Sports & Recreation

At 7,000 feet, Spring Cave, which opens May 1, is one of the longest caves in Colorado, located less than a mile from the South Fork Trailhead, east of Meeker. In springtime, the stream that flows through the cave widens to form “Emerald Lake,” which makes a full wetsuit a requirement for anyone heading into the back sections.

Another tourist cave that had been abandoned for years, Manitou offers a physically challenging wild tour that includes sections discovered as recently as five years ago. Still missing is a large section that was open to tourists, complete with electric lights and hand-rails, until it flooded in the 1920s. Check out the Web site, www.caveofthewinds.com, for an in-depth probe.

This large cave in Iron Mountain above Glenwood Springs contains about three miles of known passageways and was first opened as a tourist attraction at the beginning of the twentieth century; it was abandoned in the 1920s, then reopened in 1999. A family tour along electrically lit gravel pathways is available through some fantastic interior decorations that Martha never even dreamed of. The caves open May 1.

Hard-rock silver mining made Colorado what it was in the first half of the nineteenth century, but can you imagine what life was like for the miners? Find out when Colorado Historical Society guides lead you through the Lebanon Silver Mine and show you the mine manager’s office, the change room (also called a “dry”), and the blacksmith’s shop and tool shed. The mine is accessible only by the Georgetown Loop Railroad; reservations are accepted for Silver Plume departures only. The hour-and-twenty-minute walking tour costs $6 for adults, $4 for children (in addition to the train ride) and is available from May 25 to September 2. Bring a sweater.

Follow the vein of gold ore one-third of a mile into Galena Mountain, and you can see and experience the operation of mining equipment in a real mine setting. The Old Hundred bores into Cunningham Gulch, just minutes from historic Silverton, in a scenic area that’s easily accessible by car or RV. The 45-minute guided tour takes place in an authentic mine tram as well as on foot. Tours leave on the hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week from May 10 through October 13. Gold panning is free with the purchase of a tour ticket.

Play paleontologist for a day, and take home a little piece of prehistory from a virgin site on the Morrison Formation. Owner Dana Forbes is sure visitors to his seventy acres eighteen miles east of the town of Dinosaur will be rewarded for participating in scientific digs, because many bone fragments are clearly visible on the surface. Anyone interested in laying hands on fossilized dinosaur bones, belemnites, ammonites, shark teeth, septarian nodules and petrified wood discoveries can sign up for a “dig date” Monday through Saturday, May through October, for just $60 a day; family rates are also available. The fee includes an escort to and from the potential dig site, beverages while digging, lecture or leadership costs, use of rock and fossil excavation equipment, preparation supplies, documentation supplies and access to first-aid supplies. Reservations are available through the Web site only.

Petrified plants are waiting to be found at the Florissant Fossil Quarry; they’re in between layers of “paper” shale. For $20, you can pick up a crate — approximately forty pounds — of the fossiliferous shale that must be split and examined on site. Visitors can also search piles of shale at an hourly rate of $7.50 for adults and $5 for children seventeen and younger. Any unusually rare or scientifically valuable finds must either remain with the Clare family, who have owned the site for four generations, or be donated to a museum of the finder’s choice. Nature’s Wealth is the on-site fossil shop that has a collection of insect and plant fossils for sale, as well as jewelry, mineral samples and children’s fossil-collecting kits. The quarry is next to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, but don’t even think about taking anything home from there.

You can rely too heavily on technology, especially in the back country. Just because you have a cell phone or a Global Positioning System receiver doesn’t mean you won’t get lost. In February, the U.S. Geological Survey office in Lakewood offered free two-hour courses on maps and compass reading and how to relate both skills to the proper use of GPS. While a bare-bones GPS costs about $150, you should also pop for a topo map; using the two together you’ll always know exactly where you are. How to get back from there is up to you.

Don’t forget to stop and smell the primroses as you hike along the 1.5-mile Pawnee Buttes Trail, the only maintained hiking trail on the grassland — and one where wildflowers bloom in the shadows of the 300-foot-high sandstone cliffs. In mid-June, when the prickly pear cactus, purple locoweed and white prairie phlox are blooming on the shortgrass steppe, the show is particularly brilliant, but spring’s less showy displays are also rewarding. Donald L. Hazlett, a native of the eastern plains, has identified 521 different plants that grow on the grassland’s 193,060 acres, including the Machaeranthera tanacetifoli (tansy aster), Ratibida columnifera (prairie coneflower) and Arenaria hookeri (tufted sandwort). His Vascular Plant Species of the Pawnee National Grassland is available at the U.S. Forest Service’s office, which supervises the grassland, in Greeley.

The town of Leadville is mining history from its mining history with the Mineral Belt Trail. The twelve-mile black-topped trail circles the town and its mining district and is perfect for hiking or biking — or using any form of wheeled, non-motorized transportation — past such historic sites as Horace Tabor’s Matchless Mine, where Baby Doe spent her last eccentric days. The trail, which follows an old railroad bed, passes nine historic mines in all and can be accessed from one of the many “on ramps” throughout town. It’s groomed for snowshoeing in the winter, too.

Now that your yard is overrun with creatures from the wild, your dog could probably use a day trip. Take him backpacking, and he could earn a Champion title from the Canine Backpackers Association. All he has to do is complete three ten-mile hikes while carrying a pack, water bowl and water weighing 25 percent of his body weight. If he carries less weight, he can still become a Trail Dog. CBA is open to all dogs, mixed-breed or otherwise, and humans can join for a mere $20 per year. The organization is the brainchild of Conifer writer Maggie Bonham, and the Web site, www.caninebackpackers.com, features some very useful rules for hiking with dogs, champion or otherwise. First among them: Don’t let him chase wildlife — he can do that at home.

The latest baby polar bear and baby giraffe are, of course, welcome additions, and who can resist a wee pair of warthogs? But the ever-expanding Denver Zoo added a particularly genteel touch to its grounds last spring with the debut of a gorgeous endangered-species carousel. Kids love to pick their favorite mounts from its hand-carved menagerie, which includes shiny, lacquered pandas, tigers, panthers, giraffes, zebras and more, including an elegant peacock throne for those little ones too timid to go up and down and around and around at the same time. You could say the zoo experience has come full circle.

If wild visitors have decided not only to take over your living space but to dismantle it while they’re there, it could be time to call in the experts on peaceful inter-species co-existence. Since 1987, Wildlife Masters have been available to provide advice on discouraging incursions by a wide variety of small varmints, from rodents and snakes to skunks and pocket voles. This time of year, the more than two dozen volunteers in the county’s program, modeled after the Master Gardener volunteer corps, field a number of calls about getting rid of woodpeckers, or, more likely, the northern flicker, which has a habit of drilling huge holes in the sides of houses. Here’s a tip: Fake owls don’t work. Check out www.ext.colostate.edu/coop/ ctylist.html for a list of extension-service offices in other counties.

Now that you’ve turned your back yard into a wildly popular wildlife retreat, what do you do when your furry visitors decide they’d rather nest in your chimney? Log on to www.greenwoodwildlife.org for tips on handling displaced baby raccoons, squirrels and birds. The site also features a sound gallery of bird calls and amusing Flash-animated paw prints that follow your cursor across the home page. The sanctuary is licensed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Colorado Division of Wildlife to treat and release injured animals, which it has been doing since 1982.

If you want to do more with your garden than plant showy annuals, this could be the year you give back to the ecosystem. By taking a few positive steps, you can turn your open space into a certified wildlife sanctuary that’s recognized by the National Wildlife Federation. Planting native flora that provide food and shelter for birds and other creatures and providing water year-round are just two of the simple things you can do. The specially trained habitat stewards at the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center offer assistance for your more involved projects. The critters will love you for it, and they’ll tell all their friends.

Just because you can’t get that hydrangea to flourish on the north side of your garage doesn’t mean there aren’t hundreds of plants that thrive in the bright sun and crisp air of the Rocky Mountain Region. Since 1997, it has been the purpose of the Plant Select program — a cooperative effort of the Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University — to seek out and distribute the very best plants for landscapes and gardens from the mountains to the high plains. Each year, a half-dozen or so plants make the cut, as either Recommended (plants that have been grown in the region for years), Originals (time-tested hybrids), or Introductions (brand-new plants discovered by the program). Look for this year’s Mesa Verde Ice Plant Introduction, scientifically named for longtime Denver horticulturist and Plant Select director Panayoti Kelaidis.

A sister sport to our buddy the trapeze, aerial fabric is a graceful, artistic and physically challenging discipline. You’ve maybe seen aerial dancers at the circus or on TV, but you probably never pictured yourself doing such a thing. Cathy Gauch, founder of Aircat Aerial Arts, can teach you. She’s well-versed in high-flying acrobatics and has an extensive aerial repertoire, including trapeze, hoops, ropes, bungees, swings, straps and fabric. She teaches novice and intermediate aerial dancers ages twelve and up at her studio in Boulder and at Bladium Sports Club, where our friends from Thin Air Trapeze also teach. Additionally, Gauch teaches aerial hoops, Spanish web rope and classes for kids between four and eight. Aircat Aerial Arts is also a performance company. Look for more information at www.aircat.net.

Your mama was always worried that you’d go off and join the circus, but you went to college and made her proud instead. It’s not too late for you, though, because the trapeze isn’t just for super-athletic, death-defying circus performers anymore. In 2000, a group of people left the Imperial Flyers, a Denver-based amateur-flying-trapeze club, and decided to construct an indoor rig at the Bladium Sports Club so that they could practice in the winter. At the same time, they started Thin Air Trapeze, a nonprofit trapeze school. Beginning classes at Thin Air Trapeze teach you some basic trapeze moves with the added security of safety lines at your waist. Now people between the ages of 9 and 96 can learn how to climb and take off from the perch, how to swing, how to fly in the “knee hang,” and the all-important lesson of how to fall to the net gracefully. Thin Air Trapeze also offers intermediate and advanced lessons for trapeze enthusiasts. If flying high above the ground at fast speeds is not for you, Thin Air Trapeze also teaches circus-arts classes closer the ground, such as juggling and trampoline tricks. You can learn to fly on the trapeze for $75 for four sessions, or stop by on a drop-in basis for $25; however, reservations are required. You also must sign a waiver to participate in the high-flying fun. Nervous yet? Visit them on the Web at www.thinairtrapeze.com.

If you want to learn to ride like Flip — or, more likely, just flip head-first off some livestock — here’s your chance. Each year, Lancaster’s Rock-N-Roll Rodeo Gear sponsors two three-day championship bullriding and bullfighting schools at the indoor Bar W Slash Rodeo Arena in Aurora. Classes are offered for all ages and levels of experience, although 15 through 25 is considered the prime age for bull riding. Participants should have their own gloves and spurs;the school supplies the bulls, and there are enough for each student to have his own ride. The $350 tuition includes instruction from champion bullfighter Rowdy Barry and Fort Collins’s own Mike Moore. The spring session takes place the first weekend in April, with upcoming schools planned for October or November.

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowgirls: They might turn into bull riders instead. At least, that’s what happened to Ashlin Spence, aka Flip, of Fort Collins. The sixteen-year-old Poudre High School student was the only girl to compete in the bull-riding event in the Salt Lake ProAm Olympics Rodeo — out of about 1,000 competitors. Flip was also the 2001 junior champion of the Wild Bunch Bullriding series. She’s broken some bones, bruised up some ribs and busted out a front tooth, but Flip plans to keep on riding about a hundred bulls a year. You go, girl.

Those who think they’ve seen everything the Stock Show has to offer should check out the Mexican Rodeo Extravaganza, which gives a colorful makeover to bull riding and fighting, trick roping and the like. And that’s not to mention the Paso de la Muerte, also known as the “death jump.” Look before you leap.

You’ve seen them on TV, and you know they gather important information about severe weather that can save lives. You think they might be a little bit nuts, and you wish you could be one of them: Storm Chasers, the guys and gals who go out of their way to find and photograph tornadoes up close and personal. Now you can give it a try, by signing up with Storm Chasing Adventure Tours. For the past five years, severe-storm expert Todd Thorn and his band of merry madmen have been providing tornado tours to people from around the world who are in search of the ultimate adventure vacation. Last year, the tours sighted seven tornadoes and dozens of storm cells; this year, Storm Chasing Tours has added a two-way satellite Internet system in the tornado van for full-time, real-time weather-data access. The storm season starts in May in Texas and Oklahoma, then moves to Colorado and Nebraska in June and July, and Storm Chasing Adventure Tours has ten tours planned to catch as many of them as possible. More information and registration are available at www.stormchasing.com.

Say hi to lowriders: After you’ve seen a decked-out lowrider bicycle, regular bikes just look like plain, boring, single scoops of vanilla ice cream. Kids go crazy over lowriders’ smooth lines, colorfully airbrushed frames, whitewall tires and other accessories, such as headlights and steering wheels. When we stopped by recently to survey the goods at Dragon Lowriders, there were at least five kids in the shop ogling the many pairs of spiffy chrome rims, gleaming, twisting front forks and velvet banana seats; the photographs of colorful, customized lowrider bikes lining the store’s windows gave them plenty of ideas. Dragon Lowriders started back in 1994, when owner Santiago Mondragon had trouble ordering parts for his son’s custom lowrider. He opened the shop in an empty spot next to his frame shop on Santa Fe Drive, and, eight years later, the shop is busier than ever. Take a little trip.

Ron Kiefel finished six out of seven of his Tour de France tries, won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics for a team time trial and has probably ridden more than 300,000 miles during his cycling career — which makes him especially suited to understand all the nuances of riding bicycles. Kiefel believes getting a custom bicycle fitting is important for anyone who is serious about cycling: With the right frame, a cyclist can ride better, faster and longer. Ron and the twelve other certified bicycle fitters who work at Wheat Ridge Cyclery choose a frame best suited for your frame, and with over 1,000 bicycles in stock, it’s not hard to find a fit. Even if you’re not in the market for an $8,000 high-performance cycle, you can visit when they pedal their wisdom at free monthly bicycle-maintenance clinics.

The ten-mile, single-track Hewlett Gulch trail, which starts at the Poudre Park picnic area on the Cache la Poudre River, is full of gnarly challenges like twists and turns and rocky stream crossings. But the initial 3.1-mile climb up the appropriately named Flower Road is flanked by beautiful wildflowers, a soothing sight for sore thighs.

For sixteen years, the Tandem Club of Colorado has been promoting togetherness on bicycles built for two with rallies, rides and fun events. Last month’s annual meeting, held at REI’s flagship store in Denver, has attracted about fifty people of all ages. This season’s events include the Tour de Denver on June 9 — a 55-mile ride from Aurora to Confluence Park and back — and a seven-day round trip from Leadville and back, which winds through Glenwood Springs and Salida, covering distances of thirty to seventy miles a day. Rides can be any time, anywhere, but helmets are mandatory. Buddy up and take a ride.

The 3,206 acres of backcountry purchased by Boulder County Parks and Open Space in 1993 are required to balance wildlife and recreation. That means there’s plenty to see along Hall Ranch’s dozen miles of multi-use trails, about half of which are open to bikers, hikers and horseback riders. But you’ll need to study the open-space rules at www.co.boulder.co.us/openspace before you learn the secret code word to download a map.

If you see mountain bikers around Colorado clutching colorful, waterproof plastic-coated contour maps, chances are they’re counting on Boulder’s Latitude 40 to steer them. The Boulder County Mountain Bike Map is now in its seventh edition, and the Front Range map — with 101 rides on one side — stretches from Fort Collins to Chatfield.

Back when life was a bit rustic along the Front Range, savvy tourists tested their roadsters on the challenging-but-not-impossible byways. One favorite was the forty-mile Lariat Loop, linking Golden, Morrison, Bear Creek Canyon and Red Rocks. Last year, a group revived this tradition, giving it a twist: Participants must compete on a mystery course and defeat obstacles. The event returns in a cloud of dust on June 22.

It’s ’round midnight, and you just can’t believe that hook of yours won’t go away. You’re tired of the club scene but not your clubs. If you’re a member at D’Lance Golf, you can work on ways to fix your game at all hours. With five hitting bays, four simulators and other high-tech gear available 24 hours a day, D’Lance is determined to help you get a grip on your game. (Non-members are welcome until 7 p.m.) And if you need human help, employees are usually on duty until 8 p.m. for instruction and advice.

A public course manicured to country-club standards, the intriguing 27-hole layout at Fox Hollow Golf Course in Lakewood offers a variety of challenges, according to when you play. Depending on maintenance and tournament schedules, eighteen-hole players tackle shifting combinations of two of the facility’s three courses: the hilly, demanding Canyon 9; the lovely Meadows 9, which puts water hazards into play on every hole; and the European-styled Links 9, perhaps the most ego-friendly of the three. Regulars praise Fox Hollow’s amiable atmosphere and easy-on-the-wallet greens fees, which are under $40.

This summer collection of related shows was so worth the drive — no, cruise — south to Pueblo. In fact, the very act of driving was the ultimate way to prepare for the riches awaiting your bone-weary bottom and road-fried mind at the end of that ninety-mile trek. There, high-end automotive art by the likes of Robert Williams, Von Dutch and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth canoodled with sleek hotrod forms and candy-colored lowrider art, and vintage gas pumps and gauges sidled up alongside hubcap collections and car-part assemblages in a good-natured free-for-all. It was like a crash-course trip through a late-night showing of American Graffiti, augmented by a demented stopover in the realm of Zap Comix. The classy Sangre de Cristo Center was definitely on a roll.

An estimated 5,000 stickers shellac the entire body of a 1975 Pontiac Grandview, the baby of Broomfield Middle School P.E. teacher Al Pallone. After starting with stickers from his son Vinny’s sports teams a decade ago, Pallone gradually enveloped his everyday ride in stickers trumpeting everything from Megadeth to the National Hot Rod Association. The road life of Colorado’s first art car came to an abrupt end five years ago when the engine blew, but Pallone donated it to the Forney Transportation Museum so visitors could eternally pay their respects to the automotive sensation that is ZaBeast.

Just as Winter Park strives to offer skiing as it used to be (and maybe ought to be), the neigh-

boring tubing hill in Fraser has an authentic feel. Looking out over the railroad tracks from the top of the hill is inspiring; so is the headlong rush down the hill. During spring break, operators have been known to keep the hill humming for twelve-hour intervals. While there are other winter tubing places, it’s hard to match the thrill of this hill.

Okay, maybe it’s not technically seaweed, but the chilly algae attached to the rocks in the Yampa can prove an irresistible plaything during a hot summer’s float through Steamboat. Several operators line the banks of the Yampa renting tubes for floaters, and during lulls, some have been known to scoop handfuls of the stuff and bomb tubers with the Steamboat slime. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Say you’re allergic to bar smoke but still have a jones for tabletop hockey. Save your pennies and buy your own sturdy Carrom Bubble-Hockey table for about $900 through Wagner’s Casual Dining. Want to take it for a test spin? The company is happy to order you a trial table so you can see just how cool it would be to have your own in-home stadium.

After the old Hyland Hills Ice Arena closed in 1997, the facility could have stayed in cold storage. But hockey is hot, and so is in-line skating. So the building was spiffed up with a smooth surface and brought back as the Breakaway Center by In-line Endeavors, LLC, in cooperation with Westminster and the Hyland Hills Park and Recreation District. Also home to the Western Conference of the Professional Major League Roller Hockey Association, this is now the place to glide and ride.

From mid-December to mid-March, 55-acre Evergreen Lake becomes a high-altitude Hans Brinker’s dream. This is outdoor skating at its finest, with a cleared hockey rink on one shore, the Lakehouse serving hot chocolate on the other and plenty of public skating in between. The rest of the year, the lake’s great for fishing and boating. Try that at the Pepsi Center.

Open year-round, the indoor South Suburban Ice Arena complex offers twin ice sheets, a concession stand, lessons for all ages and ability levels, competitive programs for hockey and figure skating, and cool admission prices for public skating: $2.50-$3.50 in district and $4-$5 for non-district residents. Tell ’em Sakic sent you.

It’s sweet and petite, just the most delightful addition to a holiday shopping outing with the kids. From mid-November to mid-January, the Cherry Creek North Business District opens its outdoor rink at Fillmore Plaza daily, and it stays open late on Friday and Saturday nights. Skate rentals are available, but no tushie pillows.

Sure, REI’s flagship store has that slammin’ climbing wall, its own Starbucks and, right outside, the Platte River, where you can test-drive/ride/kayak the equipment. But the best sports in the building are the people who man the Outdoor Recreation Information Center, a joint venture between the sporting-goods company’s store and nonprofit groups, including the Colorado Mountain Club, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado State Parks. Conveniently located near the map section, the center’s booth is staffed by forest-service personnel and volunteers, who hand out maps, literature (only from public agencies — no commercial outfits allowed) and all sorts of advice on where to use that equipment now that you’ve bought it. The center is open Tuesdays through Saturdays; the ORIC’s Web site, www.oriconline.org, is available at all hours. Information, please — and thank you.

While youth basketball once seemed like a forgotten sport in Colorado — the runty sibling of brawny football or flashy skiing — it has grown up in a hurry. A big chunk of the credit belongs to the Gold Crown Foundation, whose CEO and original booster is ex-Nugget guard Bill Hanzlik. While Gold Crown deals with other games, too, it’s the explosion of boys’ and girls’ hoops — resulting in some 420 teams across the state this season, the largest in eight years of competitive ball — that has Colorado basketball soaring.

Set in a former grocery store, Denver Paintball covers about 14,000 square feet and is open daily to walk-ins. Players can bring their own guns or try the rental package, which includes protective gear as well as ammo. Splatterers have to be over ten years of age, and those under eighteen need a signed parents’ waiver, which can be gotten from the Web at www.denverpaintball.com. Hey, look, there’s a wet cleanup in aisle one, and two, and three, and…

It could be argued that most of Wyoming and much of eastern Colorado is ideal for paintball shoot-outs. Better yet, though, is Tactical Pursuit’s forty-acre site on a private ranch about four miles north of Boulder. Rain or shine, a company operator will pick up Tactical Pursuit’s paintball clients at a nearby restaurant, then set them loose at the top-secret spot for a day of splash and dash, as they drill each other with colored dye pellets.

If your trigger finger’s itchy, but you don’t have your paintball posse handy, head for the Paint Pellet Game, a local supplier of all that colorful weaponry. It has a shooting range that can be booked for fifteen-minute blocks of time. When it’s time to slime, this place is sublime.

For the third year, the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the Rocky Mountain Fifty Caliber Shooting Association plan to host their Fun Shoot on private land about seventy miles east of Denver. The groups, which delight in loud noises and the right to bear arms, have scheduled this year’s event for May 3-5. If firing conditions permit, incendiary tracer bullets will be used. Spectators pay a small fee, shooters a larger one.

On the west side of the State Capitol, two Civil War-era military pieces — one cast in 1862, the other a year later — point toward the not-too-distant Civic Center. But the placement shouldn’t be taken as a symbolic assault by the state on the City and County of Denver. Instead, visitors can conjure up imaginary foes — say, an income-tax form — and blast away. (The cannons are plugged.)

Fans of the annual runathon who wanted to boost their starting positions were encouraged to go to the Bolder Boulder’s “seasonal” store in the Crossroads Mall and hop on a treadmill. Those able to run two miles at 18:10 or less are guaranteed a spot in one of the top seventeen qualifying waves. Those waves — with more than 42,000 participants — are scheduled to break on May 27, with the 24th running of the race in beautiful, runner-friendly Boulder.

In these days of supersonic quad lifts, there are still hints of skiing as it used to be. For example, old and new mesh at the midsection of the Storm King “conveyer” that takes you to Copper’s back bowls. That’s because, for this newfangled Poma lift, you have to grab the tow and slide it between your legs as you’re hauled up the hill to 12,000 feet. Those who fall can try again, although the unwritten law of the mountain is that three muffs earns a trip to the back of the line. Nevertheless, the uphill scoot is worth it, gaining you access to some

wonderful black diamonds — and giving you bragging rights that you’ve survived the groin-tingling challenge of a Poma.

Alan Apt, who lives in Fort Collins, has assembled detailed guides to 75 trails — most of them along the Front Range, with an emphasis on Rocky Mountain National Park. With admirable detail and many good hints, Apt gives snowshoers plenty of room to ramble, including the popular areas around Mt. Evans and Indian Peaks as well as lesser-known places.

Post 9/11, we’re told, people have been seeking solace in the wilderness. Couple that with the fact that snowshoeing was already booming, and this winter sport may become so popular that Big Foot flees to warmer climes. Ironically, the beauty of snowshoeing is escaping the crowds — you’re not trapped at mid-Vail with several thousand ski snobs — while enjoying the great outdoors. Be warned: When you pull into the parking lot at Brainard Lake, things may not look auspicious. So many people are standing around their cars, preparing to hoof it, that it may seem like you’ll be moving in herds. But the area quickly absorbs them all. You can snowshoe on the road around the lake (closed to cars in the winter), bushwhack toward more expert areas, or risk the cross-country trails — but don’t stomp on the skiers unless you want a blister on your butt.

Birders who want to see the annual mating rituals of the prairie chicken can book a special weekend tour through the Wray Chamber of Commerce to visit the birds’ leks (mating grounds) in East Yuma County. Voyeurs sit in a special viewing blind so as not to distract the amorous fowl from their strutting, booming and bopping.

How often does it happen that a man can satisfy dueling passions under one roof? Dave Carson has done it at Exotic Birds of Denver/Carson’s Outbound Golf, a dual-purpose business in a Littleton strip mall. The northern half of the store deals in hand-fed, hand-raised parrots — absolutely fascinating creatures that happen to be smarter, better-looking and more eloquent than a lot of humans. In the southern sphere of Carson’s world — there’s no intervening wall or door — you can pick out a Big Bertha driver, a dozen Titleists, or components to build your own customized set of golf clubs. Carson also does equipment repair and regripping under the watchful eyes of his colorful feathered friends across the room.

In the world of competitive turkey calling, Coloradans are at a bit of a disadvantage compared to experts from regions where wild turkeys are more plentiful. Still, Colorado has its share of top tweeters. And it falls to Bob Cook — who placed third in the turkey-calling Grand Nationals in 1996 — to keep this state’s turkey tones top-notch. A master of the 28 noises made by the elusive bird, Cook is tough to beat — or tweet — when he has his Pro Sports Split V3 caller in his jaw.

Although things got a little too popular at the end of 2000, when a reported 5,000 revelers came to the mountain town’s skate-and-fireworks fest (some without paying), a more orderly celebration went off without a hitch this year on the Currier & Ives-like pond about thirty minutes west of Denver. With ticket sales limited to under 3,000, people could actually skate, drink cocoa or visit without getting crushed. And at midnight, as 2001 slid away, fireworks lit up the sky and folks cheered heartily. So that’s what John Denver was talking about.

Games are not just for kids, especially at the Wynkoop, where men and women rack billiards balls, smack pinball flippers and sweep shuffleboard tables in between sips of Railyard Ale. A huge, loft-like space above the brewery’s table-and-chairs main floor, the Wynkoop’s game room is an arcade of activity every night of the week. With skill levels that range from novice to professional, it’s a great place to hone — and show off — your gaming chops. Rack ’em.

Gameworks, it’s not. Still, the colossal arcade inside this Dave & Buster’s food-and-fun franchise is where local video game junkies find their tastiest fix. Serious players know to hit D&B’s on the weekdays, when the only crowds are of businessmen clustered around the Golden Tee golf machines. Beware Friday and Saturday nights, when youthful hordes descend and a $5 cover charge fleeces the suckers after 10 p.m. During happy hour (Monday through Thursday, 4:30 to 7 p.m.), drinks are half price, and one hour of unlimited play costs just $10 with a “power hour” card. Since it’s easy to blow through a twenty here in half that time, it’s a bargain. Take full advantage of the repeat play on new, tough-to-master games like TsuMo, a hydraulic first-person shooter in which you repel an armed beach invasion from a machine-gun nest. Alternate title: “Killing Private Ryan.”

There’s only one Ping-Pong table at Harvey Park, and it isn’t even set up all the time. Yet staffers at this friendly rec center are happy to set it up on request.

The brothers Zwisler grew up in Indiana, playing Ping-Pong in the basement of a convent. When they migrated to Colorado — Marty to build custom houses and Ray to make custom wood furniture — they maintained their love of the game. Several years ago, in fact, they decided to build a conference table that could also be used for Ping-Pong, and the idea caught on. While the price — ranging from $5,000 to $8,000 each — may put these tables out of the realm of the average rumpus room, Ray says that it’s reasonable for corporate furniture. And with clients like Allstate Insurance, it may not be long before a bounce in the economy signals a bounce in sales.

There are many reasons to visit this hallowed haunt, but fanatics head to the Campus Lounge for its foosball table. At night it’s so popular, you may have to get in line for table access — which means more brews for you as you wait your turn.

If you’re ready to move your darts game out of the rec room and into a real arena, take aim at Mirage Sports Bar. With thirteen boards, it’s hard to miss. Fridays feature a blind draw for competition, and there are also leagues for passionate dart buffs. Get the point?

Shakespeare’s is already a known mecca for those handy with a cue, but this pool hall is really on the ball when it comes to billiards. An informal college of experts usually gathers Saturday and Sunday mornings to play, trade stories and introduce newcomers to the refined game.

You know you can bat at batting cages. But at Slammers, it’s also possible to fine-tune the pitcher’s art. A hurler can rent one of the indoor tunnels and get back in the groove — even during snowboarding season. If you want to learn to throw the spitter, though, it’s BYO slippery-elm juice.

Few took the art of learning to hit a baseball as seriously as Troy Slinkard, an Evergreen contractor who’s set up a virtual batting lab at his home. Fathers eager to have their sons learn the secret of squarely striking a round ball with a round bat make the pilgrimage to Slinkard’s home, and he rarely refuses an earnest request.

The same night he chose to reach out and insult somebody was the night that now-ex-Nuggets coach Dan Issel was being memorialized with a free bobblehead doll. No telling what those limited-edition souvenirs will fetch on eBay; we’re not parting with ours. In fact, we’re looking for a bobblehead-sized sombrero to give Dan more ethnic appeal.

In his playing days, Dan Issel was the most beloved Denver Nugget of them all, and his 27,482 career points rank him seventh among all ABA/NBA scorers. But Issel’s two stints as the Nuggets’ head coach were stormy and stressful — losing always hurts — and on the night of December 11, after dropping a squeaker to the Charlotte Hornets, Issel’s notorious temper got the best of him when a Pepsi Center heckler caught his ear on the way to the locker room. From the Horse’s mouth came the most incendiary exit line in Denver pro-sports history: “Go drink another beer, you Mexican piece of shit.” The day after Christmas, Issel was out, and the sorry franchise’s troubled history continued apace.

Last fall, Denver-based Go Fast! decided to put some fizz in its extreme-sports line of clothing. So they introduced Go Fast! energy drink to compete with picker-upper drinks such as Red Bull, and the new drink is more exotic sounding if you check the ingredients: Australian honey, Siberian ginseng and milk thistle are in the mixture. A company spokesman says that athletes the company sponsors in mountain biking, skydiving and snowboarding are already bullish.

For a state that has a fairly low profile in roundball, things get springy in March, when the girls’ and boys’ Elite Eight move onto the court normally moped upon by the Nuggets. Look! There’s the guard nailing a fifty-footer to send it into overtime! And there are the girls bravely bidding to upset the unstoppable Highlands Ranch squad! This spring basketball orgy is sport at its purest; the 2002 edition went a long way toward exorcising the baleful ghost of Nick the Sick Van Exel.

Everyone knows salsa is muy caliente, so it makes sense to use it to burn off calories. At her studio, Barbie Novoryta offers Cardio Salsa workouts that really make you feel the burn. And for those who’d like to learn more traditional Latin dances, Novoryta offers private lessons.

While University of Colorado men’s hoopsters turned into wallflowers, CU’s women cagers went on a rampage. Their strong season allowed them to host an opening NCAA tournament game — which they won handily — and gave them the Big Mo’ to rock and roll to an upset of Stanford. Forget the fact that they stumbled against Oklahoma, turning the ball over 29 times on the way to a 94-60 loss that kept them from the Final Four; Coach Ceal Barry’s squad still took big steps this season.

The last remaining player from the great 1998-99 CSU team that went 33-3 and reached the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament, senior forward Angie Gorton was the captain and undisputed leader of this year’s tournament-bound club and the Mountain West Conference defensive player of the year. Her 81.3 free-throw percentage was the envy of the league, and this season the Eufala, Oklahoma, native gained second place on CSU’s career-steals list (260) and ranks all-time third in blocked shots (67). Next up for Gorton: pro ball in Europe.

In the ultra-tough Big 12 Conference, only two basketball players averaged a rare “double-double” in points and rebounds during the regular season. The first was consensus All-American Drew Gooden, star of the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks; the other was Colorado’s Stephane Pelle, a 6’9″ junior forward from Yaounde, Cameroon. The Buffaloes had another bad hoops year (15-14; 5-11 in the Big 12), but Pelle scored 12.8 points per game and grabbed 10.8 rebounds to put himself in elite company. He shot 48 percent from the floor and sank 77 percent of his free throws; best of all, he’s got another season left in Boulder.

No one personifies the resurgence of DU hockey like goalie Wade Dubielewicz. For much of the regular season, he and teammate Adam Berkhoel were the most effective “two-headed goalie” in the college game, but at crunch time, coach George Gwozdecky turned to “Dooby” to seal the nets. His .943 saves percentage led the nation as he won his second straight Western Collegiate Hockey Association goaltending title and was named to the all-WCHA first team. A 5’10” junior from Invermere, British Columbia, he idolized Avalanche star Patrick Roy as a child and was delighted when his hero paid a surprise visit to the Pioneers’ locker room in February. Dubielewicz is one of ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, which honors the nation’s best collegiate player.

The latest Australian import to beef up coach Mike Dunlap’s national-championship basketball program at Metropolitan State College, 6-4 sophomore guard Luke Kendall averaged 15.2 points per game this season and stole the ball 77 times in his first thirty games while snagging 91 rebounds. Dunlap had five Aussies on the roster when the Roadrunners won their first NCAA Division II national championship in 2000; Melbourne native Kendall was invaluable in this year’s second title-winning effort.

It’s been quite a year at the ice rinks, what with the Avs winning the Stanley Cup and George Gwozdecky’s resurgent University of Denver Pioneers hockey team reviving memories of former DU stars like Peter McNab, Keith Magnuson and Craig Patrick. After breezing to their first Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship since 1986 and a WCHA tournament win behind great defense and a pair of superb goaltenders, the DU team stumbled against underdog Michigan in the NCAA playoffs. But the club’s 32-8-1 record and strong roster of returning starters bodes well for the future of a program that had been in decline.

While Denver’s pro football, baseball, basketball and soccer teams looked up from the bottom of their leagues, the Colorado Avalanche continued to make history. Last spring Bob Hartley’s troops knocked off powerhouses like Los Angeles and St. Louis en route to a Stanley Cup finals showdown with the New Jersey Devils. Longtime Boston Bruin Ray Bourque won the nation’s heart by winning his first Cup here in Denver; goalie Patrick Roy showed again why he is the best in the history of the game; Joe Sakic shone, and the Avs’ solid defense handily shut down the New Jersey attack. Is there another Cup in the offing this year? The guys in the $300 seats on the blue lines think so.

When Metropolitan State College’s basketball team won its first NCAA Division II national championship two years ago, it was ranked number one in the country. The Roadrunners grabbed their second title this season from the lowly number-22 spot. That is testament to the skills of fifth-year head coach Mike Dunlap, who preaches impenetrable defense and disciplined shooting. The ‘runners finished 29-6 this year, after upsetting defending champion (and old foe) Kentucky Wesleyan in the Division II title game, and the club’s top two scorers — Patrick Mutombo and Luke Kendall — will return next year. But will Dunlap? Division I schools are more interested than ever in Metro’s 44-year-old coaching wizard.

Anyone who has the legendary Patrick Roy in the nets, Rob Blake on defense, Joe Sakic at center and three or four of the best young players in the NHL scrapping just to get in the game might look like a pretty fair hockey coach. But Bob Hartley doesn’t mail it in. His Colorado Avalanche fought their way to a second Stanley Cup win last season without the services of major star Peter Forsberg, and they’re leading their division by daylight this season despite the retirement of Raymond Bourque. Now in his fourth season here, Hartley keeps his Avs focused and sharp through any crisis, and those despised Detroit Red Wings better look out again come playoff time.

In his first season with the Colorado Rapids, Scottish forward John Spencer set new franchise records for goals (14) and points (35) while infusing a mediocre (5-13-8) club with a never-say-die attitude and a workhorse ethic. The 31-year-old played previously for Chelsea and Everton in the English Premiere League and gave up big money on the far side of the Atlantic to play Major League Soccer in the United States. Teammates here quickly recognized his spirit and leadership skills: He’s been named team captain for 2002.

Baffled Denverites who can name four current Denver Nuggets deserve some kind of prize — a Dan Issel bobble-head doll, perhaps? — but Juwan Howard has emerged as the star acquisition in the big midseason trade that sent whiny guard Nick Van Exel and slow white guy Raef LeFrentz to Dallas. With injured Antonio McDyess limited in terms of minutes, Howard is leading Mike Evans’s semi-resurgent Nuggets in scoring and rebounds; his sheer toughness in the post has given GM Kiki Vandeweghe new hope that he can finally build a winner at the Pepsi Center — otherwise known as Avland.

With everybody except Dick Cheney poised and watching, the Avs’ great playmaker stepped onto the ice March 28 at the Family Sports Center and gingerly skated for the first time since undergoing surgery on his left foot in January. Peter the Great spent sixteen minutes scooting around, and afterward pronounced the experiment a success. But will he have enough magic to heal himself in time to lead a Stanley Cup run?

Back-country skiers, snowmobilers and snowshoers may be aware of the general dangers of avalanches, but every year, people underestimate the lethal slides. Wise explorers try to check out conditions before they head out; this Web site provides useful information, links and weather updates.

Is there something — anything — the Avalanche captain hasn’t done for his club? With over fourteen years and more than 1,000 games as a Quebec Nordique and then a Colorado Av, center Joe Sakic has won a dozen individual NHL awards and two Stanley Cups (both here in Denver) while providing crucial leadership for young teammates. Hard-nosed yet graceful, the future hall-of-famer remains near the top of the league scoring charts this year, and his vicious left-handed shot continues to be a key weapon in the Avs’ current run at a third Cup. And to think he nearly defected and became a New York Ranger four years ago. Just for grins, in February Sakic also led Team Canada to its first Olympic hockey gold medal in half a century.

There are some — well, many, actually — grumbling that the Rox’ tenth year will be spent chasing their tails before settling comfortably into the cellar again. However, things could turn around, and with a core of players such as Helton, Neagle, Hampton and Walker, a little fielding, some relief pitching and timely hitting could work miracles for the ex-Blake Street Bombers. Perhaps the biggest key will be Zeile’s return to third and his ability to stretch for balls down the hot corner. Imagine a great team, then root for them.

Any ballplayer who will earn more than $150 million in the next nine years had better be worth it, and first baseman Todd Helton fits the bill. Last season — a misery for the Colorado Rockies — Helton added a National League batting title and 49 home runs to his resumé, and he is, by a long shot, the most valuable member of the Rockies’ Big Four, which includes right-fielder Larry Walker and starters Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle. Helton’s long-term contract guarantees stability; his faultless work ethic, superb defense and winning personality guarantee the fans’ approval even in off years. He’s only 28; he has the highest career batting average (.334) of any present major-leaguer, and the best years of all might still lie ahead.

Nick the Pr — er, Slick, had worn out his welcome with the Nuggets by mid-season. However, in all fairness, the Nuggets had pretty much exhausted the patience of everyone who bothered to watch them in 2001-2002. Still, when the pouty point guard demanded a trade, it was all the Nuggies could to shop him and his multimillion-dollar contract. Finally, Daddy Warbucks, aka Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavericks, stepped up and snatched Van Excel in a flashy package deal. At least Nick’s not warming the pines here.

The NFL schedulers, in their wisdom, decided to make up for the fact that they offered the Broncos as the sacrificial lambs against the mighty St. Louis Rams in their opener. So as a sort of make-good, the NFL gave the Donks their only bye on the week before they play a Monday-night game against the Barf Vadar-led Raiders. Here’s to parity, and not parody.

While the Denver Broncos’ offense sputtered and spit in 2001 — injuries to wide receiver Ed McCaffrey and running back Terrell Davis didn’t help — swift wideout Rod Smith was the model of consistency. He led the league in catches and served admirably as Brian Griese’s go-to guy whenever the young quarterback lost his bearings…or his head. After signing a lucrative new contract this winter, Smith will remain in Denver and, barring injury, remain the linchpin of the Broncos’ passing game. No one gets open like Smith, even in double coverage, and no NFL receiver is quite so savvy. He also shrugs off injuries and simply laces ’em up, like any real gamer does.

Jefferson County high school students worked for two years to document the construction of the new stadium. The result: The Making of a Stadium, Invesco Field at Mile High, a classic coffee-table tome that documents the entire process; Coach Shanny wrote the intro. The book, which sells for $50 (with profits going to defray the costs of the students’ work), is available at local bookstores or by phone at 1-800-456-5206.

After 37 years in limbo, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame finally found a permanent home by Gate 1 at Invesco Field. This hometown-hero museum doesn’t honor just the big names — although John Elway was somehow chosen in 1999 — and high school coaches and college athletic directors stand cheek-to-jock with ex-Broncos, including 1977 “Orange Crush” mastermind Joe Collier, who was among this year’s inductees. Each year’s class ranges from two to six individuals; since the original induction of Byron “Whizzer” White and Jack Dempsey, a total of 163 athletes have joined the roster. The museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. most Tuesdays through Saturdays, and admission is free. Guided tours are available for a small fee.

John Carmona, a Colorado Springs letter carrier, isn’t one of the new stadium’s neigh-sayers. A season-ticket holder for ten years, Carmona wound up with the best seat in the horse: smack-dab in the eye of the Bronco symbol.

In what some Mile High Stadium diehards saw as an offering to appease the football gods, dozens of seats caught fire during demolition of the old horseshoe. It seemed like there was still some fight left in the former home of Morton, Elway, et al., and even as crews doused the blaze, warm memories of the past were rekindled.

The stadium turf sale was cleverly advertised with the slogan “Own a piece of Mile High History!” Last October, football fanatics who participated were able to purchase a slab of turf six feet long and eighteen inches wide for a mere $10, providing them with the least-expensive stadium souvenir conceivable. Betcha they never forget to water that part of their lawns.

Born in turmoil and baptized in controversy — does it really look like a diaphragm or a half-finished prop from E.T.? — Invesco has failed to win the hearts and minds of fans, despite a cost of nearly half-a-billion dollars. Yet the new stadium has some great attributes, chief among them the larger-than-life sculptures — of a kicking tee, cleats, shoulder pads and a metallic face mask — designed by Littleton native Melissa Smedley and two partners. Unlike the stadium’s interior, this sculpture park is free and open to all.

Stockton’s is close enough to the city to be accessible, but far enough out to seem like it’s in the country. Visitors can ride horses or go on hayrides through some beautiful scenery. Also, part of the property is an indoor arena perfect for staging large-scale events with a Western theme — and each Halloween, the place features Haunted Hayrides complete with professional storytellers and a haunted maze.

The giant corn maze at Chatfield Nature Preserve, which is open from Labor Day until October 31, is a great way to get temporarily lost. Thanks to clues located at strategic spots on the five-acre site, most people will be able to find their way out in about twenty minutes. But as soon as they reach the exit, kids will be ready to go right back in again — especially during the big Halloween finale, when the maze is haunted by scary (but not too scary) creatures.

Although it’s not on the scale of Albuquerque’s justly famous balloon extravaganza, the Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival, which took place last year in late August, is turning into an annual blast. The balloons at the 2001 event ranged from corporate tie-ins (Tony the Tiger, the Energizer Bunny) to generic but still vibrant models that early risers could see up close and personal for the cost of entrance to the park. And they can be viewed from miles around for free: C-470 near Wadsworth was lined with looky-loos parked on the highway’s shoulder. This year’s version is scheduled to take place August 23-25. Up, up and away!

Think of recreation as a commodity: Leisure time is one of life’s luxuries that everyone wants and needs in our modern buzz-saw world. South Suburban makes it easy to give the gift of game by offering gift certificates in any denomination, redeemable (and available) at any district recreation facility for whatever activity the recipient chooses, be it dance lessons, pottery classes, lap time in the pool, a round of mini-golf or a spot in a spring softball league.

An incredible site, the Apex Center features a huge swimming area complete with water slides, hot tubs and a clubhouse-like “pump station” that sprays water from every conceivable angle. There’s also an excellent ice rink, workout areas, weight rooms and an enormous climbing wall, plus a place to get food so people who’ve just worked off lots of calories can replenish them again.

Your relatives are coming in from the Old Country, and you want to show them that you carry on some of the old traditions — except you haven’t seen your bocce set in years. Don’t panic: Butler Rents stocks one set of the famous lawn game and will rent it out for a weekend. Instructions are included, too, just in case your arguments get heated. But you’ll have to supply the Chianti and patch of grass.

South Suburban Parks and Recreation caters to its target clientele of racquet-swinging suburbanites by offering fine outdoor and indoor ball-whacking havens. But these public facilities — for sun-lovers, the Holly Tennis Center, and for year-round fun, the Centennial Tennis Club, a winterized tennis bubble — also ensure one-stop sport experiences by operating on-premises pro shops with reasonably priced racquet-repair services, including restringing and regripping. Bring your own string and it’s even cheaper.

Dude! There is nothing cheaper than free, and free is one concept that truly befits the sport of skateboarding, which, at its best, has no rules. That’s exactly how things work at this city-built facility, whose smooth expanses of concrete bowls and ramps were opened to the public last summer. The fruits of a project spearheaded by city councilwoman Joyce Foster and a bunch of restless skateboard kids who had been ousted from the 16th Street Mall in the name of progress, the approximately 60,000-square-foot park is touted to be the largest free paradise of its kind in the nation. Equally expansive are its 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily operating hours. Helmets are not required, so grind at your own risk!

Situated on a hillside at the edge of a tangle of park lands that also includes Rosedale and Harvard Gulch parks, this block-square parcel doesn’t really qualify as wide-open space, though lots of people do bring their dogs here to chase Frisbees and each other in the late afternoons of summer. But all you have to do once you arrive is sit down. Or stand. Or roll over. The sky takes care of the rest, and the spectacular mountain view, framed by trees and houses, doesn’t hurt, either. Ooh. Aah. Ruff!

Fido’s still a puppy, but you’ve got shin splints to spare, and the idea of giving him a good run every day tires you out just thinking about it. Certain “leash free” zones in and around the metro area are the answer, where you can let your dog scamper about unencumbered while you bask in the warm sunshine on the sidelines. The best one by far is on the southeast corner of Cherry Creek State Park, just a few paws east of Parker Road and north of Orchard. Your dog-friendly pup can romp and play with other dogs in the large, enclosed field. Dogs can also swim and cool themselves off in the many pools in the “dog training area.” On sunny days, there are sometimes more than sixty dogs using the large space, with children playing beneath a shade tree and doggie parents conversing. For more information, you can bark up the Cherry Creek State Park Web site, www.parks.state.co.us/cherry_creek.

Back in 1994, Ray Sforzo, Director of Snowboarding for Vail Resorts, and Arn Menconi, a self-proclaimed “Humble Snowboard Revolutionary,” started SOS, or Snowboard Outreach Society. Their mission, at first, was to serve and inspire at-risk youth. Now, as Menconi says, “More and more we find that the people who are truly at risk are those who do not serve others.” Because of this philosophy, the SOS has tried to pull in as many adult volunteers as possible, resulting in a youth-to-adult ratio of 2:1 in 2001. The number of volunteers and participants increases every year, from just forty snowboarders in the 1994-95 season to 695 youths during the 2000-01 season. The kids participate in a five-day program called LTR — Learn to Ride. The program’s founders are convinced snowboarding’s “cool appeal” and quick learning curve help kids develop self-confidence, which they can carry off the mountain and into the classroom and their daily lives. Even better news is that this program has outgrown Colorado and can now be found in other states, too. It has also outgrown its season — hosting two summer kayak programs in 2001. Way to chill, dudes.

With a record-setting year of fatalities on Colorado’s ski slopes as a backdrop, Aspen’s operators took the logical — and probably overdue — step of requiring kids twelve and younger to wear helmets in ski school. Other resorts said they planned to follow, and given the deadly year, it seems only a matter of time before helmets are on every skier and boarder. Either that, or all trees will be chopped down slopeside, and runs tougher than green sprayed with foamy, cushioning goo.

No joke: After 54 years as a skier-only mountain, and as one of the last five resorts in the world to ban snowboarding, Aspen finally surrendered to the inevitable last spring. On April 1, Aspen Mountain was opened up to snowboarders, welcoming the next generation of sports enthusiasts. What’s next — affordable housing?

Desert Reef also happens to be Colorado’s only beach club, an exotic little outpost at the end of Fremont County Road 110 that’s a fresh air — and bare-ass — haven. The private club has over 200 members, but non-members can make a reservation to visit the ninety-acre resort. There they can enjoy the geothermal greenhouse, frolic in the clubhouse, bask in the 101-degree natural hot-springs pool — and pop their eyes out over views that include not just beach-lovers in the buff, but the Wet Mountains and Sangre de Cristos, too.

Rock Canyon may seem a bit far afield, but any beach bum worth his grain of sand is no stranger to committing a full day to a cool dip. And hey, it’s closer than the coasts. On this beach, at the base of the 200-foot-tall, 10,500-foot-wide Lake Pueblo Dam, swimmers can enjoy their own private lake and swim beach. Huge cottonwoods rim the entire swimming area, offering protection from the scorching southern Colorado sun. Still, slather on the sunscreen before you wet yourself wild in the lake or on the water slide and bumper boats. Hot dogs and cold drinks are available for the picnic-challenged.

We didn’t need to read Sunset magazine to recognize that Denver has the country’s best riverfront. But a visit to the South Platte River wasn’t always a day at the beach. Over a century ago, it was “a miserable yellow melancholy stream,” according to Mark Twain. “I wouldn’t leave it out at night. Some dog might come along and lap it all up.” And three decades ago, before the Platte River Greenway Foundation started cleaning up the riverfront, the stretch of the South Platte running through metro Denver was a noxious mess. Today, though, miles of walking/biking/running paths course along its pristine banks, leading you on an urban adventure under viaducts, past arenas and ballfields, and right into the heart of the Central Platte Valley. There, the Platte now anchors a stretch of parks ranging from the Denver Skatepark on the north end to Bee Hive Park on the south, near the new stadium. And thanks to some new public art, we even have a ship’s mast reaching out of the valley toward downtown.

Folks are passionate about their parks. City Park-lovers rave about the zoo, the museum and strolling in the fall. Pro-Cheesmanites cite the glories of their turf; others tout locations along Cherry Creek. Some whisper of undiscovered gems. Well, nobody’s going to claim that Washington Park is undiscovered; after all, according to the Denver Department of Parks and Recreation, Wash Park has the most heavily used rec center in the city. Since that center restored its Sunday hours and last year’s road rehab smoothed the way, this landmark keeps gathering accolades just as its beloved squirrels gather nuts.

For sheer accessibility and versatility, it’s hard to beat Genesee Park, Denver’s first — and largest — mountain park, just off of I-70 at Exit 254. Created between 1912 and 1937, this park has all the outdoor amenities, from grills to softball fields, as well as the most-gawked-at section: an elk and bison enclosure. Also noteworthy is the Braille Trail, with signs in Braille and waist-high guide wire.

Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind climber to conquer Everest, has teamed with the American Hiking Society to promote outdoor hiking, even for folks with allergies and disabilities. His namesake trail on Lookout Mountain is an easy walk for almost everyone, making Weihenmayer the perfect poster boy in the campaign to get folks off their butts and into the great outdoors.

Summiting Colorado’s fourteeners — the 55 peaks that rise above 14,000 feet — has become so trendy that the Saturday crush up a Front Range trail can sweep a hiker along, boots barely touching the ground. So even if you aren’t Sir Edmund Hillary’s nephew, you can bag two peaks in one day by heading to Grays Peak and Torreys Peak, mountains named for a couple of Harvard dons. Located three miles south of Exit 221 on I-70, the 14,267-foot Torreys is linked by a saddle with Grays, just three feet taller. Depending on the season, it’s a fairly easy hike and a fine way to double your bragging rights.

John Williams’s American Journey, a CD on the Sony Classical label, was released in conjunction with the Salt Lake City Olympics; it’s kicked off by “Call of the Champions,” the official theme of the Winter Games, and the disc features the Olympic insignia on a cover distinguished by a snow-covered mountain. However, the lovely scenery pictured is Mt. Wilson, a crag that can be found in Colorado (near Telluride), not in Utah. According to an article in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News, officials from Sony mistakenly believed the photo depicted a portion of the Wasatch Range, but Internet gossips were able to prove otherwise. Give that mountain a gold medal.

Americans cheered not just Olympic medalists, but those overachievers who ventured where no American ski or blade has gone before. In the latter category: the American men’s Nordic relay team, including Coloradan Matt Dayton, whose fourth-place finish brought the team closer to a medal than ever before. For years, Dayton’s family has run the Frisco Nordic Center, which offers 43 kilometers of groomed trails for potential Olympians. While the Daytons can’t guarantee international glory, they can give you plenty of room to roam.

Bikini skiing has been around for awhile, but on March 30, Telluride unwrapped its male version in tandem with its Bikini Slalom. Men dressed in thongs competed for awards while letting just about all of it hang out.

Most fans — and ticket scalpers — had given up on the idea of a bonanza for the head Washington Wizard’s sole visit to the Pepsi Center this season. While the hapless Nugs limped into oblivion, MJ was hobbled following mid-season arthroscopic surgery on his 39-year-old right knee. Still, he suited up on March 20, and while he publicly said he treated the contest like a practice, flashbulbs lit up the return of the twice-retired Airness. Jordan didn’t score much, but “ticket brokers” did. Any bets on a third coming next year?

Not to be outdone by anyone, the Northern Aurora Business Association ships its Father Christmas in by helicopter, in wind-whipping style, stirring up a racket that no number of flying reindeer could ever hope to make. Each December, Aurora’s Santa Claus arrives from the heavens by chopper, with Mrs. Santa in tow, before heading over to Fletcher Plaza to confer with his eager young constituents. Next thing you know, the old guy will be flying a stealth bomber.

As if to prove that Santa is everywhere in December, Ocean Journey treated folks to daily underwater Santa shows featuring the jolly one, with beard and hair flowing wildly, flip-flapping his way around in the deep. But we were wondering: Now that the aquarium is treading water, will Santa sleep with the fishes?

For a school whose students make most Ivy Leaguers look like dopes, the Colorado School of Mines takes a decidedly low-brow approach to its home football games. And even though the Mines eleven once thrashed the University of Colorado (a century ago) and went undefeated as recently as the late 1930s, nobody seems too ambitious on fall Saturdays in Golden. But Mines surprised fans this year, winning more than losing, and normally blasé students had something to kick about. Even though the school’s jackass mascot was retired years ago, school spirit’s made a comeback. Bray to go!

He’s got a squirt gun, a knack for doing handstands, and an attitude, and that makes the Colorado Springs Sky Sox mascot, Sox the Fox, now entering his third year, the best minor-league mascot around. In fact, aside from Rocky (whose creator trained one of the two men who don the foxy costume), Sox is the most entertaining mascot in the state. “We love that guy,” says Gabe Ross, assistant general manager and public-relations director for the Sky Sox, a Colorado Rockies farm team. “Major-league teams are a little more handcuffed by public opinion, but wobbling around and patting kids on the head can get old pretty quick.” Sox has been played by two people, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs student Phil Monday and former Sky Sox grounds-crew employee Chad White, and both will be back next year. Fox in Sox, indeed.

Who says white men can’t jump? Not those wags on a University of Northern Colorado intramural basketball team who saw white folks jump all over their idea when the UNC hoopsters named themselves “The Fighting Whites” in protest of the mascot — a big-beaked caricature of an Indian — used by nearby Eaton High School’s “Fightin’ Reds.” The Whites’ copyright T-shirt designs, including a white male dressed in a suit, soon became red, er, white hot, with orders pouring in to their Web site. Charles Cuny, a Native American, hadn’t planned on making a statement when he assembled the multi-racial team. “I just wanted to play basketball on Tuesdays,” he explained. White on!

It’s no easy task to buoy up the spirits of fans whose on-floor heroes are always getting their butts handed to them. But Rocky the Mountain Lion does it every night — with astonishing acrobatics, the occasional no-look swish from half court (including one recently with a ball he boldly had Michael Jordan autograph) and a mischievous playfulness that captivates kids and grownups alike. Rocky’s three-foot-long lightning-bolt tail is a triumph of the costumer’s art, and even if every Nugget now on the roster goes the way of Dikembe Mutombo, the most entertaining pro-sports mascot in the country will endure: He made his debut way back on December 15, 1990, and hasn’t lost a step since.

At 7,000 feet, Spring Cave, which opens May 1, is one of the longest caves in Colorado, located less than a mile from the South Fork Trailhead, east of Meeker. In springtime, the stream that flows through the cave widens to form “Emerald Lake,” which makes a full wetsuit a requirement for anyone heading into the back sections.

Another tourist cave that had been abandoned for years, Manitou offers a physically challenging wild tour that includes sections discovered as recently as five years ago. Still missing is a large section that was open to tourists, complete with electric lights and hand-rails, until it flooded in the 1920s. Check out the Web site, www.caveofthewinds.com, for an in-depth probe.

This large cave in Iron Mountain above Glenwood Springs contains about three miles of known passageways and was first opened as a tourist attraction at the beginning of the twentieth century; it was abandoned in the 1920s, then reopened in 1999. A family tour along electrically lit gravel pathways is available through some fantastic interior decorations that Martha never even dreamed of. The caves open May 1.

Next time you drive through the mountains and see an old mine that evokes romantic images of Colorado’s gold-rush days, stop by the Idaho Springs Heritage Museum and Visitor’s Center. The Clear Creek Watershed Exhibit that takes up an entire back room is a reminder of the mess mining left behind. More than a decade ago, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency decided that the thousands of mines in Clear Creek County needed cleaning up, because metals-laden run-off from the abandoned sites was contaminating the creek — a source of drinking water for many Coloradans. The EPA declared the town and surrounding mines a Superfund site, and the residents revolted. After years of bickering over cleanup methods, the locals and the government finally agreed on a plan, and this exhibit details it. Now that’s gold!

Hard-rock silver mining made Colorado what it was in the first half of the nineteenth century, but can you imagine what life was like for the miners? Find out when Colorado Historical Society guides lead you through the Lebanon Silver Mine and show you the mine manager’s office, the change room (also called a “dry”), and the blacksmith’s shop and tool shed. The mine is accessible only by the Georgetown Loop Railroad; reservations are accepted for Silver Plume departures only. The hour-and-twenty-minute walking tour costs $6 for adults, $4 for children (in addition to the train ride) and is available from May 25 to September 2. Bring a sweater.

Follow the vein of gold ore one-third of a mile into Galena Mountain, and you can see and experience the operation of mining equipment in a real mine setting. The Old Hundred bores into Cunningham Gulch, just minutes from historic Silverton, in a scenic area that’s easily accessible by car or RV. The 45-minute guided tour takes place in an authentic mine tram as well as on foot. Tours leave on the hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week from May 10 through October 13. Gold panning is free with the purchase of a tour ticket.

Play paleontologist for a day, and take home a little piece of prehistory from a virgin site on the Morrison Formation. Owner Dana Forbes is sure visitors to his seventy acres eighteen miles east of the town of Dinosaur will be rewarded for participating in scientific digs, because many bone fragments are clearly visible on the surface. Anyone interested in laying hands on fossilized dinosaur bones, belemnites, ammonites, shark teeth, septarian nodules and petrified wood discoveries can sign up for a “dig date” Monday through Saturday, May through October, for just $60 a day; family rates are also available. The fee includes an escort to and from the potential dig site, beverages while digging, lecture or leadership costs, use of rock and fossil excavation equipment, preparation supplies, documentation supplies and access to first-aid supplies. Reservations are available through the Web site only.

Petrified plants are waiting to be found at the Florissant Fossil Quarry; they’re in between layers of “paper” shale. For $20, you can pick up a crate — approximately forty pounds — of the fossiliferous shale that must be split and examined on site. Visitors can also search piles of shale at an hourly rate of $7.50 for adults and $5 for children seventeen and younger. Any unusually rare or scientifically valuable finds must either remain with the Clare family, who have owned the site for four generations, or be donated to a museum of the finder’s choice. Nature’s Wealth is the on-site fossil shop that has a collection of insect and plant fossils for sale, as well as jewelry, mineral samples and children’s fossil-collecting kits. The quarry is next to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, but don’t even think about taking anything home from there.

You can rely too heavily on technology, especially in the back country. Just because you have a cell phone or a Global Positioning System receiver doesn’t mean you won’t get lost. In February, the U.S. Geological Survey office in Lakewood offered free two-hour courses on maps and compass reading and how to relate both skills to the proper use of GPS. While a bare-bones GPS costs about $150, you should also pop for a topo map; using the two together you’ll always know exactly where you are. How to get back from there is up to you.

Don’t forget to stop and smell the primroses as you hike along the 1.5-mile Pawnee Buttes Trail, the only maintained hiking trail on the grassland — and one where wildflowers bloom in the shadows of the 300-foot-high sandstone cliffs. In mid-June, when the prickly pear cactus, purple locoweed and white prairie phlox are blooming on the shortgrass steppe, the show is particularly brilliant, but spring’s less showy displays are also rewarding. Donald L. Hazlett, a native of the eastern plains, has identified 521 different plants that grow on the grassland’s 193,060 acres, including the Machaeranthera tanacetifoli (tansy aster), Ratibida columnifera (prairie coneflower) and Arenaria hookeri (tufted sandwort). His Vascular Plant Species of the Pawnee National Grassland is available at the U.S. Forest Service’s office, which supervises the grassland, in Greeley.

The town of Leadville is mining history from its mining history with the Mineral Belt Trail. The twelve-mile black-topped trail circles the town and its mining district and is perfect for hiking or biking — or using any form of wheeled, non-motorized transportation — past such historic sites as Horace Tabor’s Matchless Mine, where Baby Doe spent her last eccentric days. The trail, which follows an old railroad bed, passes nine historic mines in all and can be accessed from one of the many “on ramps” throughout town. It’s groomed for snowshoeing in the winter, too.

Now that your yard is overrun with creatures from the wild, your dog could probably use a day trip. Take him backpacking, and he could earn a Champion title from the Canine Backpackers Association. All he has to do is complete three ten-mile hikes while carrying a pack, water bowl and water weighing 25 percent of his body weight. If he carries less weight, he can still become a Trail Dog. CBA is open to all dogs, mixed-breed or otherwise, and humans can join for a mere $20 per year. The organization is the brainchild of Conifer writer Maggie Bonham, and the Web site, www.caninebackpackers.com, features some very useful rules for hiking with dogs, champion or otherwise. First among them: Don’t let him chase wildlife — he can do that at home.

The latest baby polar bear and baby giraffe are, of course, welcome additions, and who can resist a wee pair of warthogs? But the ever-expanding Denver Zoo added a particularly genteel touch to its grounds last spring with the debut of a gorgeous endangered-species carousel. Kids love to pick their favorite mounts from its hand-carved menagerie, which includes shiny, lacquered pandas, tigers, panthers, giraffes, zebras and more, including an elegant peacock throne for those little ones too timid to go up and down and around and around at the same time. You could say the zoo experience has come full circle.

If wild visitors have decided not only to take over your living space but to dismantle it while they’re there, it could be time to call in the experts on peaceful inter-species co-existence. Since 1987, Wildlife Masters have been available to provide advice on discouraging incursions by a wide variety of small varmints, from rodents and snakes to skunks and pocket voles. This time of year, the more than two dozen volunteers in the county’s program, modeled after the Master Gardener volunteer corps, field a number of calls about getting rid of woodpeckers, or, more likely, the northern flicker, which has a habit of drilling huge holes in the sides of houses. Here’s a tip: Fake owls don’t work. Check out www.ext.colostate.edu/coop/ ctylist.html for a list of extension-service offices in other counties.

Now that you’ve turned your back yard into a wildly popular wildlife retreat, what do you do when your furry visitors decide they’d rather nest in your chimney? Log on to www.greenwoodwildlife.org for tips on handling displaced baby raccoons, squirrels and birds. The site also features a sound gallery of bird calls and amusing Flash-animated paw prints that follow your cursor across the home page. The sanctuary is licensed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Colorado Division of Wildlife to treat and release injured animals, which it has been doing since 1982.

If you want to do more with your garden than plant showy annuals, this could be the year you give back to the ecosystem. By taking a few positive steps, you can turn your open space into a certified wildlife sanctuary that’s recognized by the National Wildlife Federation. Planting native flora that provide food and shelter for birds and other creatures and providing water year-round are just two of the simple things you can do. The specially trained habitat stewards at the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center offer assistance for your more involved projects. The critters will love you for it, and they’ll tell all their friends.

Just because you can’t get that hydrangea to flourish on the north side of your garage doesn’t mean there aren’t hundreds of plants that thrive in the bright sun and crisp air of the Rocky Mountain Region. Since 1997, it has been the purpose of the Plant Select program — a cooperative effort of the Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University — to seek out and distribute the very best plants for landscapes and gardens from the mountains to the high plains. Each year, a half-dozen or so plants make the cut, as either Recommended (plants that have been grown in the region for years), Originals (time-tested hybrids), or Introductions (brand-new plants discovered by the program). Look for this year’s Mesa Verde Ice Plant Introduction, scientifically named for longtime Denver horticulturist and Plant Select director Panayoti Kelaidis.

A sister sport to our buddy the trapeze, aerial fabric is a graceful, artistic and physically challenging discipline. You’ve maybe seen aerial dancers at the circus or on TV, but you probably never pictured yourself doing such a thing. Cathy Gauch, founder of Aircat Aerial Arts, can teach you. She’s well-versed in high-flying acrobatics and has an extensive aerial repertoire, including trapeze, hoops, ropes, bungees, swings, straps and fabric. She teaches novice and intermediate aerial dancers ages twelve and up at her studio in Boulder and at Bladium Sports Club, where our friends from Thin Air Trapeze also teach. Additionally, Gauch teaches aerial hoops, Spanish web rope and classes for kids between four and eight. Aircat Aerial Arts is also a performance company. Look for more information at www.aircat.net.

Your mama was always worried that you’d go off and join the circus, but you went to college and made her proud instead. It’s not too late for you, though, because the trapeze isn’t just for super-athletic, death-defying circus performers anymore. In 2000, a group of people left the Imperial Flyers, a Denver-based amateur-flying-trapeze club, and decided to construct an indoor rig at the Bladium Sports Club so that they could practice in the winter. At the same time, they started Thin Air Trapeze, a nonprofit trapeze school. Beginning classes at Thin Air Trapeze teach you some basic trapeze moves with the added security of safety lines at your waist. Now people between the ages of 9 and 96 can learn how to climb and take off from the perch, how to swing, how to fly in the “knee hang,” and the all-important lesson of how to fall to the net gracefully. Thin Air Trapeze also offers intermediate and advanced lessons for trapeze enthusiasts. If flying high above the ground at fast speeds is not for you, Thin Air Trapeze also teaches circus-arts classes closer the ground, such as juggling and trampoline tricks. You can learn to fly on the trapeze for $75 for four sessions, or stop by on a drop-in basis for $25; however, reservations are required. You also must sign a waiver to participate in the high-flying fun. Nervous yet? Visit them on the Web at www.thinairtrapeze.com.

If you want to learn to ride like Flip — or, more likely, just flip head-first off some livestock — here’s your chance. Each year, Lancaster’s Rock-N-Roll Rodeo Gear sponsors two three-day championship bullriding and bullfighting schools at the indoor Bar W Slash Rodeo Arena in Aurora. Classes are offered for all ages and levels of experience, although 15 through 25 is considered the prime age for bull riding. Participants should have their own gloves and spurs;the school supplies the bulls, and there are enough for each student to have his own ride. The $350 tuition includes instruction from champion bullfighter Rowdy Barry and Fort Collins’s own Mike Moore. The spring session takes place the first weekend in April, with upcoming schools planned for October or November.

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowgirls: They might turn into bull riders instead. At least, that’s what happened to Ashlin Spence, aka Flip, of Fort Collins. The sixteen-year-old Poudre High School student was the only girl to compete in the bull-riding event in the Salt Lake ProAm Olympics Rodeo — out of about 1,000 competitors. Flip was also the 2001 junior champion of the Wild Bunch Bullriding series. She’s broken some bones, bruised up some ribs and busted out a front tooth, but Flip plans to keep on riding about a hundred bulls a year. You go, girl.

Those who think they’ve seen everything the Stock Show has to offer should check out the Mexican Rodeo Extravaganza, which gives a colorful makeover to bull riding and fighting, trick roping and the like. And that’s not to mention the Paso de la Muerte, also known as the “death jump.” Look before you leap.

You’ve seen them on TV, and you know they gather important information about severe weather that can save lives. You think they might be a little bit nuts, and you wish you could be one of them: Storm Chasers, the guys and gals who go out of their way to find and photograph tornadoes up close and personal. Now you can give it a try, by signing up with Storm Chasing Adventure Tours. For the past five years, severe-storm expert Todd Thorn and his band of merry madmen have been providing tornado tours to people from around the world who are in search of the ultimate adventure vacation. Last year, the tours sighted seven tornadoes and dozens of storm cells; this year, Storm Chasing Tours has added a two-way satellite Internet system in the tornado van for full-time, real-time weather-data access. The storm season starts in May in Texas and Oklahoma, then moves to Colorado and Nebraska in June and July, and Storm Chasing Adventure Tours has ten tours planned to catch as many of them as possible. More information and registration are available at www.stormchasing.com.

Say hi to lowriders: After you’ve seen a decked-out lowrider bicycle, regular bikes just look like plain, boring, single scoops of vanilla ice cream. Kids go crazy over lowriders’ smooth lines, colorfully airbrushed frames, whitewall tires and other accessories, such as headlights and steering wheels. When we stopped by recently to survey the goods at Dragon Lowriders, there were at least five kids in the shop ogling the many pairs of spiffy chrome rims, gleaming, twisting front forks and velvet banana seats; the photographs of colorful, customized lowrider bikes lining the store’s windows gave them plenty of ideas. Dragon Lowriders started back in 1994, when owner Santiago Mondragon had trouble ordering parts for his son’s custom lowrider. He opened the shop in an empty spot next to his frame shop on Santa Fe Drive, and, eight years later, the shop is busier than ever. Take a little trip.

Ron Kiefel finished six out of seven of his Tour de France tries, won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics for a team time trial and has probably ridden more than 300,000 miles during his cycling career — which makes him especially suited to understand all the nuances of riding bicycles. Kiefel believes getting a custom bicycle fitting is important for anyone who is serious about cycling: With the right frame, a cyclist can ride better, faster and longer. Ron and the twelve other certified bicycle fitters who work at Wheat Ridge Cyclery choose a frame best suited for your frame, and with over 1,000 bicycles in stock, it’s not hard to find a fit. Even if you’re not in the market for an $8,000 high-performance cycle, you can visit when they pedal their wisdom at free monthly bicycle-maintenance clinics.

The ten-mile, single-track Hewlett Gulch trail, which starts at the Poudre Park picnic area on the Cache la Poudre River, is full of gnarly challenges like twists and turns and rocky stream crossings. But the initial 3.1-mile climb up the appropriately named Flower Road is flanked by beautiful wildflowers, a soothing sight for sore thighs.

For sixteen years, the Tandem Club of Colorado has been promoting togetherness on bicycles built for two with rallies, rides and fun events. Last month’s annual meeting, held at REI’s flagship store in Denver, has attracted about fifty people of all ages. This season’s events include the Tour de Denver on June 9 — a 55-mile ride from Aurora to Confluence Park and back — and a seven-day round trip from Leadville and back, which winds through Glenwood Springs and Salida, covering distances of thirty to seventy miles a day. Rides can be any time, anywhere, but helmets are mandatory. Buddy up and take a ride.

The 3,206 acres of backcountry purchased by Boulder County Parks and Open Space in 1993 are required to balance wildlife and recreation. That means there’s plenty to see along Hall Ranch’s dozen miles of multi-use trails, about half of which are open to bikers, hikers and horseback riders. But you’ll need to study the open-space rules at www.co.boulder.co.us/openspace before you learn the secret code word to download a map.

If you see mountain bikers around Colorado clutching colorful, waterproof plastic-coated contour maps, chances are they’re counting on Boulder’s Latitude 40 to steer them. The Boulder County Mountain Bike Map is now in its seventh edition, and the Front Range map — with 101 rides on one side — stretches from Fort Collins to Chatfield.

Back when life was a bit rustic along the Front Range, savvy tourists tested their roadsters on the challenging-but-not-impossible byways. One favorite was the forty-mile Lariat Loop, linking Golden, Morrison, Bear Creek Canyon and Red Rocks. Last year, a group revived this tradition, giving it a twist: Participants must compete on a mystery course and defeat obstacles. The event returns in a cloud of dust on June 22.

It’s ’round midnight, and you just can’t believe that hook of yours won’t go away. You’re tired of the club scene but not your clubs. If you’re a member at D’Lance Golf, you can work on ways to fix your game at all hours. With five hitting bays, four simulators and other high-tech gear available 24 hours a day, D’Lance is determined to help you get a grip on your game. (Non-members are welcome until 7 p.m.) And if you need human help, employees are usually on duty until 8 p.m. for instruction and advice.

A public course manicured to country-club standards, the intriguing 27-hole layout at Fox Hollow Golf Course in Lakewood offers a variety of challenges, according to when you play. Depending on maintenance and tournament schedules, eighteen-hole players tackle shifting combinations of two of the facility’s three courses: the hilly, demanding Canyon 9; the lovely Meadows 9, which puts water hazards into play on every hole; and the European-styled Links 9, perhaps the most ego-friendly of the three. Regulars praise Fox Hollow’s amiable atmosphere and easy-on-the-wallet greens fees, which are under $40.

This summer collection of related shows was so worth the drive — no, cruise — south to Pueblo. In fact, the very act of driving was the ultimate way to prepare for the riches awaiting your bone-weary bottom and road-fried mind at the end of that ninety-mile trek. There, high-end automotive art by the likes of Robert Williams, Von Dutch and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth canoodled with sleek hotrod forms and candy-colored lowrider art, and vintage gas pumps and gauges sidled up alongside hubcap collections and car-part assemblages in a good-natured free-for-all. It was like a crash-course trip through a late-night showing of American Graffiti, augmented by a demented stopover in the realm of Zap Comix. The classy Sangre de Cristo Center was definitely on a roll.

An estimated 5,000 stickers shellac the entire body of a 1975 Pontiac Grandview, the baby of Broomfield Middle School P.E. teacher Al Pallone. After starting with stickers from his son Vinny’s sports teams a decade ago, Pallone gradually enveloped his everyday ride in stickers trumpeting everything from Megadeth to the National Hot Rod Association. The road life of Colorado’s first art car came to an abrupt end five years ago when the engine blew, but Pallone donated it to the Forney Transportation Museum so visitors could eternally pay their respects to the automotive sensation that is ZaBeast.

Just as Winter Park strives to offer skiing as it used to be (and maybe ought to be), the neigh-

boring tubing hill in Fraser has an authentic feel. Looking out over the railroad tracks from the top of the hill is inspiring; so is the headlong rush down the hill. During spring break, operators have been known to keep the hill humming for twelve-hour intervals. While there are other winter tubing places, it’s hard to match the thrill of this hill.

Okay, maybe it’s not technically seaweed, but the chilly algae attached to the rocks in the Yampa can prove an irresistible plaything during a hot summer’s float through Steamboat. Several operators line the banks of the Yampa renting tubes for floaters, and during lulls, some have been known to scoop handfuls of the stuff and bomb tubers with the Steamboat slime. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Say you’re allergic to bar smoke but still have a jones for tabletop hockey. Save your pennies and buy your own sturdy Carrom Bubble-Hockey table for about $900 through Wagner’s Casual Dining. Want to take it for a test spin? The company is happy to order you a trial table so you can see just how cool it would be to have your own in-home stadium.

After the old Hyland Hills Ice Arena closed in 1997, the facility could have stayed in cold storage. But hockey is hot, and so is in-line skating. So the building was spiffed up with a smooth surface and brought back as the Breakaway Center by In-line Endeavors, LLC, in cooperation with Westminster and the Hyland Hills Park and Recreation District. Also home to the Western Conference of the Professional Major League Roller Hockey Association, this is now the place to glide and ride.

From mid-December to mid-March, 55-acre Evergreen Lake becomes a high-altitude Hans Brinker’s dream. This is outdoor skating at its finest, with a cleared hockey rink on one shore, the Lakehouse serving hot chocolate on the other and plenty of public skating in between. The rest of the year, the lake’s great for fishing and boating. Try that at the Pepsi Center.

Open year-round, the indoor South Suburban Ice Arena complex offers twin ice sheets, a concession stand, lessons for all ages and ability levels, competitive programs for hockey and figure skating, and cool admission prices for public skating: $2.50-$3.50 in district and $4-$5 for non-district residents. Tell ’em Sakic sent you.

It’s sweet and petite, just the most delightful addition to a holiday shopping outing with the kids. From mid-November to mid-January, the Cherry Creek North Business District opens its outdoor rink at Fillmore Plaza daily, and it stays open late on Friday and Saturday nights. Skate rentals are available, but no tushie pillows.

Sure, REI’s flagship store has that slammin’ climbing wall, its own Starbucks and, right outside, the Platte River, where you can test-drive/ride/kayak the equipment. But the best sports in the building are the people who man the Outdoor Recreation Information Center, a joint venture between the sporting-goods company’s store and nonprofit groups, including the Colorado Mountain Club, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado State Parks. Conveniently located near the map section, the center’s booth is staffed by forest-service personnel and volunteers, who hand out maps, literature (only from public agencies — no commercial outfits allowed) and all sorts of advice on where to use that equipment now that you’ve bought it. The center is open Tuesdays through Saturdays; the ORIC’s Web site, www.oriconline.org, is available at all hours. Information, please — and thank you.

While youth basketball once seemed like a forgotten sport in Colorado — the runty sibling of brawny football or flashy skiing — it has grown up in a hurry. A big chunk of the credit belongs to the Gold Crown Foundation, whose CEO and original booster is ex-Nugget guard Bill Hanzlik. While Gold Crown deals with other games, too, it’s the explosion of boys’ and girls’ hoops — resulting in some 420 teams across the state this season, the largest in eight years of competitive ball — that has Colorado basketball soaring.

Set in a former grocery store, Denver Paintball covers about 14,000 square feet and is open daily to walk-ins. Players can bring their own guns or try the rental package, which includes protective gear as well as ammo. Splatterers have to be over ten years of age, and those under eighteen need a signed parents’ waiver, which can be gotten from the Web at www.denverpaintball.com. Hey, look, there’s a wet cleanup in aisle one, and two, and three, and…

It could be argued that most of Wyoming and much of eastern Colorado is ideal for paintball shoot-outs. Better yet, though, is Tactical Pursuit’s forty-acre site on a private ranch about four miles north of Boulder. Rain or shine, a company operator will pick up Tactical Pursuit’s paintball clients at a nearby restaurant, then set them loose at the top-secret spot for a day of splash and dash, as they drill each other with colored dye pellets.

If your trigger finger’s itchy, but you don’t have your paintball posse handy, head for the Paint Pellet Game, a local supplier of all that colorful weaponry. It has a shooting range that can be booked for fifteen-minute blocks of time. When it’s time to slime, this place is sublime.

For the third year, the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the Rocky Mountain Fifty Caliber Shooting Association plan to host their Fun Shoot on private land about seventy miles east of Denver. The groups, which delight in loud noises and the right to bear arms, have scheduled this year’s event for May 3-5. If firing conditions permit, incendiary tracer bullets will be used. Spectators pay a small fee, shooters a larger one.

On the west side of the State Capitol, two Civil War-era military pieces — one cast in 1862, the other a year later — point toward the not-too-distant Civic Center. But the placement shouldn’t be taken as a symbolic assault by the state on the City and County of Denver. Instead, visitors can conjure up imaginary foes — say, an income-tax form — and blast away. (The cannons are plugged.)

Fans of the annual runathon who wanted to boost their starting positions were encouraged to go to the Bolder Boulder’s “seasonal” store in the Crossroads Mall and hop on a treadmill. Those able to run two miles at 18:10 or less are guaranteed a spot in one of the top seventeen qualifying waves. Those waves — with more than 42,000 participants — are scheduled to break on May 27, with the 24th running of the race in beautiful, runner-friendly Boulder.

In these days of supersonic quad lifts, there are still hints of skiing as it used to be. For example, old and new mesh at the midsection of the Storm King “conveyer” that takes you to Copper’s back bowls. That’s because, for this newfangled Poma lift, you have to grab the tow and slide it between your legs as you’re hauled up the hill to 12,000 feet. Those who fall can try again, although the unwritten law of the mountain is that three muffs earns a trip to the back of the line. Nevertheless, the uphill scoot is worth it, gaining you access to some

wonderful black diamonds — and giving you bragging rights that you’ve survived the groin-tingling challenge of a Poma.

Alan Apt, who lives in Fort Collins, has assembled detailed guides to 75 trails — most of them along the Front Range, with an emphasis on Rocky Mountain National Park. With admirable detail and many good hints, Apt gives snowshoers plenty of room to ramble, including the popular areas around Mt. Evans and Indian Peaks as well as lesser-known places.

Post 9/11, we’re told, people have been seeking solace in the wilderness. Couple that with the fact that snowshoeing was already booming, and this winter sport may become so popular that Big Foot flees to warmer climes. Ironically, the beauty of snowshoeing is escaping the crowds — you’re not trapped at mid-Vail with several thousand ski snobs — while enjoying the great outdoors. Be warned: When you pull into the parking lot at Brainard Lake, things may not look auspicious. So many people are standing around their cars, preparing to hoof it, that it may seem like you’ll be moving in herds. But the area quickly absorbs them all. You can snowshoe on the road around the lake (closed to cars in the winter), bushwhack toward more expert areas, or risk the cross-country trails — but don’t stomp on the skiers unless you want a blister on your butt.

Birders who want to see the annual mating rituals of the prairie chicken can book a special weekend tour through the Wray Chamber of Commerce to visit the birds’ leks (mating grounds) in East Yuma County. Voyeurs sit in a special viewing blind so as not to distract the amorous fowl from their strutting, booming and bopping.

How often does it happen that a man can satisfy dueling passions under one roof? Dave Carson has done it at Exotic Birds of Denver/Carson’s Outbound Golf, a dual-purpose business in a Littleton strip mall. The northern half of the store deals in hand-fed, hand-raised parrots — absolutely fascinating creatures that happen to be smarter, better-looking and more eloquent than a lot of humans. In the southern sphere of Carson’s world — there’s no intervening wall or door — you can pick out a Big Bertha driver, a dozen Titleists, or components to build your own customized set of golf clubs. Carson also does equipment repair and regripping under the watchful eyes of his colorful feathered friends across the room.

In the world of competitive turkey calling, Coloradans are at a bit of a disadvantage compared to experts from regions where wild turkeys are more plentiful. Still, Colorado has its share of top tweeters. And it falls to Bob Cook — who placed third in the turkey-calling Grand Nationals in 1996 — to keep this state’s turkey tones top-notch. A master of the 28 noises made by the elusive bird, Cook is tough to beat — or tweet — when he has his Pro Sports Split V3 caller in his jaw.

Although things got a little too popular at the end of 2000, when a reported 5,000 revelers came to the mountain town’s skate-and-fireworks fest (some without paying), a more orderly celebration went off without a hitch this year on the Currier & Ives-like pond about thirty minutes west of Denver. With ticket sales limited to under 3,000, people could actually skate, drink cocoa or visit without getting crushed. And at midnight, as 2001 slid away, fireworks lit up the sky and folks cheered heartily. So that’s what John Denver was talking about.

Games are not just for kids, especially at the Wynkoop, where men and women rack billiards balls, smack pinball flippers and sweep shuffleboard tables in between sips of Railyard Ale. A huge, loft-like space above the brewery’s table-and-chairs main floor, the Wynkoop’s game room is an arcade of activity every night of the week. With skill levels that range from novice to professional, it’s a great place to hone — and show off — your gaming chops. Rack ’em.

Gameworks, it’s not. Still, the colossal arcade inside this Dave & Buster’s food-and-fun franchise is where local video game junkies find their tastiest fix. Serious players know to hit D&B’s on the weekdays, when the only crowds are of businessmen clustered around the Golden Tee golf machines. Beware Friday and Saturday nights, when youthful hordes descend and a $5 cover charge fleeces the suckers after 10 p.m. During happy hour (Monday through Thursday, 4:30 to 7 p.m.), drinks are half price, and one hour of unlimited play costs just $10 with a “power hour” card. Since it’s easy to blow through a twenty here in half that time, it’s a bargain. Take full advantage of the repeat play on new, tough-to-master games like TsuMo, a hydraulic first-person shooter in which you repel an armed beach invasion from a machine-gun nest. Alternate title: “Killing Private Ryan.”

There’s only one Ping-Pong table at Harvey Park, and it isn’t even set up all the time. Yet staffers at this friendly rec center are happy to set it up on request.

The brothers Zwisler grew up in Indiana, playing Ping-Pong in the basement of a convent. When they migrated to Colorado — Marty to build custom houses and Ray to make custom wood furniture — they maintained their love of the game. Several years ago, in fact, they decided to build a conference table that could also be used for Ping-Pong, and the idea caught on. While the price — ranging from $5,000 to $8,000 each — may put these tables out of the realm of the average rumpus room, Ray says that it’s reasonable for corporate furniture. And with clients like Allstate Insurance, it may not be long before a bounce in the economy signals a bounce in sales.

There are many reasons to visit this hallowed haunt, but fanatics head to the Campus Lounge for its foosball table. At night it’s so popular, you may have to get in line for table access — which means more brews for you as you wait your turn.

If you’re ready to move your darts game out of the rec room and into a real arena, take aim at Mirage Sports Bar. With thirteen boards, it’s hard to miss. Fridays feature a blind draw for competition, and there are also leagues for passionate dart buffs. Get the point?

Shakespeare’s is already a known mecca for those handy with a cue, but this pool hall is really on the ball when it comes to billiards. An informal college of experts usually gathers Saturday and Sunday mornings to play, trade stories and introduce newcomers to the refined game.

You know you can bat at batting cages. But at Slammers, it’s also possible to fine-tune the pitcher’s art. A hurler can rent one of the indoor tunnels and get back in the groove — even during snowboarding season. If you want to learn to throw the spitter, though, it’s BYO slippery-elm juice.

Few took the art of learning to hit a baseball as seriously as Troy Slinkard, an Evergreen contractor who’s set up a virtual batting lab at his home. Fathers eager to have their sons learn the secret of squarely striking a round ball with a round bat make the pilgrimage to Slinkard’s home, and he rarely refuses an earnest request.

The same night he chose to reach out and insult somebody was the night that now-ex-Nuggets coach Dan Issel was being memorialized with a free bobblehead doll. No telling what those limited-edition souvenirs will fetch on eBay; we’re not parting with ours. In fact, we’re looking for a bobblehead-sized sombrero to give Dan more ethnic appeal.

In his playing days, Dan Issel was the most beloved Denver Nugget of them all, and his 27,482 career points rank him seventh among all ABA/NBA scorers. But Issel’s two stints as the Nuggets’ head coach were stormy and stressful — losing always hurts — and on the night of December 11, after dropping a squeaker to the Charlotte Hornets, Issel’s notorious temper got the best of him when a Pepsi Center heckler caught his ear on the way to the locker room. From the Horse’s mouth came the most incendiary exit line in Denver pro-sports history: “Go drink another beer, you Mexican piece of shit.” The day after Christmas, Issel was out, and the sorry franchise’s troubled history continued apace.

Last fall, Denver-based Go Fast! decided to put some fizz in its extreme-sports line of clothing. So they introduced Go Fast! energy drink to compete with picker-upper drinks such as Red Bull, and the new drink is more exotic sounding if you check the ingredients: Australian honey, Siberian ginseng and milk thistle are in the mixture. A company spokesman says that athletes the company sponsors in mountain biking, skydiving and snowboarding are already bullish.

For a state that has a fairly low profile in roundball, things get springy in March, when the girls’ and boys’ Elite Eight move onto the court normally moped upon by the Nuggets. Look! There’s the guard nailing a fifty-footer to send it into overtime! And there are the girls bravely bidding to upset the unstoppable Highlands Ranch squad! This spring basketball orgy is sport at its purest; the 2002 edition went a long way toward exorcising the baleful ghost of Nick the Sick Van Exel.

Everyone knows salsa is muy caliente, so it makes sense to use it to burn off calories. At her studio, Barbie Novoryta offers Cardio Salsa workouts that really make you feel the burn. And for those who’d like to learn more traditional Latin dances, Novoryta offers private lessons.

While University of Colorado men’s hoopsters turned into wallflowers, CU’s women cagers went on a rampage. Their strong season allowed them to host an opening NCAA tournament game — which they won handily — and gave them the Big Mo’ to rock and roll to an upset of Stanford. Forget the fact that they stumbled against Oklahoma, turning the ball over 29 times on the way to a 94-60 loss that kept them from the Final Four; Coach Ceal Barry’s squad still took big steps this season.

The last remaining player from the great 1998-99 CSU team that went 33-3 and reached the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament, senior forward Angie Gorton was the captain and undisputed leader of this year’s tournament-bound club and the Mountain West Conference defensive player of the year. Her 81.3 free-throw percentage was the envy of the league, and this season the Eufala, Oklahoma, native gained second place on CSU’s career-steals list (260) and ranks all-time third in blocked shots (67). Next up for Gorton: pro ball in Europe.

In the ultra-tough Big 12 Conference, only two basketball players averaged a rare “double-double” in points and rebounds during the regular season. The first was consensus All-American Drew Gooden, star of the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks; the other was Colorado’s Stephane Pelle, a 6’9″ junior forward from Yaounde, Cameroon. The Buffaloes had another bad hoops year (15-14; 5-11 in the Big 12), but Pelle scored 12.8 points per game and grabbed 10.8 rebounds to put himself in elite company. He shot 48 percent from the floor and sank 77 percent of his free throws; best of all, he’s got another season left in Boulder.

No one personifies the resurgence of DU hockey like goalie Wade Dubielewicz. For much of the regular season, he and teammate Adam Berkhoel were the most effective “two-headed goalie” in the college game, but at crunch time, coach George Gwozdecky turned to “Dooby” to seal the nets. His .943 saves percentage led the nation as he won his second straight Western Collegiate Hockey Association goaltending title and was named to the all-WCHA first team. A 5’10” junior from Invermere, British Columbia, he idolized Avalanche star Patrick Roy as a child and was delighted when his hero paid a surprise visit to the Pioneers’ locker room in February. Dubielewicz is one of ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, which honors the nation’s best collegiate player.

The latest Australian import to beef up coach Mike Dunlap’s national-championship basketball program at Metropolitan State College, 6-4 sophomore guard Luke Kendall averaged 15.2 points per game this season and stole the ball 77 times in his first thirty games while snagging 91 rebounds. Dunlap had five Aussies on the roster when the Roadrunners won their first NCAA Division II national championship in 2000; Melbourne native Kendall was invaluable in this year’s second title-winning effort.

It’s been quite a year at the ice rinks, what with the Avs winning the Stanley Cup and George Gwozdecky’s resurgent University of Denver Pioneers hockey team reviving memories of former DU stars like Peter McNab, Keith Magnuson and Craig Patrick. After breezing to their first Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship since 1986 and a WCHA tournament win behind great defense and a pair of superb goaltenders, the DU team stumbled against underdog Michigan in the NCAA playoffs. But the club’s 32-8-1 record and strong roster of returning starters bodes well for the future of a program that had been in decline.

While Denver’s pro football, baseball, basketball and soccer teams looked up from the bottom of their leagues, the Colorado Avalanche continued to make history. Last spring Bob Hartley’s troops knocked off powerhouses like Los Angeles and St. Louis en route to a Stanley Cup finals showdown with the New Jersey Devils. Longtime Boston Bruin Ray Bourque won the nation’s heart by winning his first Cup here in Denver; goalie Patrick Roy showed again why he is the best in the history of the game; Joe Sakic shone, and the Avs’ solid defense handily shut down the New Jersey attack. Is there another Cup in the offing this year? The guys in the $300 seats on the blue lines think so.

When Metropolitan State College’s basketball team won its first NCAA Division II national championship two years ago, it was ranked number one in the country. The Roadrunners grabbed their second title this season from the lowly number-22 spot. That is testament to the skills of fifth-year head coach Mike Dunlap, who preaches impenetrable defense and disciplined shooting. The ‘runners finished 29-6 this year, after upsetting defending champion (and old foe) Kentucky Wesleyan in the Division II title game, and the club’s top two scorers — Patrick Mutombo and Luke Kendall — will return next year. But will Dunlap? Division I schools are more interested than ever in Metro’s 44-year-old coaching wizard.

Anyone who has the legendary Patrick Roy in the nets, Rob Blake on defense, Joe Sakic at center and three or four of the best young players in the NHL scrapping just to get in the game might look like a pretty fair hockey coach. But Bob Hartley doesn’t mail it in. His Colorado Avalanche fought their way to a second Stanley Cup win last season without the services of major star Peter Forsberg, and they’re leading their division by daylight this season despite the retirement of Raymond Bourque. Now in his fourth season here, Hartley keeps his Avs focused and sharp through any crisis, and those despised Detroit Red Wings better look out again come playoff time.

In his first season with the Colorado Rapids, Scottish forward John Spencer set new franchise records for goals (14) and points (35) while infusing a mediocre (5-13-8) club with a never-say-die attitude and a workhorse ethic. The 31-year-old played previously for Chelsea and Everton in the English Premiere League and gave up big money on the far side of the Atlantic to play Major League Soccer in the United States. Teammates here quickly recognized his spirit and leadership skills: He’s been named team captain for 2002.

Baffled Denverites who can name four current Denver Nuggets deserve some kind of prize — a Dan Issel bobble-head doll, perhaps? — but Juwan Howard has emerged as the star acquisition in the big midseason trade that sent whiny guard Nick Van Exel and slow white guy Raef LeFrentz to Dallas. With injured Antonio McDyess limited in terms of minutes, Howard is leading Mike Evans’s semi-resurgent Nuggets in scoring and rebounds; his sheer toughness in the post has given GM Kiki Vandeweghe new hope that he can finally build a winner at the Pepsi Center — otherwise known as Avland.

With everybody except Dick Cheney poised and watching, the Avs’ great playmaker stepped onto the ice March 28 at the Family Sports Center and gingerly skated for the first time since undergoing surgery on his left foot in January. Peter the Great spent sixteen minutes scooting around, and afterward pronounced the experiment a success. But will he have enough magic to heal himself in time to lead a Stanley Cup run?

Back-country skiers, snowmobilers and snowshoers may be aware of the general dangers of avalanches, but every year, people underestimate the lethal slides. Wise explorers try to check out conditions before they head out; this Web site provides useful information, links and weather updates.

Is there something — anything — the Avalanche captain hasn’t done for his club? With over fourteen years and more than 1,000 games as a Quebec Nordique and then a Colorado Av, center Joe Sakic has won a dozen individual NHL awards and two Stanley Cups (both here in Denver) while providing crucial leadership for young teammates. Hard-nosed yet graceful, the future hall-of-famer remains near the top of the league scoring charts this year, and his vicious left-handed shot continues to be a key weapon in the Avs’ current run at a third Cup. And to think he nearly defected and became a New York Ranger four years ago. Just for grins, in February Sakic also led Team Canada to its first Olympic hockey gold medal in half a century.

There are some — well, many, actually — grumbling that the Rox’ tenth year will be spent chasing their tails before settling comfortably into the cellar again. However, things could turn around, and with a core of players such as Helton, Neagle, Hampton and Walker, a little fielding, some relief pitching and timely hitting could work miracles for the ex-Blake Street Bombers. Perhaps the biggest key will be Zeile’s return to third and his ability to stretch for balls down the hot corner. Imagine a great team, then root for them.

Any ballplayer who will earn more than $150 million in the next nine years had better be worth it, and first baseman Todd Helton fits the bill. Last season — a misery for the Colorado Rockies — Helton added a National League batting title and 49 home runs to his resumé, and he is, by a long shot, the most valuable member of the Rockies’ Big Four, which includes right-fielder Larry Walker and starters Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle. Helton’s long-term contract guarantees stability; his faultless work ethic, superb defense and winning personality guarantee the fans’ approval even in off years. He’s only 28; he has the highest career batting average (.334) of any present major-leaguer, and the best years of all might still lie ahead.

Nick the Pr — er, Slick, had worn out his welcome with the Nuggets by mid-season. However, in all fairness, the Nuggets had pretty much exhausted the patience of everyone who bothered to watch them in 2001-2002. Still, when the pouty point guard demanded a trade, it was all the Nuggies could to shop him and his multimillion-dollar contract. Finally, Daddy Warbucks, aka Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavericks, stepped up and snatched Van Excel in a flashy package deal. At least Nick’s not warming the pines here.

The NFL schedulers, in their wisdom, decided to make up for the fact that they offered the Broncos as the sacrificial lambs against the mighty St. Louis Rams in their opener. So as a sort of make-good, the NFL gave the Donks their only bye on the week before they play a Monday-night game against the Barf Vadar-led Raiders. Here’s to parity, and not parody.

While the Denver Broncos’ offense sputtered and spit in 2001 — injuries to wide receiver Ed McCaffrey and running back Terrell Davis didn’t help — swift wideout Rod Smith was the model of consistency. He led the league in catches and served admirably as Brian Griese’s go-to guy whenever the young quarterback lost his bearings…or his head. After signing a lucrative new contract this winter, Smith will remain in Denver and, barring injury, remain the linchpin of the Broncos’ passing game. No one gets open like Smith, even in double coverage, and no NFL receiver is quite so savvy. He also shrugs off injuries and simply laces ’em up, like any real gamer does.

Jefferson County high school students worked for two years to document the construction of the new stadium. The result: The Making of a Stadium, Invesco Field at Mile High, a classic coffee-table tome that documents the entire process; Coach Shanny wrote the intro. The book, which sells for $50 (with profits going to defray the costs of the students’ work), is available at local bookstores or by phone at 1-800-456-5206.

After 37 years in limbo, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame finally found a permanent home by Gate 1 at Invesco Field. This hometown-hero museum doesn’t honor just the big names — although John Elway was somehow chosen in 1999 — and high school coaches and college athletic directors stand cheek-to-jock with ex-Broncos, including 1977 “Orange Crush” mastermind Joe Collier, who was among this year’s inductees. Each year’s class ranges from two to six individuals; since the original induction of Byron “Whizzer” White and Jack Dempsey, a total of 163 athletes have joined the roster. The museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. most Tuesdays through Saturdays, and admission is free. Guided tours are available for a small fee.

John Carmona, a Colorado Springs letter carrier, isn’t one of the new stadium’s neigh-sayers. A season-ticket holder for ten years, Carmona wound up with the best seat in the horse: smack-dab in the eye of the Bronco symbol.

In what some Mile High Stadium diehards saw as an offering to appease the football gods, dozens of seats caught fire during demolition of the old horseshoe. It seemed like there was still some fight left in the former home of Morton, Elway, et al., and even as crews doused the blaze, warm memories of the past were rekindled.

The stadium turf sale was cleverly advertised with the slogan “Own a piece of Mile High History!” Last October, football fanatics who participated were able to purchase a slab of turf six feet long and eighteen inches wide for a mere $10, providing them with the least-expensive stadium souvenir conceivable. Betcha they never forget to water that part of their lawns.

Born in turmoil and baptized in controversy — does it really look like a diaphragm or a half-finished prop from E.T.? — Invesco has failed to win the hearts and minds of fans, despite a cost of nearly half-a-billion dollars. Yet the new stadium has some great attributes, chief among them the larger-than-life sculptures — of a kicking tee, cleats, shoulder pads and a metallic face mask — designed by Littleton native Melissa Smedley and two partners. Unlike the stadium’s interior, this sculpture park is free and open to all.

Stockton’s is close enough to the city to be accessible, but far enough out to seem like it’s in the country. Visitors can ride horses or go on hayrides through some beautiful scenery. Also, part of the property is an indoor arena perfect for staging large-scale events with a Western theme — and each Halloween, the place features Haunted Hayrides complete with professional storytellers and a haunted maze.

The giant corn maze at Chatfield Nature Preserve, which is open from Labor Day until October 31, is a great way to get temporarily lost. Thanks to clues located at strategic spots on the five-acre site, most people will be able to find their way out in about twenty minutes. But as soon as they reach the exit, kids will be ready to go right back in again — especially during the big Halloween finale, when the maze is haunted by scary (but not too scary) creatures.

Although it’s not on the scale of Albuquerque’s justly famous balloon extravaganza, the Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival, which took place last year in late August, is turning into an annual blast. The balloons at the 2001 event ranged from corporate tie-ins (Tony the Tiger, the Energizer Bunny) to generic but still vibrant models that early risers could see up close and personal for the cost of entrance to the park. And they can be viewed from miles around for free: C-470 near Wadsworth was lined with looky-loos parked on the highway’s shoulder. This year’s version is scheduled to take place August 23-25. Up, up and away!