COLORADO is one of the western states of the United States – Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah are some of its neighbours – with mountains, canyons and high planes defining its landscape. TV miniseries don’t get based here but some great westerns, like The Searchers (1956) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), made good use of its epic scenery and Quentin Tarrantino chose it for the making of The Hateful Eight in 2015.
A road trip is the only way to get out and experience Colorado but this means long drives and more fast food that you’d care to count the calories for. Finding comfortable lodging with some sense of style plus restaurants without hamburgers on the menu become priorities for the end of a day’s touring.
The Brown Palace Hotel, Denver
Your start and end point is Denver – there is no city of comparable size for 500 miles in any direction – and there is no shortage of corporate-style hotels; efficient but lacking soul. One exception is the classic The Brown Palace Hotel with its eye-dazzling atrium (America’s first for a hotel) and its own beehives; bedrooms, though, are disappointingly conventional.
Denver excels when it comes to good restaurants and bars and you won’t find such a range anywhere else in Colorado. Causal eateries and bars abound at the transport hub of Union Square while Larimer Square in LoDo (lower downtown) is the place for dining and wining. This is where gold prospectors made a base in the 1850s, making it the historic heart of the city. At Rioja, award-winning chef Jen Jasinski has brought Mediterranean flavours to her menu with jamón serrano, gorgonzola, house-made mozzarella, olives and figs. Il Posto, even more sensitive to European taste buds, has glitzy lighting, an open kitchen for its full-on Italian food and glass walls upstairs that look out on the buzz of Denver’s street life. A couple of minutes away on foot, Death & Co is fun for funky cocktails on the roof terrace.
Rocky Mountain National Park
It only takes an hour and half to reach Rocky Mountain National Park from Denver but itsfood scene is a million miles away. Hunters Chop House is one of the best places to eat in Estes Park, the town next to the national park, with steaks and game, including delicious smoked elk carpaccio, dominating the menu.
Black Canyon Colorado
As visually arresting as the Rocky Mountains are, they cannot compare with the experience of peering down into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison Park. The river 500 metres below looks innocuous but, beginning two million years ago, it has hewn the canyon walls that forbiddingly surround you. Handrails at the lookout points are reassuring but being close to the edge remains a very scary sight and you will appreciate a homely retreat on arriving in nearby Montrose.
Canyon Creek B&B, Montrose, Close to Black Canyon National Park
The white picket fence and chestnut trees outside Canyon Creek B&B at 820 Main Street, Montrose, contribute to an Americana effect that helps make this a very attractive and boutiquy place to stay. Maybe that’s why Quentin Tarrantino turned up on the porch here when, after missing a flight, he was stranded for a night during the filming of The Hateful Eight in nearby Telluride. The privacy and comfort was probably an attraction and perhaps he knew about Camp Robber restaurant in town.
The food at Camp Robber has a strong Mexican accent but the kitchen plays creatively with enchilades, quesadillas, tortillas and the like. The result, as with a tostada salad sexed up with a peach and lime sauce, is a very pleasing form of nouvelle American south-western cuisine. The restaurant’s patio area at the back is a cool spot to while away time and there are plenty of cocktails on the drinks list to help make it a long evening.
On a hiking trail with Llamas at vail
Another Colorado destination, the Mesa Verde National Park, is different to the other Parks because its principal attraction is not a natural environment but the multi-storeyed cave dwellings of a prehistoric Native American culture, the Puebloans. In addition, there are lots of walking trails with views of the plateau where the Native Puebloans first lived before they moved into the cliffs and crafted hundreds of dwellings out of the sandstone rock.
Rochester Hotel, Durango
Durango is the nearby town to Mesa Verde and there are two good places to stay. In town itself, the Western-themed Rochester Hotel is a delight and its restoration (it was built in 1892) pays due regard to its origins in an era of cowboys. Each room, by way of movie stills, pays homage to one of the Western filmed locally. Out of town, Blue Lake Ranch offers seclusion, if you don’t count deer wandering about the grounds, spacious rooms with kitchenettes and balconies to sit out on and watch the sun going down over the mountains.
Elk at Estes Park, Darcy Kiefel
Colorado is also home to the upmarket mountain ski resort of Vail and an always reliable Four Seasons hotel. Four Seasons Resort & Residences Vail is as swanky as you would expect and, with a ski concierge, gas-burning fireplaces in all the bedrooms and a heated pool, the winter months brings the highest occupancy. But come off-season there are local walking trails to be enjoyed without the crowds. With Paragon Guides you can go hiking with a lunch-carrying llama while at night Four Season’s The Flame restaurant offers a fine dining experience and signature, hormone-free wagyu steaks.
For further information, visit Colorado Tourism.
by Sean Sheehan
Norwegian flies direct, and affordably, to Denver from London Gatwick and Rhino Car Hire arranges for cars at Denver airport. National Geographic has individual maps of the National Parks and of Colorado.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.