Best Dog Park 2012 | Stapleton | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Dog Park

Stapleton

Here's the thing about dog parks: They're for dogs, and mostly medium-to-large dogs that need some exercise. So while you, the human, might like a spot with a lot of grass, shade, benches, pedicures and an espresso bar, your dog wants a huge expanse of land to burn off its energy. Stapleton fits that description better than any park in the city. It's massive and it's all sand. Rocky may have made running in sand look easy and super-awesome, but it will have your dog's tongue hanging in no time.

Readers' Choice: Cherry Creek

  • 2002 Spruce St., Denver, 80238 Map

Best Free Weekly Yoga Class

Community Yoga at the Mercury Cafe

Every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Mercury Cafe, Kendall Perry and Piper Rose teach Community Yoga, a class open to all ages and skill levels. The best part? It's free — for everyone. Whether you're a yogi with decades of experience, a first-timer, a senior citizen or a toddler, the instructors make sure the class is tailor-made to fit. The Merc's big wood floor and availability of natural light make for a comfortable, no-pressure environment, with plenty of room for stretching and bending. Every so often, Community Yoga transforms into "show-ga," with local musicians and performers joining in to create a live soundtrack. After class, students can continue their healthy trip downstairs for a nourishing brunch from the Merc's all-organic menu.

Best Guess for How Many Times Tim Tebow Will Be on the Cover of Sports Illustrated in 2012

Four

Stop the presses! Our crack team of researchers pegged the answer to this question at three, but that was before the Peyton Manning signing. Then we revised downward, briefly, to zero, before finally settling on four, thanks to Tim Tebow's trade to the New York Jets. Bright lights. Big City. Meet your new biggest star.

Readers' Choice: Two

Best Halfpipe

Buttermilk

Shaun White's perfect score in the Men's Snowboard Superpipe competition at Winter X Games 2012 wouldn't have been possible without a perfect pipe to play in, and this season, Buttermilk's 22-footer was widely regarded as the best in the world, not just the best in Colorado. Sixteen-year-old Aspen local Torin Yater-Wallace milked his home pipe for all it was worth, claiming the bronze medal in the Men's Ski Superpipe finals and then building on his training there to finish in second place overall on the Winter Dew Tour. He seems to have learned a couple of things in the terrain park, too: In March, Yater-Wallace landed the first-ever switch 1800 — five complete spins, taking off and landing backwards — in the slopestyle competition at the final stop of the U.S. Grand Prix.

Best Knock-Down, Drag-Out Fights With Flair

Primos Hardcore & Wrestling

With every death-defying match, "Joey Terrofyn" McDougal puts his bloody heart and soul into Primos Hardcore & Wrestling. The owner of Colorado's premier entertainment fighting company started out several years ago loosely affiliated with the Juggalo wrestling circuit. Eventually, the wrestler and promoter realized that his brand of high-flying stunt show was a niche all its own, and he split from the Detroit clown cult. McDougal brought famed world wrestler and death-match fighter Mick Foley to the ring in Colorado last year and is starting up his own Lucha Libre league, REVoLUCHA, this year. With those kinds of moves, Primos Hardcore & Wrestling won't stay underground for long.

Best Lift Ticket Deal

Woodward Wednesdays at Copper Mountain

If you noticed some of your colleagues taking weekly "sick" days this winter, blame the $35 Woodward Wednesday Pass deal at Copper Mountain. The pass — a fraction of the price of a regular full-day ticket at Copper or anywhere else — was good for a single-day lift ticket on the new Union Creek high-speed chairlift serving Copper's terrain-park system and some beginner and intermediate slopes, as well as a drop-in session with the coaches at Woodward at Copper's indoor training facility and an après-shred beer or soda. Locals found the rips/tips/sips combo irresistible, even if they had a season pass elsewhere, and frequently found themselves sharing the Wednesday sessions with pro skiers and snowboarders and other visiting celebrities: In January, Lil Wayne stopped by to skate the bowl in the Barn at Copper, later giving Woodward Wednesdays the Weezy stamp of approval.

Best Mammoth

John Grant Jr.

As long as goals are still a good thing in lacrosse, then John Grant Jr. is not only the best Mammoth, but the best player in the entire National Lacrosse League. He currently leads the league in points, goals and power-play goals, and is third in assists. In fact, he may be the biggest reason the Mammoth own the best record in the NLL.

Readers' Choice: John Gallant

Best Mascot

Rocky

It's hard to beat Rocky. The Nuggets' mountain-lion mascot is still knocking down over-the-head-backwards half-court shots and throwing down trampoline dunks, still amusing opposing coaches, still flirting with buxom ladies in the stands. And until some other furry-costume-wearing wannabe knocks him off the throne, Rocky is king of the town.

Readers' Choice: Rocky

Best Mountain and Plains Park

Carter Lake, Loveland

There's basically just a tall ridge separating Carter Lake Park from the great expanse of the plains. And it's actually not a lake so much as a reservoir, supplied by water diverted from the Western Slope to keep the engines of Front Range commerce churning. But when you see this park, you will forget all that immediately, because Carter Lake is stunning. At three miles long and a mile wide, it offers plenty of room for boating plus a couple of manmade beaches, but if you really want to suck the awesome out of Carter Lake, you'll hike up one of the trails to a more secluded part of the shore, where the sandstone boulders tumbling into the water provide the seating and half-submerged aspens provide the shade. And unlike lakes at higher elevations, this one's always warm enough to swim in.

Best Mountain Bike Park

Trestle Bike Park

The Gravity Logic crew at Winter Park has been redefining downhill mountain biking over the past few years, greatly expanding its trail system and special features in the Trestle Bike Park each summer and hosting Crankworx Colorado as its signature event. This summer, look for the opening of three new trails, including the aptly named "Cruel and Unusual," and for the inaugural Colorado Freeride Festival July 26-29. Need a refresher session in between trips over Berthoud Pass? Try the new Trestle Bike Park outpost in Denver's Barnum North Park, near Sixth and Federal; the skills park opened in the summer of 2011 and will be back in action this summer as soon as the Gravity Logic crews can get to pushing some dirt around.

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