Best Way to Learn About the State You Just Moved To 2003 | Tesoro FoundationHistoric Lecture Series | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Way to Learn About the State You Just Moved To

Tesoro Foundation
Historic Lecture Series

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.

Best Place to Not Get Lost

U.S. Geological Survey Map Store
Denver Federal Center

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 And here's a bonus: free gift wrap -- if you don't mind covering gifts in huge, outdated maps.

Best Place to Not Get Lost

U.S. Geological Survey Map Store
Denver Federal Center

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 And here's a bonus: free gift wrap -- if you don't mind covering gifts in huge, outdated maps.

Best Wilderness Survival Courses

Boulder Outdoor Survival School

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.

Best Wilderness Survival Courses

Boulder Outdoor Survival School

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.

Best 4x4 Trail Closest to Denver

Red Cone Trail

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.

Best 4x4 Trail Closest to Denver

Red Cone Trail

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.

Best 4x4 Park

Avalanche Park

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.

Best 4x4 Park

Avalanche Park

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.

Best Place to Kick It on Your Board

Spaulding Bowl
Copper Mountain

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.

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