United States

Denver

September, the aspens begin.

Season

• January●●●●●Powder days in the mountains, Chinook through the city
• February●●●●●Snow on Monday gone by Wednesday, sun returning
• March●●●●●March storms heaviest, foothills still white
• April●●●●●Snow possible at noon, shorts by four
• May●●●●●Front range green, Red Rocks shows back
• June●●●●●Sky blue til the four-pm thunder, evenings cool
• July●●●●●Lightning over the front range nightly, air still dry
• August●●●●●Wildfire haze drifting in, otherwise sky deep blue
• September●●●●●Aspens turning above 9000 feet, mornings cold
• October●●●●●Aspen peak first week, first snow late month
• November●●●●●Ski areas opening, the city quieting
• December●●●●●Christmas with sun on dry snow, ski traffic on I-70

Location

Curated places

The Crawford Hotel

Stay · 720 min · ───

The 1881 Union Station's upper floors restored as 112 rooms in 2014. Three room categories — Pullman (smallest, narrow), Classic (mid), Loft (top, mansard windows). The Great Hall below is the city's living room: Terminal Bar, Mercantile Dining, Crawford lobby flow into one. Trains run from here daily.

The Wolf's Tailor

Food · 150 min · ────

Twenty-two seats in Sunnyside — Kelly Whitaker's Italian-Japanese hybrid tasting menu, the wood-fire oven and rice mill in view of the dining room as working objects, not stage props. Single seating most nights; reservations open thirty days ahead. The wood-fire course usually the night's strongest.

Clyfford Still Museum

Sight · 120 min · ──

Still left ninety-five percent of his lifetime production to a single American city, on condition the city build a museum for it — Denver agreed. The Brad Cloepfil building (2011) opens nine galleries in chronological order; the room of late paintings (1970s near-monochromes) is the one to slow down for.

Red Rocks Amphitheater

Activity · 180 min · ─

The natural sandstone amphitheater fifteen miles west of downtown. Daytime entry is free — walk the stage, climb the upper bowl, visit the Trading Post. Concerts most evenings April through October; if there's a show on a Saturday, an evening ride out and back beats most things else. Bring layers — the mountains drop hard at sundown.