the typical state capitol design that was popular in the late 1800’s. This structure was built in 1894, just short of 40 years after Denver became a city.

Right in front of the capitol building is Denver’s Civic Center. This neighborhood has a lot going on here, from art institutions, gardens and statues, to a Greek amphitheater and of course some government buildings. I was in Denver on the July 4th weekend, and the Civic Center seemed to be one of the most popular places to view the firework show. I had prepared to come here on July 4th itself which was a Saturday, a perfect day for fireworks! For some reason Denver thought July 3rd made more sense, and I found out there was no show on the 4th!

Denver is a well known city, but it’s population is less than 650,000 people, or about the same size as Washington DC. It’s downtown area is nice and clean and it has a few high rise buildings like the one photographed below. These photos above and below were taken just outside the capitol building as well.

The city center has a large strip where most of the action is. I had lunch here with my friend who traveled with me and we got a crazy run down of the city from our waitress. Aside from describing secret underground prisons in Denver and her own run in with the law, she pointed out all the hot spots and places of interest nearby. The lunch I had by the way was this salad below from an Irish restaurant. It looks like you get to mix the salad yourself here.

I came across this bragging bull whilfe walking in the city center. It brags about the reasons that everyone loves Denver. It has the largest city park system in the US and over 300 days of sunshine! I’m not sure why they mention having a big airport, but if bigger is better to you then they also have the biggest airport by space in the US as well. Located in the heart of America, Denver has always been an important hub for flights. I’ve actually been to the Denver airport at least 10 times before I finally got out and saw the city!

This part of Denver had a mix of all kinds of people. The plastic bucket drummer above and the skateboarding kid below were both taken in the same block.

The best thing about this part of Denver is that they have a very efficient bus system, and it’s even free! We had rented a car so we took advantage of this bus to get around a few blocks, but otherwise we drove the longer distances. I’m not sure how convenient it is but there is a city wide train system, with one of the trains photographed below. They seemed to run fairly often so I imagine it’s easy to use.

Denver has all kinds of people, but probably it’s most known across America has being the fittest city in the country. Like the painted bull from earlier said, Denver has the biggest city park network in the country, and the citizens take full advantage of it.

I didn’t see too many homeless people in Denver, but like every city in the world there are always some. This couple above didn’t look homeless to me, but while they were sleeping they had a sign out that asking for money followed by a short Happy July 4th message. I took this photo as I walked with my friend from the downtown areas to Denver City Park.

Denver is famous for its museums and art institutions. Of course it’s nearly impossible to visit them all, but I believe their natural history museum is by far the best. It’s such a massive complex that covers so many areas that I can’t imagine there to be a better museum in the city. To me it seemed Smithsonian class, and really is a must see if you’re in the city.

Before I visited the museum, I had only assumed that it only covered Colorado. Instead, the museum covers nearly everything like I mentioned earlier. They even have a floor dedicated to space exploration. Above is a photo of a recreation of what an area of Mars might look like.

There was another large part of the exhibit that had local wildlife on display. I loved the moose above is in front of a painting of its natural habitat in Colorado. The photo below shows a pack of wolves that along with bears, are the most dangerous animals in the state. They have probably a hundred other animals on display, including many from other parts of the world and even a dinosaur exhibit.

What I mostly wanted to see in the museum was what life was like for Colorado Native Americans. I was a bit disappointed because they seemed to cover the entire country rather than give insight on what the tribes were like in the region. Lots of Native American art was on display like this artifact below. Unfortunately I have no idea if it’s from a local tribe or other parts of the country.

These shoes on display are also from Native Americans, but show the different styles from tribes in the United States. The ones in the back to me looked appropriate for colder climates like the Pacific northwest. The blue shoes on the right I think could be worn by someone in modern times without getting any attention!

The natural history museum is located at the eastern end of Denver City Park. I had thought there was must be a real name for this vast recreational area, but it really is simply called Denver City Park. The park has a large lake in the middle, plenty of places for picnics, sports, and other entertainment. The photo below shows kids playing in a park fountain on a hot summer day.

This pond in Denver City Park was dominated by cormorants. They had completely taken over a small island in the pond and outnumbered the ducks and geese by 10 to 1. Cormorants area pretty popular bird and I see them all over the world. They’re all called snake head birds because the way their head looks when they’re body is submerged.

The people playing volleyball were also in the city park. I came here with my friend on July 4th to see the firework show. We were hoping to get a nice view and see the fireworks above the city skyline. Instead, this is about when we found out that the firework show had been the day before on July 3rd. We got a disappointing show from some neighboring suburbs, like the photo below. They were too far to really see anything and just appeared at random places over the trees. I still feel like July 4th on a Saturday is the perfect day for the celebrations, and don’t understand why they’d pick a Friday!

Just outside of Denver is the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. The place was a bit annoying to find, as my friend and I followed the map directions on our phone which took us to the northeast region of the refuge. There was no entrance here, so we drove around the entire perimeter until finally finding our way in after nearly doing a complete loop. From the outside, the place looked off limits and I was seriously doubting if it was even a refugue. Once inside, it’s exactly as described, different types of terrain and wildlife. Above is a boardwalk that goes through some ponds. The ponds are filled with waterfowl, fish, and lots of colorful dragonflies.

Prairie dogs are popular all over the state. There are even several city trails that are known for their abundance of Prairie dogs in the area. The wildlife refuge was no exception. I saw dozens of them like this one standing above his hole.

I saw a ton of wildlife in the refuge. Everything from small rabbits to deer, and this hawk above. Possibly the highlight of visiting the refuge would be to see bison. There is a large herd here that is photographed crossing the road below. The refuge is pretty large though, so once the bison crossed the road they moved east into the plains and out of view. There are strict rules about not getting out of your car for safety purposes, so the shot below was the best I got of them!