Colorado State Capitol

The Colorado State Capitol is an imposing, elegant, and huge edifice, right in downtown Denver. I could not get far enough away to snap a really good photo of the entire complex from the front because of so many bigger, taller buildings all around it. In its early days the Capitol was probably the tallest building around, but no longer! Here is one fairly good view from the side.

The inside of the building is gorgeous, all granite and marble. This collection of paintings of the presidents goes all the way around the 3rd level.

We two old coots decided we simply had to climb up to the top of the dome. I forget how many steps it was, but we made it, huffing and puffing! The view was well worth the climb. I can remember hiking to the top of the Capitol in Olympia WA when I was a child. The steps up were closed for safety reasons many years ago, so I was glad we could still go to the top of the Colorado Capitol.

This is the dome. The circle paintings going all the way around it are portraying various people who were important to the history of Colorado. You could not really see those unless you did climb up there! We were up at the top railing, above the pictures.

 

I took a picture from every window up at the top. This is the best one, looking right down on to the main part of downtown. After we finished our tour, we found a riverfront park where we could take a walk along the Platte River. Mr. Keith always talks to strangers (his mom didn't teach him not to!) so we found out there were some great restaurants and even a huge bookstore not too far away. We drove there, and did discover a fun place to eat called "Noodles & Company". Yum! One of the very most central streets in Denver is called the 16th Street Mall. It runs for a mile, and is closed to all vehicles except city buses. The street is lined with shops and restaurants and other interesting places. A person could spend a day there, walking along and seeing all the stores! It was jammed with people on their lunch break, and hungry tourists like us.

 

On this part of the 16th Street Mall I noticed these old buildings dwarfed by the newer, taller highrises. We walked over there and discovered they were indeed the old original downtown buildings of early Denver, carefully preserved. They look so out-of-place but so intriguing! The date on the first one said it was built in 1881. They've been turned into shops and eating places and offices. As we hiked back to our car we thought it would be a perfect time to find a Coldstone Creamery to round out our day. Our handy iPad located one for us so off we went to indulge one more time before we headed home. It was a delicious end to a tiring but an exciting day!