Sports & Recreation

Wanna feel the wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth? If you’re born to be wild but don’t have a bike to call your own, rent one for $100+ a day from EagleRider. Whether it’s a Sportster, Softail Deuce or Electra Glide that gets your motor runnin’, EagleRider features Harleys exclusively, available to rent for a day or a week. You bring the motorcycle-endorsed driver’s license, credit card and good/bad attitude — and EagleRider handles the rest. Their Web site sums it up best: “EagleRider provides the means to release the pent-up outlaw that yearns for the open road and a style of living that is outside the suburban conventions of everyday life.”

Educated in the school of hard knocks in Raton, New Mexico, Arturo and Terri Cruz have been fighting their whole lives — in and out of the ring. One battled street gangs in Denver while the other battled juvenile delinquency, bar brawlers and tequila. Tapping into the genes passed on by their father, former pro fighter Arturo Cruz, the siblings found salvation, redemption and purpose in the ring. Arturo Jr., 18-12-2, holds the World Athletic Association welterweight belt, while Terri, 6-3-2, is ranked seventeenth in the world in the bantamweight class. Working out at Mestas’s House of Pain gym on Brighton Boulevard, Terri and Arturo Jr. continue to prove that there’s life after the streets.

Some bulls are wimpy and get no respect from cowboys because they don’t buck well enough to earn good scores. Others are so powerful and unpredictable that riders hate to draw them, because they know there’s a good chance they’ll get thrown. A perfect middle animal gives you a wild ride but still gives you a chance to stay on board. Mister USA, a yellow, flat-horned seven-year-old that jumps high and then typically turns back hard to the left, has that rep. He lived up to it again at this year’s National Western Stock Show, where both his riders managed to stay on and earn high scores: 94 and 87, respectively. A native of Utah, Mister USA contributed 23 out of 25 points to each ride. And, no, he’s not done yet.

The man who brought the world boxed beef left this world in 2001. But the house in which he was born has been moved to the Centennial Village Museum as a memorial to the contributions of the Monfort family to Weld County and northern Colorado. In addition to the 1908 structure, which was trucked two miles over farm fields to its new site, Centennial Village contains thirty structures that tell the story of Greeley from 1860-1930, the year after Ken Monfort was born. Interestingly, the complex sits next to Island Grove Regional Park, site of the annual Greeley Independence Stampede, known for attracting much beef on the hoof every Fourth of July.

If the same old kicks and yells are wearing on you, you may be ripe for capoeira, the Brazilian dance/fight/acrobatic hybrid art form. And if you can study under Mestre Usamah Zaid, otherwise known as Baba, you’ll progress quickly. Held in the Merc’s spacious ballroom, the class features live music, expert instruction and a feeling of group accomplishment that’s hard to describe. Students at any level are welcome anytime. Prepare to sweat!

Kupigana Ngumi, a style of African martial arts founded in the 1960s, is based on rhythmic, dance-like movements. There are three empowerment areas in the training: cultural, in which students’ self-esteem and cultural understanding are increased; emotional and mental, in which students are taught to make good choices and avoid confrontation, as well as learn anger and stress management; and fitness, in which students develop mental focus, coordination, endurance, flexibility and strength. Classes are held at the Moyo Nguvu Cultural Arts Center, whose programs are built around cultural diversity and helping young people take pride in themselves and their community.

Echo Canyon River Expeditions offers a combo view of the Royal Gorge: from a train and from a raft. Participants can choose from two different tours; both include a ride on the Royal Gorge railroad, lunch at a scenic spot, and a raft trip. Families float through the Bighorn Canyon; more advanced adults tackle the challenging Arkansas River through the gorge itself. With prices ranging from $52.75 for kids twelve and under to $89.75 for advanced adults, this trip makes for an adventure to gorge on.

One of the best ways to experience the stunning scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park is on horseback, and horses enjoy it, too. If you want to bring your best equine pal for extended exploring, make Winding River Ranch, two miles north of Grand Lake, your base of operations. The Colorado River flows through the ranch, the park trails are easily accessible, and the apartments and two- and three-bedroom riverside cabins offer all the comforts of home, especially if your home includes an indoor pool, sauna, massage center and family-style dining hall. Your hoofed companion gets his own stall in the barn and use of a training area for only $15 per night; he can even bring his dog along for a fee.

Believe it or not, two-thirds of Colorado is public land. And maintaining trails, parks and open spaces so that everyone can enjoy them is no easy task. That’s where Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado comes in. Established in 1984, the non-profit environmental organization is dedicated to improving, preserving and protecting our natural resources. New volunteers are always welcome and training is provided, so grab a shovel and dig in!

It’s a double-billed winner! The Nature Association’s Field Guide to Viewing Wildlife in Rocky Mountain National Park won first place in the Site Publications category of the National Association for Interpretation’s Interpretive Media Competition. And Trail Ridge Road Adventure Sticker and Game Book, a fun sticker book that teaches kids about the park’s inhabitants, took second. Both books can be purchased for $6.95, which supports the association’s efforts on behalf of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Your Global Positioning Satellite unit told you the treasure you were diligently seeking was only three miles away. But it failed to mention that your raison d’être was three miles uphill. Straight uphill. The friendly staff at Mapsco is more than willing to commiserate with you about your unexpected adventure — and they suggest that on your next geocaching adventure, you also take along a topographical map. Besides stocking lots and lots of maps, this longtime Denver standby carries anything and everything on paper that geocachers need to help them find their way.

When the sandhill cranes come back to the San Luis Valley, it’s time for naturalist workshops at the 100,000-acre Medano-Zapata Ranch, a Nature Conservancy preserve four hours southwest of Denver. Throughout the spring, summer and early fall, three-day weekend workshops explore everything from the geology of the nearby Great Sand Dunes to the birds of the San Luis Valley. There are also weekend getaways for families, nature photography, sketching and writing seminars, and two astronomy field trips far from urban light pollution in the company of a large telescope named Hagrid. With meals, lodging with private baths, and ranch-to-field transportation provided for $450 per person ($550 for special four-day sessions), these workshops are a bargain – and they fill up quickly.

So you’re tooling along through a field, and suddenly you realize there’s a pair of Eurasian wigeons right there in front of you. Who ya gonna call? The Rare Bird Alert Hotline, of course. The alert system, sponsored by the Denver Field Ornithologists and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, has been taking calls from rare-bird spotters since the mid-1980s. Spring migration brings hundreds of calls from amateur ornithologists, who are encouraged to leave precise directions to the location of the sighting so others can share and verify the report. Volunteers then compile the tips into a regularly updated recorded message of who’s winging where.

Many public parks are named after people whom time has forgotten, but the namesake of C.J. Walker Park, at East 30th Avenue and High Street, is certainly worth remembering. As related in On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, a book penned by A’Lelia Bundles, Walker’s great-great granddaughter, Madam Walker was born into humble circumstances in 1867. After founding a business that sold hair-care products to African-American women in northeast Denver, however, she began accruing a fortune that eventually made her the first female self-made millionaire in U.S. history. Hers is a tale few Denverites know — but thanks to C.J. Walker Park, which was given its current moniker last May, more will discover it.

When you gotta go, you gotta go — and there’s no better place in Denver to let loose than the bathrooms at Commons Park. But then, they should look good: Like the park itself, these privies cost plenty. Made of stone, they fit nicely into the Commons’ urban setting, with the Platte River in the backdrop and pricey loft project after pricey loft project in the foreground. And unlike many public facilities, these are usually open. Now if only the city could get that year-round water fountain flowing year-round…

You don’t need to look at the sundial that’s the centerpiece of Cramner Park to know that time’s almost up for this great view. Looking west, you see some of Denver’s most elegant homes — but beyond those homes is a hodgepodge of new construction that threatens to block much of the mountain backdrop.

From Inspiration Point, at 50th Ave. and Sheridan Blvd. in northwest Denver — which also happens to be one of the town’s best makeout locations, if you still go for that sort of thing — you can take in the entire Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, without many of those nasty man-made obstacles to mar the view. The sight of all those purple mountain majesties is positively swoon-worthy. Excuse us while we kiss the sky.

Heading northwest on the Cherry Creek Bike Path out of the Denver Country Club area, you’ll dodge bums, baby strollers and bicyclists, then tackle the impressive rise leading to Confluence Park. Take a moment to catch your breath and enjoy the view — which often includes several neophyte kayakers rolling over onto their heads in the South Platte, as well as all the mind-blowing construction in the Platte Valley. Now head across the bridge and over to the Starbucks at REI: You’ve earned your latte grande.

When this thirteen-mile stretch of urban trail opened to the public last summer — amid cheers from outdoor enthusiasts — it marked the completion of a fifty-mile loop in the northeast metro area by connecting the Highline Canal in Aurora to the Platte River Greenway in Commerce City. Now you can take the grand tour: Open to anyone or anything without a motor, the spanking new trail hightails it through the old Stapleton Airport; the lazy cottonwood groves and wetlands along its stretch provide homes to all manner of wildlife, such as mule deer, foxes and waterfowl, not to mention a fine swath of good old peace and quiet. Future trail development includes plans for parks, preserved wildlife habitats, interpretive markers and other backcountry amenities. What a way to go.

Face it: Every so often, running among the alpine splendor, majestic elk and views of the Continental Divide gets, well, boring. At times like those, it’s nice to have something civilized to look at. This three-mile stretch of the Highline Canal provides a rare kind of scenery for the jogging voyeur: close-up vistas of the rich and famous. Check out the backsides of 10,000-square-foot mansions! Thrill to six-figure landscaping jobs! They’ll never know you were there.

Constructed and opened last year, this little-known gem runs from Pence Park, between Indian Hills and Evergreen, to Lair o’ the Bear Park, outside of Idledale. Along the way, it cuts through two other Denver mountain parks, Corwina and O’Fallon. Unlike many of the trails along the Denver-area Front Range, Bear Creek is not just a jumble of rocks. It more resembles the Buffalo Creek Trail that runs along the Colorado Trail to the city’s southwest: a smooth, wide, hard-packed-dirt single track, with lots of roller-coastery dips and climbs. If you want to get the hard part out of the way first, take C-470 to Morrison and climb up the canyon to Lair o’ the Bear. Start grinding at the west end of the parking lot.

USA Triathlon coordinator Jim Flint says he’s seen “the good, the bad and the ugly.” This year, he decided to produce his own series of tris, and it’s all good. From the time-trial start — swimmers enter the reservoir every few seconds instead of in one teeming mass — to the rolling bike course devoid of car traffic, to the “pancake flat” running route, the series promises to be a winner. Flint’s seen to all the details: a luscious catered lunch, fresh flowers at the hand-washing stations — even a cardiac doc on hand. “I figure if I’m gonna do this, it should be fun,” he says, “even for a beginner.” And then there’s that cool name: Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say you just finished the Rattlesnake?

Parents, do you feel your child is getting soft and lacks the killer instinct necessary to survive today’s competitive world? Well, forget Montessori and the Ivy League. South Suburban has been hosting this middle-school dodgeball league for more than a year. Games are typically held on Friday evenings (when most kids that age are gearing up for an evening of senseless vandalism). The league uses softer “gatorskin” balls — not the painful red rubber balls of your youth — but the effect is the same. For what it’s worth, good sportsmanship is stressed.

It’s a sweltering summer day, and you and the kids want to get cool but don’t necessarily want to take out a loan to do it. Drive west to the year-old Splash water park, thoughtfully provided by the citizens of Golden. It may not have the latest 1.5 million-gallon tsunami scrambler, but with an eight-lane lap pool, a 300-gallon bucket dump, two giant slides (one for inner tubes), and a geyser-shooting splash pad and sandpit for the kids, there’s plenty to occupy your time. Kids pay as little as $2.50 per visit; adults may accompany them for $6.50 to $8.50, depending on residency.

When Irish guys are smiling, it’s probably because the weather is good enough for a pool party. No, not the kind where you get wet — although true competitors can work up quite a sweat covering all the angles in a tough game of pool. Come spring, Emerald Isle sets up pool tables on its covered deck, where a real sport can take on a fresh opponent and fresh air at the same time. Nine ball in the side pocket!

You got your brewpubs and mega-arcades with a few tables on the side, your harshly lit hustlers’ dens full of smoke and reverse English, your suburban bar tables reeking of cheap beer and patchouli. For our money, though, the best and least pretentious pool-hall ambience in town still resides at this friendly, busy institution, where serious billiards stickmen brush up against casual 8-ball enthusiasts, and nobody refers to 9-Ball as a “bangers’ game.” Added bonus: two snooker tables, for those who believe size — of table, at least — matters.

Numbers are few, and it ain’t the triathlon, but air hockey is a real sport. If you don’t believe it, head to Broomfield Bowl on select Thursday nights and watch the area’s best players (some of whom are also among the country’s best) slam it out on the sole tournament-sized air hockey table that sits just off to one side of the bar. Games, which are played with kneepads, plenty of athletic tape and carefully customized mallets, usually start up around 7 p.m. and last well into the evening. Watch and learn, Grasshopper: No matter what you did in your basement as a kid, don’t expect to show up and win.

The superbly outfitted arcade inside Margarita Mama’s is so massive – and the place so dead on most weeknights — that we never have to wait in line to play Hot Flash and Fast Track, the venue’s two air hockey tables. Hot Flash is a fun little black-light model, with the usual purple lamps, glow-in-the-dark orange plastic puck and plastic playing surface. Fast Track’s playing surface, though, is polished steel. The puck is metal, too, and the goals are cut extremely tight. Be warned: Fast Track pucks have a tendency to fly off the table like tiny metal discs of destruction. At forty tokens for ten bucks, these games are a bargain — right up there with the $2 Coronas available during Mama’s happy hour.

The 14,000-year history of the boomerang begins Down Under and continues today in Aurora with these space-age, Day-Glo toys. Handcrafted from airplane-grade birch plywood from Finland, they’re the Ferraris of the boomerang industry, with style and performance that keep coming back. Boomerang fanatic/bank examiner Richard Pollock-Nelson collected ‘rangs and competed in U.S. Boomerang Association-sanctioned events prior to buying Colorado Boomerangs from its Gunnison owners in 1998. Now the company, which takes the science behind the homing crescents (i.e., Newton’s Third Law of Motion and Bernoulli’s Law) very seriously, is the largest domestic manufacturer of high-end boomerangs in the world.

The year was 1976, and Joe Markham was working on his VW Bus. His German shepherd, Fritz, was chewing on rocks. The two had no idea that they were about to irrevocably alter the dog chew-toy world. But the moment Markham threw a chunk of the transmission to distract his dog from grinding his teeth to nubs, Fritz gave up rocks forever to chew on the dense rubber cone, which was soon dubbed Kong. More than a quarter-century later, the Golden-based Kong Company has cranked out millions of the toys, which are essentially the same VW part Fritz enjoyed in 1976. And while canines are still attracted to old-fashioned novelties such as rope bones, rawhide chews and tennis balls, Kong has found a home in the grip of Fidos and Fifis across the county.

With endless acres, three lakes and seemingly endless walking and jogging paths, your hund will think he’s died and gone to puppy heaven. There are countless things to sniff, endless muck to roll in, toys to steal, trees to pee on. And every pup, from dachshund to Dane, will love running free, with nary a chance of getting a ticket. Although summer weekends do become a bit of a free-for-all — there’s always the risk of getting home and realizing you left with someone else’s Lab — spring, fall and most mid-week days are a bit more sane.

The outdoor patios along Fillmore Street are the place for Cherry Creek yuppies to see and be seen…with their dogs. The block between 2nd and 3rd avenues is a veritable dog show on Saturday mornings, when pooches of every pedigree accompany their human companions as they sip Starbucks lattes and satisfy their cream-cheese fix at Einstein Bros. Bejeweled ladies on their way to the mall strut by with their toy dogs; single men bring their puppies to woo the women; and families stop by for breakfast with their Labs and golden retrievers. It’s the closest thing Denver has to Westminster — the kennel club, not the suburb.

Here’s something to howl about: An offshoot of the Boulder group, these doggie devotees are dedicated to the promotion of responsible off-leash recreation in Denver. And they’re not just hollering for more dog parks: They also have an eye on the future, exploring ways to keep such spaces clean, safe and usable for all. This is one group that’s not going to roll over and play dead.

You’ve done the tummy rub and played fetch at the park. How’s about a little doggy dancing? Mile High Musical Tails, the Colorado chapter of the WCFO, offers you and your pet the chance to put on the dog in style. Classes are available through the Blue Springs & KatyDid Dog Training Center in Sheridan, and lessons are open to dogs and owners of all ages. Excessive obedience isn’t necessary — just creativity. The music, choreography and costuming will have your mutt struttin’ in no time.

Up in the air! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Nope, it’s Red Rocket Rider! A high-flying Australian shepherd with a penchant for catching stuff in his mouth mid-air, Rider, a consecutive five-time Colorado state champion owned by Evergreen lawyer Christi Goodman, is one of the top disc dogs in the state — and possibly the nation. But listen up, Fido: You don’t have to be faster than a speeding bullet to have fun catching a Frisbee. For a good time, join the Colorado Disc Dogs and get together with like-minded buddies for a monthly romp in the park without having to worry about wowing the crowd.

This is the place for little dogs to have a big time. Most of the clients of this licensed boarding facility in Elbert County are bichons frises, shih tzus and Pomeranians. But if you’re little and cute and pass the intake interview with owner Pam Knight, you can join up to fourteen of your small fuzzy buddies for an overnight stay. You’ll have the time of your canine life romping in the non-kennel environment with individual suites. Your family will have to cough up $25 per night, and pickup and delivery from the metro area is $10 each way. But it’s not all pampered pooches here: Since opening in 2000, the rescue side of the operation has placed over 100 adorable adoptees with good homes. That’s not so ruff, is it?

For a weekend of Ashtanga, Iyengar, Hatha or any other flavor of yoga or meditation, head for the hills about 45 minutes northwest of Fort Collins. The 600 acres of Shambhala Mountain Center have provided a setting for contemplative Buddhist retreat since 1971; after three years of expansion and development, the good folks there are reaching out to non-sectarians in search of a mindful resort. Weekend yoga and renewal retreats are offered about twice a month during the summer, with a range of accommodations available. The spectacular mountain setting and the wisdom of the staff welcome all into the nurturing atmosphere. In addition, the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya — the largest Buddhist shrine in North America, fourteen years in the making — is now open for tours on weekends.

The yoga fad is at its peak, and it seems every neighborhood in Denver now has a studio that promises to turn you into a flexible new-age Gumby. But what gets lost in all the hype is yoga’s roots in India, where it was developed by Hindu religious instructors — yogis — as a way to calm the mind and move followers closer to enlightenment. That purpose hasn’t been forgotten at Samadhi, which manages to offer a broad range of yoga classes while honoring the practice’s traditions. You can’t help but notice the statue of Laxmi (Hindu goddess of prosperity) in the corner, with offerings of flowers and incense at her feet, or the serene mural of the Buddha on one wall. And as your instructor moves you through countless Down Dogs, the prayer flags and lanterns that hang from the ceiling will serve as a reminder that yoga is more than just a physical activity. Now, take a deep breath and relax…

Instead of the hair of the dog or a big, greasy breakfast to cure your hangover, try sweating it out at an early-morning class at Bikram Yoga Denver. Just walking into the 100-degree-plus yoga studio is enough to make beads of perspiration pop up on your brow. And as you attempt to bend and contort into 26 different postures, holding each one for a solid thirty seconds, last night’s booze will flow out of your pores faster than it went down. Bikram’s staff, trained by Bikram Choudhury, will guide you through the invigorating practice. The two spacious Asana rooms can be filled to the brim during peak hours, so the 6 a.m. class is the perfect way to start the day. Okay, 10 a.m. if it was a really late night.

There’s a whole lot of history between Cherry Creek and Coors Field. If you’d like to impress your out-of-town guests with how much of it you know, pick up a copy of the CD Walking Tour of Denver’s Historic Lower Downtown (LoDo), a self-guided tour of the neighborhood where our fair city began. For just $15.95 at the Tattered Cover, the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Center and other locations around town, you can explore the 2.25 miles from Union Station to Skyline Park at your own pace. An enclosed map — along with a printable version on the CD-ROM — coordinates landmarks with tracks on the disc. Or just strap some headphones on your guests and let them wander from the Cruise Room to the Wynkoop on their own.

Colorado’s oldest town lies just about twenty miles from the New Mexico border and cherishes its deep Hispanic roots. Local sculptor Huberto Maestas created fifteen bronze statues — the fourteen traditional depictions of Christ’s final journey up Calvary, plus his own interpretation of the Resurrection — for tiny San Luis’s Hill of Piety and Mercy. You can follow in Jesus’s footsteps with an easy hike along a series of switchbacks up the mesa. For a really good Good Friday, begin your pilgrimage at La Capilla de Todos los Santos – All Saints Chapel — and end at the grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The problem with the Colorado lifestyle is that it’s hard to cram everything into the weekend. It’s Saturday: If you’re Jewish, do you trudge off to synagogue or hit the slopes to ride the freshies? Blessedly, Rabbi Jamie Korngold — aka the Adventure Rabbi — has found a way to blend both. Her Shabbat Service on Skis/Boards is held the second Saturday of the month at mid-mountain, either at Copper or Vail. After a short service — about fifteen minutes at lunchtime usually does it — it’s back to the powder. “I know the rabbis would love us to go to synagogue, but the truth is, we moved to Colorado for the skiing,” says Korngold. “This tweaks what we’re doing out there in a beautiful way.” Amen.

About ten years ago, Denver psychiatrist Thomas Crowley began wondering what it would be like to be buried under an avalanche. He decided it wouldn’t be very pleasant, so he started tinkering with ways to survive one. After contemplating and then discarding several plans — wearing a SCUBA tank while schussing seemed cumbersome — he hit on the solution one August night while lying in bed. Why not design a device that could draw the air out of snow and then direct exhalations behind you? After several years of testing and perfecting, last year, for the first time, Crowley’s invention – which he named the AvaLung — worked in a real avalanche, saving a backcountry skier.

Boulder mother Mary Emerson came up with the idea of Helmet Headz after witnessing an argument between parent and child over whether the peewee should wear a helmet in ski school. To make the experience a more stylin’ one, Emerson invented covers that express a wearer’s inner personality: Among her seventeen designs are the spiked-hair, jester and unicorn models. Prices range from $24.95 to $34.95; Helmet Headz are available at sporting-goods stores or online at www.vazisport.com.

Apart from a death wish, why do you rockheads ski out of bounds, anyway? Yeah, we know: for untracked powder, empty slopes and vertical drops that would strike terror into the heart of a skydiver. But why risk getting buried under a pile of champagne powder? Instead, make the drive to Silverton Mountain. Every run here must be guided, so a maximum of just forty skiers are permitted on the single-lift mountain per day. The area gets just over 33 feet of snow a year, so fresh powder isn’t a problem. You want challenging? Silverton’s easiest slopes average 30-degree drops — what passes for a double-black diamond at most resorts. The steepest, about 55 degrees, practically require a belay. At $99 a day (reservations required), it’s a bargain.

If you have sufficient lung capacity — and huevos — look no further than A-Basin for backcountry thrills. Just below 13,000 feet and just outside the ski area’s boundaries lies The Beavers, a hellishly steep bowl that holds more face shots than any other place we know. The area is accessible from the top of the Lenawee lift and the north gate leading to Forest Service land (just follow the boot-packed hiking trail to the top of the ridge and drop right in). If getting to The Beav is easy, though, skiing it is anything but. Even if you make it down the bowl in one piece, there’s still a gully thick with trees to contend with. The avalanche danger is extreme here; only expert skiers and boarders equipped with beacons and avalanche probes should attempt to tame this animal. And the adventure’s not over when you reach the end of the trail; skiers must take another set of boot-packed steps up to Loveland Pass and hitch a ride back to the ski area a mile down the road to collect their cars.

An in-bounds backcountry experience awaits at The Whole Bowl, a new area at Aspen Highlands. Seventy new acres of north-facing, gladed and steep mountainside — we’re talking up to 45-degrees-looking-straight-down-1,400-vertical-feet scary steep — opened this year to anyone willing to hike an additional 45 minutes from the top of the Loge Lift. The perfect place to practice for a ski week in Tibet.

Shredders, rejoice: Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain, home of the 2003 Winter X Games, wants you to come ride the Crazy T’rain, billed as “the world’s longest terrain park.” This stellar park includes two miles of rolling hills, more than thirty rails, a superpipe with its own sound system, and an X Games slopestyle course, among other adrenaline boosters. Now’s the time to get on board.

Union and Copper bowls provide reason enough to ride at Copper Mountain, but when the wind whips up and blows snow off the top of Copper Peak, head straight to Spaulding Bowl. In a strong wind, the steep terrain there magically transforms into the waves off Oahu: It’s surfing time in the mountains, and there’s nothing quite like floating through thigh-deep snow on your board. As for Copper’s terrain park, the folks at Freeze magazine rated it among the top ten in North America. The park, just off the Loverly run, starts slow, with mini-kickers and small rails; to the right are the tabletops. Further down the hill is the rail park, which includes a 100-footer and a rainbow rail. All this funnels into the huge halfpipe, where you can show off your spin-3, rodeo-5 or Misty flip. Or you can simply watch.

Monster-truck rally meets Disneyland at Avalanche Park, the brainchild of experienced rock crawler Steve Rumore, who was concerned that permits to drive on public land were getting harder and harder to come by. So when his real-estate-broker wife saw this 830-acre ranch come up for sale, they pulled out the checkbook. Opened last year, the ranch is modeled after a ski area: Green runs are for beginning drivers; blue are for intermediate; triple black are for those with a death wish. “For the moment, we’re asking everyone to stay on the marked trails,” says Rumore. But a free-for-all area will open up soon — as well as a repair shop, a concession stand, a hotel and a conference center.

For a truly white-knuckle ride, off-roaders should take U.S. Highway 285 south and west of Denver, then leave the asphalt behind two miles outside of Grant. Make your way to the Hardcart Gulch Campground; go about 100 yards west and bear right at the fork. From there, Red Cone climbs up over the Continental Divide and ends up just outside of Keystone. Built by the United States Forest Service with the input of local four-wheeler clubs, Red Cone is the perfect mixture of beauty and peril. One particular quarter-mile section toward the top of the 12,800-foot high point is a fifteen-foot-wide knife-edged road. Lean too far on one side and you’ll tumble nearly 1,000 feet down. Overcorrect on the other, and it’s a hundred feet over the edge. The way down the other side doesn’t get much better, with softball-sized rocks that litter the trail, poised to roll your rig onto its roof if you don’t stay on top of the wheel. We tell you this because some people consider this sort of thing fun.

Say you lack fancy gear but have an urgent need to test your survival skills in an inhospitable landscape. Before embarking on any life-threatening adventures, check out the Boulder Outdoor Survival School. Established in the late 1960s, BOSS offers different levels of training designed to make your wilderness experience safe and enjoyable. Field courses take place in Colorado and Utah, using low-tech camping and hiking to teach the ways of the Anasazi, Paiute and Fremont Indians. This is one time you won’t mind being BOSSed around.

Maps, maps, and more maps. Wall maps, topo maps, maps of the solar system, art posters of the planet, and plenty of books and CDs and software, too, about lots of natural-resources topics, all with great-looking maps, natch. And here’s a bonus: free gift wrap — if you don’t mind covering gifts in huge, outdated maps.

Sam Arnold, owner of the Fort restaurant, is a controversial character in some quarters, but the dinner/lecture series started last year by the Tesoro Foundation, which he chairs, is more likely to inform than enrage. Upcoming lecturers include Dr. Patricia Limerick, who compares the nineteenth-century West to its modern equivalent during a talk on April 13, and Dr. Robert Shikes, who will speak on April 27 about health and disease in the context of Colorado’s early fur trappers.

For the past ten years, the Colorado Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects has hosted an annual tour showcasing some of Denver’s finest private residential gardens. This year’s tour, scheduled for Sunday, June 22, will focus on water-wise gardens and minimal sod use. The tour is self-guided, but volunteers are available at each site to answer questions. Proceeds from the tours benefit the Jane Silverstein Ries Foundation, which awards scholarships and grants to those who demonstrate “stewardship of the land.”

There are several reasons that Denver’s fine botanic paradise in the city was just named one of the top ten such public gardens in the nation by Country Living Gardener magazine, but here’s one of the most touching: This garden takes advantage of all the senses, providing touchable, smellable, tasty, colorful and aural outdoor experiences all rolled into one. The therapeutic garden also serves as a landscape-design model for the facilities that cater to patrons with disabilities or special needs, featuring wheelchair-accessible paths, raised beds, container plantings and other amenities.

After months of construction, the DMNS finally opened its beautifully restructured three-story west atrium, featuring the museum’s famous vantage-point view of City Park, downtown Denver and the mountain skyline beyond, stretching south to Pikes Peak and north to Longs Peak. Old-time Denverites grew up with it, but they’ll only appreciate it more now that it’s packaged in its sleek, new multi-leveled form. Better yet, on the fourth floor, there’s an open-air Sky Terrace perfect for viewing both the land and the sky. What a place! Bring your telescopes: It’s got star quality.

If you’ve ever sat on a hillside and wondered what the land you survey looked like one hundred years ago, imagine what visions came to DMNS paleontologist Kirk Johnson and a trio of seasoned paleoartists when they looked over the local landscape. Actually, you don’t have to: Johnson and company took the initiative last year and created Ancient Denvers, an exhibit and accompanying coffee-table book that feature scientifically correct images of Front Range locales as they probably appeared during various periods over the last 300 million years. Some of our most familiar geological landmarks of today — including Red Rocks, Garden of the Gods and the Dakota Hogback — were given the way-back treatment with brilliant results, but who’da thunk their back yard might ever have been a dank, disgusting swamp to rival the one surrounding the outlands of Mordor? Truth can be stranger than fiction.

Who knew? History can be fun. And the Colorado Historical Society’s experts, who know the state like the backs of their own hands, have a great handle on how to impart that knowledge without being the least bit stodgy. Focusing on locations and themes ranging from the bowels of Denver’s rapidly disappearing skid row to the throwback tourist havens of Manitou or Eldorado Springs, the year-round tours they lead have the character of a downright lark through time; participants leave at the end of the day feeling both relaxed and informed. Upcoming treks include “A Tasty Tour of Boulder County,” featuring visits to local makers of goat cheese, mead and other gourmet oddities, and a three-day summer raft trip following John Wesley Powell’s route down the Green River. Make your reservations early.

The entire history of Denver’s hapless and benighted major-league baseball franchise has been a losing battle against the physics of altitude — specifically, the thin air that torments pitchers trying to throw curveballs at Coors Field, and that allegedly puts Rockies batters off their stride when they play on the road. Last year, the Rox installed a humidor meant to cool and moisturize their baseballs so the ol’ horsehide would react as at sea level. The jury’s still out on that move. This time, manager Clint Hurdle has positioned a time clock by the entry to the dugout as a reminder to the Rockies that they have to work each day. But that’s not all. The scientific wizards of Rockiedom are talking about using a fancy hyperbaric chamber that would simulate the atmospheric conditions of full-speed batting practice in, say, Philadelphia or Chicago — although it won’t replicate the breeze at Wrigley Field. Will the new contraption make any difference to a club that collectively batted 79 points lower on the road than at home last year? Who knows? Ask Todd Helton and Larry Walker come mid-July.

Denver sports artist Malcolm Farley was hired by Pepsi to paint original art to grace the outside of 800 million soft-drink cans. The “Official 2003 Super Bowl Party Cans” sported Farley’s signature along with a painting featuring a Super Bowl championship team, player or coach. Proceeds from auctions of the originals went to NFL charities and Farley’s own pick, the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The artist, who began painting athletes at a young age, prefers to create his works live in a public venue, with as many people watching as possible. He has painted at such events as the U.S. Open, the Super Bowl, the 2002 Olympics in Sydney and the Stanley Cup championships. Next stop…the Pepsi Center?

There were problems. The new 1.6-mile road course around the Pepsi Center was by turns too rough and too slick. The pedestrian bridges were overcrowded. A stand of young trees along Auraria Parkway blocked the view of high-rollers holding $800 tickets. But the return of Indy car racing to the streets of the Mile High City — the first Shell Grand Prix of Denver — proved an exciting diversion for 40,000 motorheads who crowded into the sun-kissed venue on Labor Day. The race’s sanctioning body, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), faces defections by some top drivers and engine-makers, but the show will go on again this summer. Meanwhile, the best T-shirt spotted at the inaugural race on September 1: “Too Dumb for Opera. Too Smart for NASCAR.”

The great David-and-Goliath story of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney was the shocking defeat of the world’s greatest heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, a Russian who hadn’t lost a match in thirteen years, by an engaging Wyoming farm boy named Rulon Gardner. The big news this year is that Gardner has been replaced as the USA’s number-one heavyweight by Dremiel Byers, a 265-pound Army sergeant stationed at Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs. A former football player from North Carolina, Byers stunned the wrestling world last September by winning a gold medal at the World Championships in Moscow. But that’s not good enough: Byers says he’s determined to become America’s lone heavyweight at Athens in 2004 and win Olympic gold for his beloved grandfather.

Colorado State Rams senior forward Ashley Augspurger is a first-team All-Mountain West star who this year averaged 13.4 points per game, along with 4.8 rebounds and three assists. At 6-1, she’s big enough to have subbed at center for first-year coach Chris Denker, yet quick enough to have played point guard. Recently, the Wheat Ridge High School grad became just the twelfth CSU woman to surpass 1,000 points, which puts her in the company of former Ram greats like Becky Hammond and Katie Cronin. Did we mention that she carries a near-perfect 3.92 grade-point average? In biology. If the pros don’t get her, she’s headed straight for medical school. Whatever she chooses, Augspurger is the true personification of the oft-abused term “student-athlete.”

Last November 25, the University of Colorado’s Jorge Torres became just the third American since 1987 to win the NCAA Cross Country Championship, edging away from Arkansas’s Alistair Cragg in the final strides at Terre Haute, Indiana, and finishing in course-record time. The diminutive 5-7 distance runner from Wheeling, Illinois, went undefeated in his senior year and outdistanced a dozen highly touted international stars in his surprising NCAA title run. Jorge also defeated a CU teammate named Ed Torres, who finished tenth. Among other things, that represented a victory of experience over youth: Jorge Torres is, after all, ten minutes older than his twin brother.

The DU Pioneers did not have the greatest year in their storied hockey history; their bitter rival, Colorado College, overshadowed them all season, and they failed to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. But senior forward Kevin Doell lit it up. The 5-11, 187-pound scoring machine led the Pi’s in both goals and assists, and he scored two of the club’s ten short-handed tallies. Doell, born and raised in hockey-rich Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, emerged as one of coach George Gwozdecky’s most potent weapons last season, with 20 goals and 23 assists. This year, he has played in every game and became the 83rd player in Pioneer history to reach the 100-point mark, joining such DU legends as Dallas Gaume, George Morrison, Peter McNab and Jim Wiste.

Under fiery coach Mike Dunlap, Metro State’s unsung, largely unseen basketball team has become the duke of NCAA Division II hoops. Led by players from Australia (where Dunlap once coached a pro team), Belgium and Colorado, the Roadrunners have won two of the last three national championships. Despite losing five seniors to graduation last spring, this year’s 28-5 club won another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title and narrowly missed returning to Division II’s “Elite Eight” Tournament by losing a double-overtime thriller to Nebraska-Kearney on March 17.

The two-time Stanley Cup champions have another shot at glory this year, thanks to a late-season surge in the Western Conference standings fueled by the play of Peter Forsberg and the return of team captain Joe Sakic. The great goalie Patrick Roy can see his sunset now, and a few of the defensemen are getting long in the tooth, but solid stars like Milan Hejduk and Alex Tanguay provide strength on a solid roster that’s been carefully built by one of the most savvy executives in pro sports: Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix. In a city where the other three major sports franchises all have major problems to solve, the Avs remain a beacon of pride. Now, if the ordinary working person could just afford the price of a ticket — or find one for sale.

After surprising the doomsayers and starting the 2002 football season at a perfect 6-0, the Feisty Falcons lost a huge game at home to powerful Notre Dame. From there, the rest of the season went a bit south: Air Force finished 8-5, including a 20-13 loss to Virginia Tech in the San Francisco Bowl. But no one questioned the skills of head football coach Fisher DeBerry, who’s been at the

academy for nineteen years. In that time, he’s had just two losing seasons while racking up 150 wins — almost all of them against bigger, stronger teams. A master of the complex wishbone offense, a Southern wit and a true believer in his no-frills, anti-glitz party line, DeBerry turns smart, disciplined, undersized players into winners, year after year. Only Joe Paterno (37 years at Penn State) and Bobby Bowden (27 years at Florida State) have been on the job longer, and DeBerry is every bit their equal.

An awful start to the 2002-03 season cost Bob Hartley his job after almost five years behind the Avalanche bench, and young Tony Granato emerged in late December as both irritant and

inspiration for a veteran club that had grown listless and stale. Granato shifted Peter Forsberg from left wing to center (with brilliant results), helped transform big Scott Parker from goon to useful third-line grinder and dramatically improved the tone of the team dressing room. Almost to a man, the Avs praise Granato — not long gone from the NHL ice himself — for his patience, his game-day smarts and his belief in individual accountability. For the moment, the Avs are intent on catching Vancouver in the Northwest Division standings; after that, they’ve clearly got their eyes on a much larger prize. Paying attention, Detroit?

Things haven’t been easy for the rookie CEO of the Colorado Crush, Denver’s new entry in the Arena Football League. Despite sellouts at the Pepsi Center, John Elway’s team has won just once in its first seven games. But the ex-Broncos legend has one thing going for him: the most prolific scorer in the world’s highest-scoring league. In seven games, 6-3 receiver Damian Harrell has caught 21 touchdown passes and scored three two-point conversions for 132 points. At the rate he’s going, the four-year AFL veteran out of Florida State will surpass the individual season record of 310 points, set by Orlando’s Barry Wagner in 1997.

No contest. A battle-hardened veteran of six teams in two professional lacrosse leagues, forward Gary Gait is the Michael Jordan of the Indians’ grand old game — the all-time record-holder for regular-season goals, assists, points and shots. Even at age 35, his skills have not eroded. As captain of the expansion Colorado Mammoth, the 6-2, 220-pounder this year leads the National Lacrosse League in goals, and he is fifth in total points. Gait’s world-class resumé also includes five league MVP trophies and a spot on the All-Pro team in every one of his thirteen pro seasons. The Big Stick played his college lax at Syracuse, a perennial power, and he’s still the reigning king of the indoor game.

We gotta pick somebody, don’t we? The only sign of useful maturity in the chaotic kindergarten that is the Denver Nuggets locker room comes from long-suffering veteran Juwan Howard, late of the league-best Dallas Mavericks. At 6-9 and 260 pounds, the big forward has the beef to muscle up on opponents, and his personal numbers during this winter of discontent befit a winner, not a member of the NBA’s second-worst team. Howard’s averaging almost nineteen points per game, along with eight rebounds and three assists. As of mid-March, he’d led or co-led Jeff Bzdelik’s offensively challenged club in scoring in 29 of its last 35 games and showed himself to be a solid professional, grinding out almost 38 minutes per night of losing basketball without complaint. Once he’s done, there surely must be a place in hoops heaven for this intrepid warrior.

Starting his second year with the Colorado Rapids, stop-minded midfielder Pablo Mastroeni is a true star — not least because of his impressive play for the U.S. National Team that shocked soccer powers like Portugal and Mexico at last summer’s World Cup before their heartbreaking loss to Germany. Born in Argentina, Mastroeni moved to Phoenix when he was four. He played college soccer at North Carolina State and was with the now-defunct Miami Fusion of Major League Soccer before the Rapids grabbed him in last year’s dispersal draft. This season, look for the 26-year-old defensive specialist to attack more for the Rapids. And don’t count him out of World Cup 2006.

With or without a spleen, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden’s gift to the Colorado Avalanche has been the team’s most vital organ this year — especially when captain Joe Sakic was shelved by injury. En route to another playoff appearance, eight-year veteran Peter Forsberg leads the team in points and assists and was named NHL player of the month for February. More important, the Super Swede has taken emotional charge of an Avs club that struggled through the early season in disarray but has re-emerged as a dangerous Stanley Cup contender. And to think Forsberg’s career looked to be over two years ago following that vicious hit he suffered in game seven against the Los Angeles Kings.

The brain trust at Coors Field changes players faster than pit crews swap tires at a NASCAR race. Their frenzy leaves only first baseman Todd Helton as the rock upon which Rockies hope is built. There couldn’t be a better one: Helton’s a three-time All-Star who won the National League batting crown in 2000 (with a .372 average), and he’s turned into one of the best defensive first basemen in the game. Not only that, but his work ethic is unimpeachable, even when the Rox start another inevitable August slide toward the NL West cellar. If he doesn’t inspire the newcomers, no one will. Now heading into his sixth big-league season, the former University of Tennessee quarterback has signed with Colorado through 2011, and that’s a good thing: Every hapless team needs a pillar of stability.

Since the retirement of John Elway and the untimely demise of Terrell Davis, the Denver Broncos have been an offensive shambles,

barely getting a sniff at the playoffs. Enter Clinton Portis, a super-quick rookie running back from the University of Miami who, after an early-season bout of fumbleitis, collected 1,508 yards (fourth best in the NFL), fifteen touchdowns and a lock on the Broncos’ disputed starting spot. At 5-11 and 205 pounds, Portis has the size to be durable, and his moves are astonishing. His pairing in the backfield with new quarterback Jake Plummer should be good news: A dramatically improved passing game (keep your fingers crossed, Broncomaniacs) usually means fewer bloodthirsty linebackers in the face of a good ball carrier. As for the new QB, that $40 million contract probably dictates a change of nickname from “Jake the Snake” to “Liquid Plummer.”

It’s been a tough year for the furry crowd: Howler got bounced by the Avs; Rocky — (or at least the human force inside him) — ran into legal trouble; Dinger seems like the slow little brother of Barney; and the Broncos’ Miles

appears to be spooked by the four-hooved equine that prances along the sidelines. But one of the hairiest mascots anywhere has lumbered into town and is making a big impression. Especially when he sits on fans’ laps. Woolly, mascot for the pro lacrosse Colorado Mammoth, is a brown Mam-scot complete with tusks. And while some might believe he’s headed for extinction, this most recent addition to the Pepsi zoo seems alive and well.

We’re a poorer state for it, but alas, Colorado isn’t usually associated with the bikini sports. That’s changing, thanks to the improbable emergence of Highlands Ranch native Emily Copeland, who, despite her landlocked upbringing, has become the country’s best female wakeboarder. All of eighteen years old, Copeland has been competing nationally since she was fifteen. She started dominating the circuit in 2001, when she won the Vans Triple Crown Championship and ended the year ranked number one in the country. She finished first in the 2002 Gravity Games and Masters Tournament and won the gold medal in wakeboarding at the 2002 X Games before a late-season injury put her out of commission. Look for her to dominate again this summer.

Best Sporting Club You¹ve Never Heard OfHusband and wife snorkeler/stick-handlers Chris and Agnes DeBrunner of Conifer started DUH in 1993 after moving to Denver from Illinois, where Agnes’s brother introduced her to the game. “It was a different game then,” recalls Agnes. “More like a holding-your-breath contest.” Today, thanks to modern gear like snorkels, fins and spatula-sized sticks, the game is played at the speed of, well, pushing around a weighted puck underwater. From above, a game can look like a group of very pale piranhas attacking a pancake. But, says Agnes, “It’s good exercise — I hate swimming laps — and it’s fun.” The club, which boasts a mix of ice hockey and Ultimate Frisbee players, meets at the pool at Lakewood’s Carmody Recreation Complex.

It may not be everybody’s idea of a sporting good time, but someone’s got to be best in the world, and Evergreen’s Dennis Hastings is going nowhere faster than anyone else his age. Last year, he successfully defended his title as the world’s best indoor stationary rower, lightweight division, in the 50- to 59-year-old age group. In November, he was winner of his division in the British Indoor Rowing Championships.

Homer Simpson’s buffoonery, Bart’s pre-pubescent anarchism and the precocious wisdom of his little sister Lisa have all ripened into beloved cultural institutions, but Matt Groening’s wisecracking burlesque of American family life has its way with the world beyond Springfield, too. In the much-heralded 300th episode, broadcast in February, Fox viewers beheld a cartoon version of Frankenstein’s monster, lunk-headed and zipper-necked, staggering down the length of a basketball court and trying without much success to stick the ball in the hoop. The big guy’s explanation for his obvious incompetence rang a local bell. Said he: “Me made of Denver Nuggets corpses.”

Wanna feel the wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth? If you’re born to be wild but don’t have a bike to call your own, rent one for $100+ a day from EagleRider. Whether it’s a Sportster, Softail Deuce or Electra Glide that gets your motor runnin’, EagleRider features Harleys exclusively, available to rent for a day or a week. You bring the motorcycle-endorsed driver’s license, credit card and good/bad attitude — and EagleRider handles the rest. Their Web site sums it up best: “EagleRider provides the means to release the pent-up outlaw that yearns for the open road and a style of living that is outside the suburban conventions of everyday life.”

Educated in the school of hard knocks in Raton, New Mexico, Arturo and Terri Cruz have been fighting their whole lives — in and out of the ring. One battled street gangs in Denver while the other battled juvenile delinquency, bar brawlers and tequila. Tapping into the genes passed on by their father, former pro fighter Arturo Cruz, the siblings found salvation, redemption and purpose in the ring. Arturo Jr., 18-12-2, holds the World Athletic Association welterweight belt, while Terri, 6-3-2, is ranked seventeenth in the world in the bantamweight class. Working out at Mestas’s House of Pain gym on Brighton Boulevard, Terri and Arturo Jr. continue to prove that there’s life after the streets.

Some bulls are wimpy and get no respect from cowboys because they don’t buck well enough to earn good scores. Others are so powerful and unpredictable that riders hate to draw them, because they know there’s a good chance they’ll get thrown. A perfect middle animal gives you a wild ride but still gives you a chance to stay on board. Mister USA, a yellow, flat-horned seven-year-old that jumps high and then typically turns back hard to the left, has that rep. He lived up to it again at this year’s National Western Stock Show, where both his riders managed to stay on and earn high scores: 94 and 87, respectively. A native of Utah, Mister USA contributed 23 out of 25 points to each ride. And, no, he’s not done yet.

The man who brought the world boxed beef left this world in 2001. But the house in which he was born has been moved to the Centennial Village Museum as a memorial to the contributions of the Monfort family to Weld County and northern Colorado. In addition to the 1908 structure, which was trucked two miles over farm fields to its new site, Centennial Village contains thirty structures that tell the story of Greeley from 1860-1930, the year after Ken Monfort was born. Interestingly, the complex sits next to Island Grove Regional Park, site of the annual Greeley Independence Stampede, known for attracting much beef on the hoof every Fourth of July.

If the same old kicks and yells are wearing on you, you may be ripe for capoeira, the Brazilian dance/fight/acrobatic hybrid art form. And if you can study under Mestre Usamah Zaid, otherwise known as Baba, you’ll progress quickly. Held in the Merc’s spacious ballroom, the class features live music, expert instruction and a feeling of group accomplishment that’s hard to describe. Students at any level are welcome anytime. Prepare to sweat!

Kupigana Ngumi, a style of African martial arts founded in the 1960s, is based on rhythmic, dance-like movements. There are three empowerment areas in the training: cultural, in which students’ self-esteem and cultural understanding are increased; emotional and mental, in which students are taught to make good choices and avoid confrontation, as well as learn anger and stress management; and fitness, in which students develop mental focus, coordination, endurance, flexibility and strength. Classes are held at the Moyo Nguvu Cultural Arts Center, whose programs are built around cultural diversity and helping young people take pride in themselves and their community.

Echo Canyon River Expeditions offers a combo view of the Royal Gorge: from a train and from a raft. Participants can choose from two different tours; both include a ride on the Royal Gorge railroad, lunch at a scenic spot, and a raft trip. Families float through the Bighorn Canyon; more advanced adults tackle the challenging Arkansas River through the gorge itself. With prices ranging from $52.75 for kids twelve and under to $89.75 for advanced adults, this trip makes for an adventure to gorge on.

One of the best ways to experience the stunning scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park is on horseback, and horses enjoy it, too. If you want to bring your best equine pal for extended exploring, make Winding River Ranch, two miles north of Grand Lake, your base of operations. The Colorado River flows through the ranch, the park trails are easily accessible, and the apartments and two- and three-bedroom riverside cabins offer all the comforts of home, especially if your home includes an indoor pool, sauna, massage center and family-style dining hall. Your hoofed companion gets his own stall in the barn and use of a training area for only $15 per night; he can even bring his dog along for a fee.

Believe it or not, two-thirds of Colorado is public land. And maintaining trails, parks and open spaces so that everyone can enjoy them is no easy task. That’s where Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado comes in. Established in 1984, the non-profit environmental organization is dedicated to improving, preserving and protecting our natural resources. New volunteers are always welcome and training is provided, so grab a shovel and dig in!

It’s a double-billed winner! The Nature Association’s Field Guide to Viewing Wildlife in Rocky Mountain National Park won first place in the Site Publications category of the National Association for Interpretation’s Interpretive Media Competition. And Trail Ridge Road Adventure Sticker and Game Book, a fun sticker book that teaches kids about the park’s inhabitants, took second. Both books can be purchased for $6.95, which supports the association’s efforts on behalf of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Your Global Positioning Satellite unit told you the treasure you were diligently seeking was only three miles away. But it failed to mention that your raison d’être was three miles uphill. Straight uphill. The friendly staff at Mapsco is more than willing to commiserate with you about your unexpected adventure — and they suggest that on your next geocaching adventure, you also take along a topographical map. Besides stocking lots and lots of maps, this longtime Denver standby carries anything and everything on paper that geocachers need to help them find their way.

When the sandhill cranes come back to the San Luis Valley, it’s time for naturalist workshops at the 100,000-acre Medano-Zapata Ranch, a Nature Conservancy preserve four hours southwest of Denver. Throughout the spring, summer and early fall, three-day weekend workshops explore everything from the geology of the nearby Great Sand Dunes to the birds of the San Luis Valley. There are also weekend getaways for families, nature photography, sketching and writing seminars, and two astronomy field trips far from urban light pollution in the company of a large telescope named Hagrid. With meals, lodging with private baths, and ranch-to-field transportation provided for $450 per person ($550 for special four-day sessions), these workshops are a bargain – and they fill up quickly.

So you’re tooling along through a field, and suddenly you realize there’s a pair of Eurasian wigeons right there in front of you. Who ya gonna call? The Rare Bird Alert Hotline, of course. The alert system, sponsored by the Denver Field Ornithologists and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, has been taking calls from rare-bird spotters since the mid-1980s. Spring migration brings hundreds of calls from amateur ornithologists, who are encouraged to leave precise directions to the location of the sighting so others can share and verify the report. Volunteers then compile the tips into a regularly updated recorded message of who’s winging where.

Many public parks are named after people whom time has forgotten, but the namesake of C.J. Walker Park, at East 30th Avenue and High Street, is certainly worth remembering. As related in On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, a book penned by A’Lelia Bundles, Walker’s great-great granddaughter, Madam Walker was born into humble circumstances in 1867. After founding a business that sold hair-care products to African-American women in northeast Denver, however, she began accruing a fortune that eventually made her the first female self-made millionaire in U.S. history. Hers is a tale few Denverites know — but thanks to C.J. Walker Park, which was given its current moniker last May, more will discover it.

When you gotta go, you gotta go — and there’s no better place in Denver to let loose than the bathrooms at Commons Park. But then, they should look good: Like the park itself, these privies cost plenty. Made of stone, they fit nicely into the Commons’ urban setting, with the Platte River in the backdrop and pricey loft project after pricey loft project in the foreground. And unlike many public facilities, these are usually open. Now if only the city could get that year-round water fountain flowing year-round…

You don’t need to look at the sundial that’s the centerpiece of Cramner Park to know that time’s almost up for this great view. Looking west, you see some of Denver’s most elegant homes — but beyond those homes is a hodgepodge of new construction that threatens to block much of the mountain backdrop.

From Inspiration Point, at 50th Ave. and Sheridan Blvd. in northwest Denver — which also happens to be one of the town’s best makeout locations, if you still go for that sort of thing — you can take in the entire Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, without many of those nasty man-made obstacles to mar the view. The sight of all those purple mountain majesties is positively swoon-worthy. Excuse us while we kiss the sky.

Heading northwest on the Cherry Creek Bike Path out of the Denver Country Club area, you’ll dodge bums, baby strollers and bicyclists, then tackle the impressive rise leading to Confluence Park. Take a moment to catch your breath and enjoy the view — which often includes several neophyte kayakers rolling over onto their heads in the South Platte, as well as all the mind-blowing construction in the Platte Valley. Now head across the bridge and over to the Starbucks at REI: You’ve earned your latte grande.

When this thirteen-mile stretch of urban trail opened to the public last summer — amid cheers from outdoor enthusiasts — it marked the completion of a fifty-mile loop in the northeast metro area by connecting the Highline Canal in Aurora to the Platte River Greenway in Commerce City. Now you can take the grand tour: Open to anyone or anything without a motor, the spanking new trail hightails it through the old Stapleton Airport; the lazy cottonwood groves and wetlands along its stretch provide homes to all manner of wildlife, such as mule deer, foxes and waterfowl, not to mention a fine swath of good old peace and quiet. Future trail development includes plans for parks, preserved wildlife habitats, interpretive markers and other backcountry amenities. What a way to go.

Face it: Every so often, running among the alpine splendor, majestic elk and views of the Continental Divide gets, well, boring. At times like those, it’s nice to have something civilized to look at. This three-mile stretch of the Highline Canal provides a rare kind of scenery for the jogging voyeur: close-up vistas of the rich and famous. Check out the backsides of 10,000-square-foot mansions! Thrill to six-figure landscaping jobs! They’ll never know you were there.

Constructed and opened last year, this little-known gem runs from Pence Park, between Indian Hills and Evergreen, to Lair o’ the Bear Park, outside of Idledale. Along the way, it cuts through two other Denver mountain parks, Corwina and O’Fallon. Unlike many of the trails along the Denver-area Front Range, Bear Creek is not just a jumble of rocks. It more resembles the Buffalo Creek Trail that runs along the Colorado Trail to the city’s southwest: a smooth, wide, hard-packed-dirt single track, with lots of roller-coastery dips and climbs. If you want to get the hard part out of the way first, take C-470 to Morrison and climb up the canyon to Lair o’ the Bear. Start grinding at the west end of the parking lot.

USA Triathlon coordinator Jim Flint says he’s seen “the good, the bad and the ugly.” This year, he decided to produce his own series of tris, and it’s all good. From the time-trial start — swimmers enter the reservoir every few seconds instead of in one teeming mass — to the rolling bike course devoid of car traffic, to the “pancake flat” running route, the series promises to be a winner. Flint’s seen to all the details: a luscious catered lunch, fresh flowers at the hand-washing stations — even a cardiac doc on hand. “I figure if I’m gonna do this, it should be fun,” he says, “even for a beginner.” And then there’s that cool name: Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say you just finished the Rattlesnake?

Parents, do you feel your child is getting soft and lacks the killer instinct necessary to survive today’s competitive world? Well, forget Montessori and the Ivy League. South Suburban has been hosting this middle-school dodgeball league for more than a year. Games are typically held on Friday evenings (when most kids that age are gearing up for an evening of senseless vandalism). The league uses softer “gatorskin” balls — not the painful red rubber balls of your youth — but the effect is the same. For what it’s worth, good sportsmanship is stressed.

It’s a sweltering summer day, and you and the kids want to get cool but don’t necessarily want to take out a loan to do it. Drive west to the year-old Splash water park, thoughtfully provided by the citizens of Golden. It may not have the latest 1.5 million-gallon tsunami scrambler, but with an eight-lane lap pool, a 300-gallon bucket dump, two giant slides (one for inner tubes), and a geyser-shooting splash pad and sandpit for the kids, there’s plenty to occupy your time. Kids pay as little as $2.50 per visit; adults may accompany them for $6.50 to $8.50, depending on residency.

When Irish guys are smiling, it’s probably because the weather is good enough for a pool party. No, not the kind where you get wet — although true competitors can work up quite a sweat covering all the angles in a tough game of pool. Come spring, Emerald Isle sets up pool tables on its covered deck, where a real sport can take on a fresh opponent and fresh air at the same time. Nine ball in the side pocket!

You got your brewpubs and mega-arcades with a few tables on the side, your harshly lit hustlers’ dens full of smoke and reverse English, your suburban bar tables reeking of cheap beer and patchouli. For our money, though, the best and least pretentious pool-hall ambience in town still resides at this friendly, busy institution, where serious billiards stickmen brush up against casual 8-ball enthusiasts, and nobody refers to 9-Ball as a “bangers’ game.” Added bonus: two snooker tables, for those who believe size — of table, at least — matters.

Numbers are few, and it ain’t the triathlon, but air hockey is a real sport. If you don’t believe it, head to Broomfield Bowl on select Thursday nights and watch the area’s best players (some of whom are also among the country’s best) slam it out on the sole tournament-sized air hockey table that sits just off to one side of the bar. Games, which are played with kneepads, plenty of athletic tape and carefully customized mallets, usually start up around 7 p.m. and last well into the evening. Watch and learn, Grasshopper: No matter what you did in your basement as a kid, don’t expect to show up and win.

The superbly outfitted arcade inside Margarita Mama’s is so massive – and the place so dead on most weeknights — that we never have to wait in line to play Hot Flash and Fast Track, the venue’s two air hockey tables. Hot Flash is a fun little black-light model, with the usual purple lamps, glow-in-the-dark orange plastic puck and plastic playing surface. Fast Track’s playing surface, though, is polished steel. The puck is metal, too, and the goals are cut extremely tight. Be warned: Fast Track pucks have a tendency to fly off the table like tiny metal discs of destruction. At forty tokens for ten bucks, these games are a bargain — right up there with the $2 Coronas available during Mama’s happy hour.

The 14,000-year history of the boomerang begins Down Under and continues today in Aurora with these space-age, Day-Glo toys. Handcrafted from airplane-grade birch plywood from Finland, they’re the Ferraris of the boomerang industry, with style and performance that keep coming back. Boomerang fanatic/bank examiner Richard Pollock-Nelson collected ‘rangs and competed in U.S. Boomerang Association-sanctioned events prior to buying Colorado Boomerangs from its Gunnison owners in 1998. Now the company, which takes the science behind the homing crescents (i.e., Newton’s Third Law of Motion and Bernoulli’s Law) very seriously, is the largest domestic manufacturer of high-end boomerangs in the world.

The year was 1976, and Joe Markham was working on his VW Bus. His German shepherd, Fritz, was chewing on rocks. The two had no idea that they were about to irrevocably alter the dog chew-toy world. But the moment Markham threw a chunk of the transmission to distract his dog from grinding his teeth to nubs, Fritz gave up rocks forever to chew on the dense rubber cone, which was soon dubbed Kong. More than a quarter-century later, the Golden-based Kong Company has cranked out millions of the toys, which are essentially the same VW part Fritz enjoyed in 1976. And while canines are still attracted to old-fashioned novelties such as rope bones, rawhide chews and tennis balls, Kong has found a home in the grip of Fidos and Fifis across the county.

With endless acres, three lakes and seemingly endless walking and jogging paths, your hund will think he’s died and gone to puppy heaven. There are countless things to sniff, endless muck to roll in, toys to steal, trees to pee on. And every pup, from dachshund to Dane, will love running free, with nary a chance of getting a ticket. Although summer weekends do become a bit of a free-for-all — there’s always the risk of getting home and realizing you left with someone else’s Lab — spring, fall and most mid-week days are a bit more sane.

The outdoor patios along Fillmore Street are the place for Cherry Creek yuppies to see and be seen…with their dogs. The block between 2nd and 3rd avenues is a veritable dog show on Saturday mornings, when pooches of every pedigree accompany their human companions as they sip Starbucks lattes and satisfy their cream-cheese fix at Einstein Bros. Bejeweled ladies on their way to the mall strut by with their toy dogs; single men bring their puppies to woo the women; and families stop by for breakfast with their Labs and golden retrievers. It’s the closest thing Denver has to Westminster — the kennel club, not the suburb.

Here’s something to howl about: An offshoot of the Boulder group, these doggie devotees are dedicated to the promotion of responsible off-leash recreation in Denver. And they’re not just hollering for more dog parks: They also have an eye on the future, exploring ways to keep such spaces clean, safe and usable for all. This is one group that’s not going to roll over and play dead.

You’ve done the tummy rub and played fetch at the park. How’s about a little doggy dancing? Mile High Musical Tails, the Colorado chapter of the WCFO, offers you and your pet the chance to put on the dog in style. Classes are available through the Blue Springs & KatyDid Dog Training Center in Sheridan, and lessons are open to dogs and owners of all ages. Excessive obedience isn’t necessary — just creativity. The music, choreography and costuming will have your mutt struttin’ in no time.

Up in the air! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Nope, it’s Red Rocket Rider! A high-flying Australian shepherd with a penchant for catching stuff in his mouth mid-air, Rider, a consecutive five-time Colorado state champion owned by Evergreen lawyer Christi Goodman, is one of the top disc dogs in the state — and possibly the nation. But listen up, Fido: You don’t have to be faster than a speeding bullet to have fun catching a Frisbee. For a good time, join the Colorado Disc Dogs and get together with like-minded buddies for a monthly romp in the park without having to worry about wowing the crowd.

This is the place for little dogs to have a big time. Most of the clients of this licensed boarding facility in Elbert County are bichons frises, shih tzus and Pomeranians. But if you’re little and cute and pass the intake interview with owner Pam Knight, you can join up to fourteen of your small fuzzy buddies for an overnight stay. You’ll have the time of your canine life romping in the non-kennel environment with individual suites. Your family will have to cough up $25 per night, and pickup and delivery from the metro area is $10 each way. But it’s not all pampered pooches here: Since opening in 2000, the rescue side of the operation has placed over 100 adorable adoptees with good homes. That’s not so ruff, is it?

For a weekend of Ashtanga, Iyengar, Hatha or any other flavor of yoga or meditation, head for the hills about 45 minutes northwest of Fort Collins. The 600 acres of Shambhala Mountain Center have provided a setting for contemplative Buddhist retreat since 1971; after three years of expansion and development, the good folks there are reaching out to non-sectarians in search of a mindful resort. Weekend yoga and renewal retreats are offered about twice a month during the summer, with a range of accommodations available. The spectacular mountain setting and the wisdom of the staff welcome all into the nurturing atmosphere. In addition, the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya — the largest Buddhist shrine in North America, fourteen years in the making — is now open for tours on weekends.

The yoga fad is at its peak, and it seems every neighborhood in Denver now has a studio that promises to turn you into a flexible new-age Gumby. But what gets lost in all the hype is yoga’s roots in India, where it was developed by Hindu religious instructors — yogis — as a way to calm the mind and move followers closer to enlightenment. That purpose hasn’t been forgotten at Samadhi, which manages to offer a broad range of yoga classes while honoring the practice’s traditions. You can’t help but notice the statue of Laxmi (Hindu goddess of prosperity) in the corner, with offerings of flowers and incense at her feet, or the serene mural of the Buddha on one wall. And as your instructor moves you through countless Down Dogs, the prayer flags and lanterns that hang from the ceiling will serve as a reminder that yoga is more than just a physical activity. Now, take a deep breath and relax…

Instead of the hair of the dog or a big, greasy breakfast to cure your hangover, try sweating it out at an early-morning class at Bikram Yoga Denver. Just walking into the 100-degree-plus yoga studio is enough to make beads of perspiration pop up on your brow. And as you attempt to bend and contort into 26 different postures, holding each one for a solid thirty seconds, last night’s booze will flow out of your pores faster than it went down. Bikram’s staff, trained by Bikram Choudhury, will guide you through the invigorating practice. The two spacious Asana rooms can be filled to the brim during peak hours, so the 6 a.m. class is the perfect way to start the day. Okay, 10 a.m. if it was a really late night.

There’s a whole lot of history between Cherry Creek and Coors Field. If you’d like to impress your out-of-town guests with how much of it you know, pick up a copy of the CD Walking Tour of Denver’s Historic Lower Downtown (LoDo), a self-guided tour of the neighborhood where our fair city began. For just $15.95 at the Tattered Cover, the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Center and other locations around town, you can explore the 2.25 miles from Union Station to Skyline Park at your own pace. An enclosed map — along with a printable version on the CD-ROM — coordinates landmarks with tracks on the disc. Or just strap some headphones on your guests and let them wander from the Cruise Room to the Wynkoop on their own.

Colorado’s oldest town lies just about twenty miles from the New Mexico border and cherishes its deep Hispanic roots. Local sculptor Huberto Maestas created fifteen bronze statues — the fourteen traditional depictions of Christ’s final journey up Calvary, plus his own interpretation of the Resurrection — for tiny San Luis’s Hill of Piety and Mercy. You can follow in Jesus’s footsteps with an easy hike along a series of switchbacks up the mesa. For a really good Good Friday, begin your pilgrimage at La Capilla de Todos los Santos – All Saints Chapel — and end at the grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The problem with the Colorado lifestyle is that it’s hard to cram everything into the weekend. It’s Saturday: If you’re Jewish, do you trudge off to synagogue or hit the slopes to ride the freshies? Blessedly, Rabbi Jamie Korngold — aka the Adventure Rabbi — has found a way to blend both. Her Shabbat Service on Skis/Boards is held the second Saturday of the month at mid-mountain, either at Copper or Vail. After a short service — about fifteen minutes at lunchtime usually does it — it’s back to the powder. “I know the rabbis would love us to go to synagogue, but the truth is, we moved to Colorado for the skiing,” says Korngold. “This tweaks what we’re doing out there in a beautiful way.” Amen.

About ten years ago, Denver psychiatrist Thomas Crowley began wondering what it would be like to be buried under an avalanche. He decided it wouldn’t be very pleasant, so he started tinkering with ways to survive one. After contemplating and then discarding several plans — wearing a SCUBA tank while schussing seemed cumbersome — he hit on the solution one August night while lying in bed. Why not design a device that could draw the air out of snow and then direct exhalations behind you? After several years of testing and perfecting, last year, for the first time, Crowley’s invention – which he named the AvaLung — worked in a real avalanche, saving a backcountry skier.

Boulder mother Mary Emerson came up with the idea of Helmet Headz after witnessing an argument between parent and child over whether the peewee should wear a helmet in ski school. To make the experience a more stylin’ one, Emerson invented covers that express a wearer’s inner personality: Among her seventeen designs are the spiked-hair, jester and unicorn models. Prices range from $24.95 to $34.95; Helmet Headz are available at sporting-goods stores or online at www.vazisport.com.

Apart from a death wish, why do you rockheads ski out of bounds, anyway? Yeah, we know: for untracked powder, empty slopes and vertical drops that would strike terror into the heart of a skydiver. But why risk getting buried under a pile of champagne powder? Instead, make the drive to Silverton Mountain. Every run here must be guided, so a maximum of just forty skiers are permitted on the single-lift mountain per day. The area gets just over 33 feet of snow a year, so fresh powder isn’t a problem. You want challenging? Silverton’s easiest slopes average 30-degree drops — what passes for a double-black diamond at most resorts. The steepest, about 55 degrees, practically require a belay. At $99 a day (reservations required), it’s a bargain.

If you have sufficient lung capacity — and huevos — look no further than A-Basin for backcountry thrills. Just below 13,000 feet and just outside the ski area’s boundaries lies The Beavers, a hellishly steep bowl that holds more face shots than any other place we know. The area is accessible from the top of the Lenawee lift and the north gate leading to Forest Service land (just follow the boot-packed hiking trail to the top of the ridge and drop right in). If getting to The Beav is easy, though, skiing it is anything but. Even if you make it down the bowl in one piece, there’s still a gully thick with trees to contend with. The avalanche danger is extreme here; only expert skiers and boarders equipped with beacons and avalanche probes should attempt to tame this animal. And the adventure’s not over when you reach the end of the trail; skiers must take another set of boot-packed steps up to Loveland Pass and hitch a ride back to the ski area a mile down the road to collect their cars.

An in-bounds backcountry experience awaits at The Whole Bowl, a new area at Aspen Highlands. Seventy new acres of north-facing, gladed and steep mountainside — we’re talking up to 45-degrees-looking-straight-down-1,400-vertical-feet scary steep — opened this year to anyone willing to hike an additional 45 minutes from the top of the Loge Lift. The perfect place to practice for a ski week in Tibet.

Shredders, rejoice: Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain, home of the 2003 Winter X Games, wants you to come ride the Crazy T’rain, billed as “the world’s longest terrain park.” This stellar park includes two miles of rolling hills, more than thirty rails, a superpipe with its own sound system, and an X Games slopestyle course, among other adrenaline boosters. Now’s the time to get on board.

Union and Copper bowls provide reason enough to ride at Copper Mountain, but when the wind whips up and blows snow off the top of Copper Peak, head straight to Spaulding Bowl. In a strong wind, the steep terrain there magically transforms into the waves off Oahu: It’s surfing time in the mountains, and there’s nothing quite like floating through thigh-deep snow on your board. As for Copper’s terrain park, the folks at Freeze magazine rated it among the top ten in North America. The park, just off the Loverly run, starts slow, with mini-kickers and small rails; to the right are the tabletops. Further down the hill is the rail park, which includes a 100-footer and a rainbow rail. All this funnels into the huge halfpipe, where you can show off your spin-3, rodeo-5 or Misty flip. Or you can simply watch.

Monster-truck rally meets Disneyland at Avalanche Park, the brainchild of experienced rock crawler Steve Rumore, who was concerned that permits to drive on public land were getting harder and harder to come by. So when his real-estate-broker wife saw this 830-acre ranch come up for sale, they pulled out the checkbook. Opened last year, the ranch is modeled after a ski area: Green runs are for beginning drivers; blue are for intermediate; triple black are for those with a death wish. “For the moment, we’re asking everyone to stay on the marked trails,” says Rumore. But a free-for-all area will open up soon — as well as a repair shop, a concession stand, a hotel and a conference center.

For a truly white-knuckle ride, off-roaders should take U.S. Highway 285 south and west of Denver, then leave the asphalt behind two miles outside of Grant. Make your way to the Hardcart Gulch Campground; go about 100 yards west and bear right at the fork. From there, Red Cone climbs up over the Continental Divide and ends up just outside of Keystone. Built by the United States Forest Service with the input of local four-wheeler clubs, Red Cone is the perfect mixture of beauty and peril. One particular quarter-mile section toward the top of the 12,800-foot high point is a fifteen-foot-wide knife-edged road. Lean too far on one side and you’ll tumble nearly 1,000 feet down. Overcorrect on the other, and it’s a hundred feet over the edge. The way down the other side doesn’t get much better, with softball-sized rocks that litter the trail, poised to roll your rig onto its roof if you don’t stay on top of the wheel. We tell you this because some people consider this sort of thing fun.

Say you lack fancy gear but have an urgent need to test your survival skills in an inhospitable landscape. Before embarking on any life-threatening adventures, check out the Boulder Outdoor Survival School. Established in the late 1960s, BOSS offers different levels of training designed to make your wilderness experience safe and enjoyable. Field courses take place in Colorado and Utah, using low-tech camping and hiking to teach the ways of the Anasazi, Paiute and Fremont Indians. This is one time you won’t mind being BOSSed around.

Maps, maps, and more maps. Wall maps, topo maps, maps of the solar system, art posters of the planet, and plenty of books and CDs and software, too, about lots of natural-resources topics, all with great-looking maps, natch. And here’s a bonus: free gift wrap — if you don’t mind covering gifts in huge, outdated maps.

Sam Arnold, owner of the Fort restaurant, is a controversial character in some quarters, but the dinner/lecture series started last year by the Tesoro Foundation, which he chairs, is more likely to inform than enrage. Upcoming lecturers include Dr. Patricia Limerick, who compares the nineteenth-century West to its modern equivalent during a talk on April 13, and Dr. Robert Shikes, who will speak on April 27 about health and disease in the context of Colorado’s early fur trappers.

For the past ten years, the Colorado Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects has hosted an annual tour showcasing some of Denver’s finest private residential gardens. This year’s tour, scheduled for Sunday, June 22, will focus on water-wise gardens and minimal sod use. The tour is self-guided, but volunteers are available at each site to answer questions. Proceeds from the tours benefit the Jane Silverstein Ries Foundation, which awards scholarships and grants to those who demonstrate “stewardship of the land.”

There are several reasons that Denver’s fine botanic paradise in the city was just named one of the top ten such public gardens in the nation by Country Living Gardener magazine, but here’s one of the most touching: This garden takes advantage of all the senses, providing touchable, smellable, tasty, colorful and aural outdoor experiences all rolled into one. The therapeutic garden also serves as a landscape-design model for the facilities that cater to patrons with disabilities or special needs, featuring wheelchair-accessible paths, raised beds, container plantings and other amenities.

After months of construction, the DMNS finally opened its beautifully restructured three-story west atrium, featuring the museum’s famous vantage-point view of City Park, downtown Denver and the mountain skyline beyond, stretching south to Pikes Peak and north to Longs Peak. Old-time Denverites grew up with it, but they’ll only appreciate it more now that it’s packaged in its sleek, new multi-leveled form. Better yet, on the fourth floor, there’s an open-air Sky Terrace perfect for viewing both the land and the sky. What a place! Bring your telescopes: It’s got star quality.

If you’ve ever sat on a hillside and wondered what the land you survey looked like one hundred years ago, imagine what visions came to DMNS paleontologist Kirk Johnson and a trio of seasoned paleoartists when they looked over the local landscape. Actually, you don’t have to: Johnson and company took the initiative last year and created Ancient Denvers, an exhibit and accompanying coffee-table book that feature scientifically correct images of Front Range locales as they probably appeared during various periods over the last 300 million years. Some of our most familiar geological landmarks of today — including Red Rocks, Garden of the Gods and the Dakota Hogback — were given the way-back treatment with brilliant results, but who’da thunk their back yard might ever have been a dank, disgusting swamp to rival the one surrounding the outlands of Mordor? Truth can be stranger than fiction.

Who knew? History can be fun. And the Colorado Historical Society’s experts, who know the state like the backs of their own hands, have a great handle on how to impart that knowledge without being the least bit stodgy. Focusing on locations and themes ranging from the bowels of Denver’s rapidly disappearing skid row to the throwback tourist havens of Manitou or Eldorado Springs, the year-round tours they lead have the character of a downright lark through time; participants leave at the end of the day feeling both relaxed and informed. Upcoming treks include “A Tasty Tour of Boulder County,” featuring visits to local makers of goat cheese, mead and other gourmet oddities, and a three-day summer raft trip following John Wesley Powell’s route down the Green River. Make your reservations early.

The entire history of Denver’s hapless and benighted major-league baseball franchise has been a losing battle against the physics of altitude — specifically, the thin air that torments pitchers trying to throw curveballs at Coors Field, and that allegedly puts Rockies batters off their stride when they play on the road. Last year, the Rox installed a humidor meant to cool and moisturize their baseballs so the ol’ horsehide would react as at sea level. The jury’s still out on that move. This time, manager Clint Hurdle has positioned a time clock by the entry to the dugout as a reminder to the Rockies that they have to work each day. But that’s not all. The scientific wizards of Rockiedom are talking about using a fancy hyperbaric chamber that would simulate the atmospheric conditions of full-speed batting practice in, say, Philadelphia or Chicago — although it won’t replicate the breeze at Wrigley Field. Will the new contraption make any difference to a club that collectively batted 79 points lower on the road than at home last year? Who knows? Ask Todd Helton and Larry Walker come mid-July.

Denver sports artist Malcolm Farley was hired by Pepsi to paint original art to grace the outside of 800 million soft-drink cans. The “Official 2003 Super Bowl Party Cans” sported Farley’s signature along with a painting featuring a Super Bowl championship team, player or coach. Proceeds from auctions of the originals went to NFL charities and Farley’s own pick, the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The artist, who began painting athletes at a young age, prefers to create his works live in a public venue, with as many people watching as possible. He has painted at such events as the U.S. Open, the Super Bowl, the 2002 Olympics in Sydney and the Stanley Cup championships. Next stop…the Pepsi Center?

There were problems. The new 1.6-mile road course around the Pepsi Center was by turns too rough and too slick. The pedestrian bridges were overcrowded. A stand of young trees along Auraria Parkway blocked the view of high-rollers holding $800 tickets. But the return of Indy car racing to the streets of the Mile High City — the first Shell Grand Prix of Denver — proved an exciting diversion for 40,000 motorheads who crowded into the sun-kissed venue on Labor Day. The race’s sanctioning body, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), faces defections by some top drivers and engine-makers, but the show will go on again this summer. Meanwhile, the best T-shirt spotted at the inaugural race on September 1: “Too Dumb for Opera. Too Smart for NASCAR.”

The great David-and-Goliath story of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney was the shocking defeat of the world’s greatest heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, a Russian who hadn’t lost a match in thirteen years, by an engaging Wyoming farm boy named Rulon Gardner. The big news this year is that Gardner has been replaced as the USA’s number-one heavyweight by Dremiel Byers, a 265-pound Army sergeant stationed at Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs. A former football player from North Carolina, Byers stunned the wrestling world last September by winning a gold medal at the World Championships in Moscow. But that’s not good enough: Byers says he’s determined to become America’s lone heavyweight at Athens in 2004 and win Olympic gold for his beloved grandfather.

Colorado State Rams senior forward Ashley Augspurger is a first-team All-Mountain West star who this year averaged 13.4 points per game, along with 4.8 rebounds and three assists. At 6-1, she’s big enough to have subbed at center for first-year coach Chris Denker, yet quick enough to have played point guard. Recently, the Wheat Ridge High School grad became just the twelfth CSU woman to surpass 1,000 points, which puts her in the company of former Ram greats like Becky Hammond and Katie Cronin. Did we mention that she carries a near-perfect 3.92 grade-point average? In biology. If the pros don’t get her, she’s headed straight for medical school. Whatever she chooses, Augspurger is the true personification of the oft-abused term “student-athlete.”

Last November 25, the University of Colorado’s Jorge Torres became just the third American since 1987 to win the NCAA Cross Country Championship, edging away from Arkansas’s Alistair Cragg in the final strides at Terre Haute, Indiana, and finishing in course-record time. The diminutive 5-7 distance runner from Wheeling, Illinois, went undefeated in his senior year and outdistanced a dozen highly touted international stars in his surprising NCAA title run. Jorge also defeated a CU teammate named Ed Torres, who finished tenth. Among other things, that represented a victory of experience over youth: Jorge Torres is, after all, ten minutes older than his twin brother.

The DU Pioneers did not have the greatest year in their storied hockey history; their bitter rival, Colorado College, overshadowed them all season, and they failed to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. But senior forward Kevin Doell lit it up. The 5-11, 187-pound scoring machine led the Pi’s in both goals and assists, and he scored two of the club’s ten short-handed tallies. Doell, born and raised in hockey-rich Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, emerged as one of coach George Gwozdecky’s most potent weapons last season, with 20 goals and 23 assists. This year, he has played in every game and became the 83rd player in Pioneer history to reach the 100-point mark, joining such DU legends as Dallas Gaume, George Morrison, Peter McNab and Jim Wiste.

Under fiery coach Mike Dunlap, Metro State’s unsung, largely unseen basketball team has become the duke of NCAA Division II hoops. Led by players from Australia (where Dunlap once coached a pro team), Belgium and Colorado, the Roadrunners have won two of the last three national championships. Despite losing five seniors to graduation last spring, this year’s 28-5 club won another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title and narrowly missed returning to Division II’s “Elite Eight” Tournament by losing a double-overtime thriller to Nebraska-Kearney on March 17.

The two-time Stanley Cup champions have another shot at glory this year, thanks to a late-season surge in the Western Conference standings fueled by the play of Peter Forsberg and the return of team captain Joe Sakic. The great goalie Patrick Roy can see his sunset now, and a few of the defensemen are getting long in the tooth, but solid stars like Milan Hejduk and Alex Tanguay provide strength on a solid roster that’s been carefully built by one of the most savvy executives in pro sports: Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix. In a city where the other three major sports franchises all have major problems to solve, the Avs remain a beacon of pride. Now, if the ordinary working person could just afford the price of a ticket — or find one for sale.

After surprising the doomsayers and starting the 2002 football season at a perfect 6-0, the Feisty Falcons lost a huge game at home to powerful Notre Dame. From there, the rest of the season went a bit south: Air Force finished 8-5, including a 20-13 loss to Virginia Tech in the San Francisco Bowl. But no one questioned the skills of head football coach Fisher DeBerry, who’s been at the

academy for nineteen years. In that time, he’s had just two losing seasons while racking up 150 wins — almost all of them against bigger, stronger teams. A master of the complex wishbone offense, a Southern wit and a true believer in his no-frills, anti-glitz party line, DeBerry turns smart, disciplined, undersized players into winners, year after year. Only Joe Paterno (37 years at Penn State) and Bobby Bowden (27 years at Florida State) have been on the job longer, and DeBerry is every bit their equal.

Things haven’t been easy for the rookie CEO of the Colorado Crush, Denver’s new entry in the Arena Football League. Despite sellouts at the Pepsi Center, John Elway’s team has won just once in its first seven games. But the ex-Broncos legend has one thing going for him: the most prolific scorer in the world’s highest-scoring league. In seven games, 6-3 receiver Damian Harrell has caught 21 touchdown passes and scored three two-point conversions for 132 points. At the rate he’s going, the four-year AFL veteran out of Florida State will surpass the individual season record of 310 points, set by Orlando’s Barry Wagner in 1997.

No contest. A battle-hardened veteran of six teams in two professional lacrosse leagues, forward Gary Gait is the Michael Jordan of the Indians’ grand old game — the all-time record-holder for regular-season goals, assists, points and shots. Even at age 35, his skills have not eroded. As captain of the expansion Colorado Mammoth, the 6-2, 220-pounder this year leads the National Lacrosse League in goals, and he is fifth in total points. Gait’s world-class resumé also includes five league MVP trophies and a spot on the All-Pro team in every one of his thirteen pro seasons. The Big Stick played his college lax at Syracuse, a perennial power, and he’s still the reigning king of the indoor game.

We gotta pick somebody, don’t we? The only sign of useful maturity in the chaotic kindergarten that is the Denver Nuggets locker room comes from long-suffering veteran Juwan Howard, late of the league-best Dallas Mavericks. At 6-9 and 260 pounds, the big forward has the beef to muscle up on opponents, and his personal numbers during this winter of discontent befit a winner, not a member of the NBA’s second-worst team. Howard’s averaging almost nineteen points per game, along with eight rebounds and three assists. As of mid-March, he’d led or co-led Jeff Bzdelik’s offensively challenged club in scoring in 29 of its last 35 games and showed himself to be a solid professional, grinding out almost 38 minutes per night of losing basketball without complaint. Once he’s done, there surely must be a place in hoops heaven for this intrepid warrior.

Starting his second year with the Colorado Rapids, stop-minded midfielder Pablo Mastroeni is a true star — not least because of his impressive play for the U.S. National Team that shocked soccer powers like Portugal and Mexico at last summer’s World Cup before their heartbreaking loss to Germany. Born in Argentina, Mastroeni moved to Phoenix when he was four. He played college soccer at North Carolina State and was with the now-defunct Miami Fusion of Major League Soccer before the Rapids grabbed him in last year’s dispersal draft. This season, look for the 26-year-old defensive specialist to attack more for the Rapids. And don’t count him out of World Cup 2006.

With or without a spleen, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden’s gift to the Colorado Avalanche has been the team’s most vital organ this year — especially when captain Joe Sakic was shelved by injury. En route to another playoff appearance, eight-year veteran Peter Forsberg leads the team in points and assists and was named NHL player of the month for February. More important, the Super Swede has taken emotional charge of an Avs club that struggled through the early season in disarray but has re-emerged as a dangerous Stanley Cup contender. And to think Forsberg’s career looked to be over two years ago following that vicious hit he suffered in game seven against the Los Angeles Kings.

The brain trust at Coors Field changes players faster than pit crews swap tires at a NASCAR race. Their frenzy leaves only first baseman Todd Helton as the rock upon which Rockies hope is built. There couldn’t be a better one: Helton’s a three-time All-Star who won the National League batting crown in 2000 (with a .372 average), and he’s turned into one of the best defensive first basemen in the game. Not only that, but his work ethic is unimpeachable, even when the Rox start another inevitable August slide toward the NL West cellar. If he doesn’t inspire the newcomers, no one will. Now heading into his sixth big-league season, the former University of Tennessee quarterback has signed with Colorado through 2011, and that’s a good thing: Every hapless team needs a pillar of stability.

Since the retirement of John Elway and the untimely demise of Terrell Davis, the Denver Broncos have been an offensive shambles,

barely getting a sniff at the playoffs. Enter Clinton Portis, a super-quick rookie running back from the University of Miami who, after an early-season bout of fumbleitis, collected 1,508 yards (fourth best in the NFL), fifteen touchdowns and a lock on the Broncos’ disputed starting spot. At 5-11 and 205 pounds, Portis has the size to be durable, and his moves are astonishing. His pairing in the backfield with new quarterback Jake Plummer should be good news: A dramatically improved passing game (keep your fingers crossed, Broncomaniacs) usually means fewer bloodthirsty linebackers in the face of a good ball carrier. As for the new QB, that $40 million contract probably dictates a change of nickname from “Jake the Snake” to “Liquid Plummer.”

It’s been a tough year for the furry crowd: Howler got bounced by the Avs; Rocky — (or at least the human force inside him) — ran into legal trouble; Dinger seems like the slow little brother of Barney; and the Broncos’ Miles

appears to be spooked by the four-hooved equine that prances along the sidelines. But one of the hairiest mascots anywhere has lumbered into town and is making a big impression. Especially when he sits on fans’ laps. Woolly, mascot for the pro lacrosse Colorado Mammoth, is a brown Mam-scot complete with tusks. And while some might believe he’s headed for extinction, this most recent addition to the Pepsi zoo seems alive and well.

We’re a poorer state for it, but alas, Colorado isn’t usually associated with the bikini sports. That’s changing, thanks to the improbable emergence of Highlands Ranch native Emily Copeland, who, despite her landlocked upbringing, has become the country’s best female wakeboarder. All of eighteen years old, Copeland has been competing nationally since she was fifteen. She started dominating the circuit in 2001, when she won the Vans Triple Crown Championship and ended the year ranked number one in the country. She finished first in the 2002 Gravity Games and Masters Tournament and won the gold medal in wakeboarding at the 2002 X Games before a late-season injury put her out of commission. Look for her to dominate again this summer.

Best Sporting Club You¹ve Never Heard OfHusband and wife snorkeler/stick-handlers Chris and Agnes DeBrunner of Conifer started DUH in 1993 after moving to Denver from Illinois, where Agnes’s brother introduced her to the game. “It was a different game then,” recalls Agnes. “More like a holding-your-breath contest.” Today, thanks to modern gear like snorkels, fins and spatula-sized sticks, the game is played at the speed of, well, pushing around a weighted puck underwater. From above, a game can look like a group of very pale piranhas attacking a pancake. But, says Agnes, “It’s good exercise — I hate swimming laps — and it’s fun.” The club, which boasts a mix of ice hockey and Ultimate Frisbee players, meets at the pool at Lakewood’s Carmody Recreation Complex.

It may not be everybody’s idea of a sporting good time, but someone’s got to be best in the world, and Evergreen’s Dennis Hastings is going nowhere faster than anyone else his age. Last year, he successfully defended his title as the world’s best indoor stationary rower, lightweight division, in the 50- to 59-year-old age group. In November, he was winner of his division in the British Indoor Rowing Championships.

Homer Simpson’s buffoonery, Bart’s pre-pubescent anarchism and the precocious wisdom of his little sister Lisa have all ripened into beloved cultural institutions, but Matt Groening’s wisecracking burlesque of American family life has its way with the world beyond Springfield, too. In the much-heralded 300th episode, broadcast in February, Fox viewers beheld a cartoon version of Frankenstein’s monster, lunk-headed and zipper-necked, staggering down the length of a basketball court and trying without much success to stick the ball in the hoop. The big guy’s explanation for his obvious incompetence rang a local bell. Said he: “Me made of Denver Nuggets corpses.”