Everything seems sweeter in the summer—the sound of music in the streets, the sight of all that bare skin in the parks, the campgrounds and the festival fields, and, especially, every first long sip of cold beer on your lips.
Of course, living in Colorado only makes the hot dog days of July and August that much better, with the mountains to run to, the rivers to ride, and all the paths and high alpine pavement waiting for you to pedal and hike and shimmy across. But just in case all that heat has given you a creativity brain cramp on where to have fun next, here are a few super-cheap, super-unique ways for you to make some more Mile High Magic before the summer sun sets. It’s your guide to inexpensive Colorado adventure:
Ride the Freaky 15
Coloradans like to argue over which mountain bike trail is the steepest, which river the roughest, and how nothing makes your palms sweat like a rainy drive over Red Mountain Pass. But for those in the know, there’s no more a heart-raising ride than a trip down Colfax on the Number 15 bus. As much a cheap form of public transportation down Denver’s asphalt artery as it is a cultural excursion into the multi-ethnic, blue-collar backbone that makes this town tick, the “Freaky 15,” as locals know it, features the chance to learn new slang, smell new smells, and stop at any assortment of kebab joints, 7-11s or tacquerias that you pass. The variations on fellow passengers are innumerable, as is the amount of people-watching you can take part in when you are bussing the ‘Fax.
Swim at Congress Park
Seriously, if I could be eating an ice cream sandwich at the Congress Park pool right now, I might never ask for anything else. Denver’s most unpretentious pool—public or otherwise, and despite its Capitol Hill address—Congress is exactly what a public pool should be, long and rectangular and set in the sun, with a place to picnic and a place to just chill on the grass. For $3.50 adult admission, it could also be the cheapest way you spend a Sunday waiting for your hangover to swim past.
Watch the Rockies
To be honest, baseball bores me. And from OPS to RBI to xFIP (seriously?), I’m suspicious of any sport with so much math. But I do love LoDo, and sitting at Coors Field on a warm August night with a few thousand Denverites watching multi-millionaires knock around a little white ball. It’s so surreal it just screams summer—the idea that wasting time could be elevated to such art. And you can sit in the Dog Pile for a mere $5. Walk across the street to El Chapultepec for a tequila, a couple tacos, a cold beer and some real jazz after the game, and you’ll get a double shot of transcendence.
Jog Around a City Park
I don’t think there’s anything healthier than watching other people work out. And Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins’ city parks are some of the best places to do that—from watching some seriously competitive pick-up/league soccer, ultimate Frisbee or even horseshoes, to getting your own sweat on, this state has some fantastically free public places to exercise (or not). Washington Park remains my personal favorite, because it’s flat, the guys on road bikes running their own private criterium take themselves seriously and the local fauna is spectacularly prescient of what our world will look like when Monsanto designs jogging paths.
Do the Beer Tour
The Coors beer tour has long been one of the kitchiest—and yet coolest—every day tourist attractions of Colorado life. The fact that the city (town?) of Golden keeps improving by the minute only makes this that much more of a must-see summer stop. Of course, if macro-brews aren’t your business (although I distinctly remember a couple uncles taking cases of Coors back East on the plane when its alcohol-avore heritage was still key to its claim to fame), there are dozens of other quality micro-locations where you can see the barrels, talk about yeast and enjoy a delightful draft.
Support Local Music
While winter may be key to the ski-and-snowboard-bum business, summer is the golden season for musicians trying to share—and sell—their craft. Whether they are fly-by-nights, or legends in the making, you’ll never know for sure if you don’t take the time to head to your nearest festival, pub-fest or backyard rock-u-cue to check them out. Nothing’s more Constitutionally protected than the right to shake your booty. And all summer long, from new solo artists to big name bands, the South Pearl Street Rock the Block Concert Series is one of those perfect places to exercise that right.
Camp Out
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, you haven’t really lived in Colorado until you’ve spent at least one night out under the stars, or nestled in a tent. There really is something magical in the air here, with the breeze in the pines and the gold in the sunsets. Bring a guitar, stock some beers in a cooler, invite some friends, and get yourself up to some outlook, lake, trailhead or forest nook, leave all your laptops and cellphones and iPads behind, and find out just how good Rocky Mountain living can be when it’s at its simple natural best. Stay out more than one night—for a week, even—and you might even come home with a better sense of self.
Plant a Tree
Probably the priciest thing to do on this list—although only slightly—planting a tree may be one of the most rewarding things you can do this summer, for the planet and yourself. I’ve got an apple tree, two peach trees and an apricot in my backyard now that I watch all summer long, visually measuring the growth and the wildlife that they support. But my favorite thing to do is drive by the three honey locusts that I planted with my father more than 25 years ago on Fairfax Street. Those trees are more than 40 feet tall now, and every time I see them I think of all the popsicles and beers and warm summer kisses I ever enjoyed beneath them, and how quickly each summer can pass.
Peter Kray is EO’s editor-at-large and co-founder of the Gear Institute.
