About 20 miles west of downtown, just off I-70 at exit 254, a herd of bison grazes on a hillside the city of Denver has owned since 1914, and most of the traffic heading for the ski areas goes past without a glance. Pull into the overlook and you are looking at descendants of the last wild bison in North America, kept by a city government beside an interstate. That mix of the frontier and the faintly absurd is what this list of unique things to do in Denver is built from: experiences you cannot have in any other American city, from Rocky Mountain oysters in an 1893 saloon to the cab of one of the largest steam locomotives ever built.
We have left out the things every city has. There is no aquarium here, no generic rooftop bar, no escape room. Everything on this list is either only in Denver or done better here than anywhere else, and each comes with what it costs, whether to book and an honest note on who it suits. Prices, hours and booking rules were checked in September and October 2026. For the city’s main attractions, start with our guide to things to do in Denver.
Unique Denver at a Glance
| Experience | Where | Cost | Book ahead? |
|---|---|---|---|
| See the city’s bison herd | Genesee Park, I-70 exit 254 | Free | No |
| Stand exactly a mile high | Capitol west steps; Coors Field | Free | No |
| Watch coins being made | Denver Mint | Free | Yes, up to 30 days ahead |
| Rocky Mountain oysters in an 1893 saloon | Buckhorn Exchange | Restaurant prices | Recommended |
| Dinner with cliff divers | Casa Bonita, Lakewood | Entrées about $30 to $40 | Yes, reservation only |
| Climb into a Big Boy locomotive | Forney Museum of Transportation | Museum admission | No |
| Get lost in Convergence Station | Meow Wolf | From $37 | Yes, timed |
| A museum for one painter | Clyfford Still Museum | $10 | Yes, timed |
| Walk among dinosaur tracks | Dinosaur Ridge, Morrison | Free to walk | No |
| The National Western Stock Show | National Western Complex | Ticketed events | For rodeos, yes |
Only-Here Landmarks
Stand exactly one mile high
Denver’s nickname is literal, and you can stand on the line. On the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol, markers show the spot one mile above sea level; there is more than one, because successive surveys disagreed about exactly where the mile falls. At Coors Field, a single row of purple seats rings the upper deck at the same elevation. Both are free to visit, the Capitol on any day and its tours on weekdays, and both make the photograph every visitor takes.
Run the steps at Red Rocks at dawn
Red Rocks Amphitheatre is famous for concerts, and a show there is a once-in-a-lifetime night. The more local experience is free: arrive soon after the park opens, an hour before sunrise, and join the runners climbing the amphitheatre’s steps as the sun comes up over the plains. On non-event days admission and parking are free. At about 6,400 feet the steps are hard work, so take them slowly if you have just arrived. Our guide to Red Rocks Amphitheatre covers both the shows and the park.
Watch money being made at the Denver Mint
The Denver Mint is one of only two places in the country that strike the everyday coins in your pocket, and its free tours let you watch it happen. The catch is the booking: tours run Monday to Thursday, in six slots a day, and can be reserved only through the U.S. Mint’s online system, up to 30 days ahead, with new dates released at 1am Denver time. Visitors must be 7 or older and cannot bring bags.
Tour the house of the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown
Margaret Brown married into a Leadville mining fortune, survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and became famous for helping fellow survivors, and her restored Victorian home in Capitol Hill tells her story. Tickets were $17 self-guided and $22 guided, with $2 off for Colorado residents. It opens Wednesday to Sunday and tours sell out, so book ahead.
Strange, Wonderful and Very Denver
Get lost in Meow Wolf Convergence Station
Meow Wolf has several immersive art venues around the country, but Convergence Station exists only in Denver: a four-story world of strange, interconnected rooms beside I-25, with a story hidden in its corners for anyone who goes looking. Timed tickets start at $37 for adults, and most visits last two to three hours. Parking costs $15 and is unavailable during Broncos home games at the stadium next door.
Eat dinner beside the cliff divers at Casa Bonita
Casa Bonita, behind a pink bell tower on West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, is a vast Mexican restaurant built as a fantasy village, with grottos, a waterfall and divers leaping from a cliff into the pool beneath it. It became a cult object after a famous episode of South Park, whose creators later bought it and reopened it after a major restoration. It is reservation-only, with no walk-ins, released in blocks that go quickly. Premium seats near the waterfall cost about $44.99 a person, adult entrées about $29.99 to $39.99, and a 15 percent service charge is added automatically.
Climb into the cab of a Big Boy
Union Pacific’s Big Boys were among the largest steam locomotives ever built, and one of the few survivors, No. 4005, sits indoors at the Forney Museum of Transportation on Brighton Boulevard. You can climb the steps into the illuminated cab, where many of the original valves and gauges are labeled, and the rest of the museum is a delightfully eclectic collection of carriages, cars and curiosities. It opens Thursday to Monday from 10am to 5pm and is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; check the current admission price on the museum’s website.
Spend an afternoon with one painter
When the abstract expressionist Clyfford Still died in 1980, his will required that his life’s work go to an American city willing to build a museum devoted entirely to him. Denver won, and the Clyfford Still Museum in the Golden Triangle now holds the vast majority of everything he made, shown in a calm, light-filled building. Even visitors who are not fans of abstract art find the single-artist focus unusual and absorbing. Tickets are $10, in timed 15-minute slots that must be booked in advance.
Picnic on a former cemetery
Cheesman Park, one of the city’s loveliest lawns, began as Denver’s first city cemetery. When the city turned it into a park in the 1890s, the removal of the graves was notoriously botched, and many remains were never moved. The ghost stories have followed ever since. Today it is a peaceful park with a white marble pavilion facing the mountains, right beside the Botanic Gardens, and knowing what lies beneath adds a certain edge to a picnic.
Games and Shows With a Denver Twist
Watch a ballgame where the ball flies farther
Baseball is played differently at Coors Field. The air at 5,280 feet is about 20 percent less dense than at sea level, so a ball hit 400 feet at sea level carries roughly 440 feet here, and curveballs break less, to the despair of visiting pitchers. Since 2002 the Rockies have stored game balls in a humidor at 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity, which cut home runs by about a quarter without ending the effect. Watch a game with that in mind and the high-scoring innings make sense. Public tours, at $10 for adults, run Monday to Saturday from Gate D at 20th and Blake streets and visit the purple mile-high row. Our guide to Denver sports covers tickets.
See a show where Houdini played
East Colfax Avenue holds two of the best historic music rooms in the West. The Ogden Theatre opened on 6 September 1917, once hosted Harry Houdini, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it reopened as a music venue in 1993 and holds about 1,600 people. A few blocks away, the Bluebird Theater, built as a movie house in 1913, holds about 500. Seeing a band in either is a reminder that Colfax was once the grandest street in the city. Our guide to Denver nightlife covers the venues and the late-night scene around them.
Eat and Drink the Old West
Order Rocky Mountain oysters at the Buckhorn Exchange
The Buckhorn Exchange opened on 17 November 1893 and is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Denver. It was founded by Henry H. Zietz, known as “Shorty Scout,” who rode with Buffalo Bill Cody, and when Prohibition ended in 1933 it was issued Colorado Liquor License No. 1. Inside, every wall is covered with mounted game and frontier memorabilia. The house specialty is Rocky Mountain oysters, which are not oysters at all but deep-fried bull testicles; the steaks and game are the main event. It sits at 1000 Osage Street, south of downtown, and it is a splurge.
Have a drink in the old ticket office
Inside Union Station, the Terminal Bar pours Colorado beer in the station’s former ticket office, and you can carry a drink out into the restored Great Hall and sit beneath its arched windows. It is the most atmospheric place in the city to wait for a train, or to pretend you are.
Take afternoon tea at the Brown Palace
The Brown Palace Hotel opened in 1892, and its eight-story atrium lobby, ringed by cast-iron balconies under a stained-glass ceiling, is one of the great interiors of the American West. Afternoon tea has been served there for generations, with live music, and it is a lovely, slightly old-fashioned ritual. Reserve ahead, especially in December. If tea is not your thing, walking in to look at the lobby costs nothing.
Eat green chile
Colorado green chile, made with the Pueblo chiles grown in the south of the state, is the region’s comfort food, served as a stew or ladled over burritos in a dish locals call “smothered.” It is usually thicker and porkier than the New Mexico version, and every Denver diner has an opinion on whose is best. Order anything smothered, and in late summer watch for chile roasters turning outside grocery stores. Our Denver food guide covers where to find it.
Tour the Coors brewery in Golden
The Coors brewery in Golden is one of the largest single brewery sites in the world, and its tour covers malting, brewing and packaging in about 90 minutes. Tours run Thursday to Monday, 10am to 4pm, and reservations are required: they are released 25 days ahead at midnight Mountain Time and sell out quickly. Drinkers must be 21 or older with photo ID. Golden is reachable on the W Line light rail. Our guide to Denver breweries covers the city’s craft taprooms too.
Wildlife on the City’s Edge
Pull over for the city’s bison herd
Denver Mountain Parks established a bison herd at Genesee Park in 1914, descended from the last wild bison in North America, and today more than 50 animals graze pastures on both sides of I-70 in the foothills. Overlooks for both directions of traffic sit just west of exit 254; follow the “Buffalo Herd Overlook” signs. The city manages the herd actively, and in March 2026 it sent 34 of its youngest bison to tribal nations as part of a donation program. Viewing is free, and it makes a fine first stop on any mountain day.
Drive among bison at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal
Northeast of the city, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge has turned a former chemical weapons plant into restored prairie, home to a free-roaming bison herd, deer, coyotes, prairie dogs and, in winter, bald eagles. A wildlife drive loops through it, and entry is free. Seeing bison with the Denver skyline on the horizon is one of the oddest and best experiences near the city.
Walk among dinosaur tracks
Dinosaur Ridge, next to Red Rocks in Morrison, is one of the finest dinosaur track sites in the world, and the paved two-mile trail along the ridge is free to walk, with more than 300 tracks, fossil bones and the ripple marks of an ancient shoreline. The visitor center sells bus tours for those who would rather ride. Our guide to free things to do in Denver covers it with the other free foothills sights.
The City’s Parks in the Mountains
Visit the parks Denver owns in the foothills
Few cities own parks in another landscape altogether, but Denver does. Its Denver Mountain Parks system, assembled from the early twentieth century onward, covers thousands of acres in the foothills and mountains west of the city, well outside the city limits. Red Rocks Park belongs to it, as do Genesee Park and its bison and the parkland around Echo Lake on the road up Mount Blue Sky. The city also owns Winter Park ski resort. Driving west on I-70, you pass through Denver property long after you have left Denver.
Pay your respects to Buffalo Bill
William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, scout and showman, is buried on top of Lookout Mountain above Golden, in a grave with a sweeping view over the plains toward Denver. The grave is free to visit, while the museum beside it charges admission. The drive up the winding Lariat Loop road is half the fun, and the city lights from the overlook after dark are a fine end to a day in the foothills.
Seasonal One-Offs
The National Western Stock Show (January)
For 16 days every January, Denver turns into a cow town. The National Western Stock Show fills its complex north of downtown with livestock, a sprawling western trade show and rodeos at the Denver Coliseum, and a kick-off parade drives cattle through downtown. The 2027 show runs from 9 to 24 January, with tickets on sale in the fall. It is the most Denver event of the year, and it is great fun even for visitors who have never been near a ranch. Our Denver events calendar has the details.
Ride the ski train (winter)
The Amtrak Winter Park Express runs from Union Station through the Moffat Tunnel to a platform at the base of Winter Park Resort, and riding it with skis on a winter morning is a uniquely Denver way to reach the slopes. In 2025–26 it ran from December to late March with one-way fares from $9; the 2026–27 schedule was still to be published when we checked. Our guide to ski resorts near Denver has more.
Paddle the whitewater downtown (summer)
At Confluence Park, where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte River, the river runs through a series of man-made chutes, and on summer days kayakers, paddleboarders and tubers ride them within sight of the downtown towers. Flows vary with snowmelt and can be strong in early summer, so check conditions and know your limits, and if you would rather watch, the stepped banks make a fine grandstand.
Drive the highest paved road in North America (summer)
The road up Mount Blue Sky, formerly Mount Evans, climbs to over 14,000 feet, and in high summer you can drive almost to the summit. It is seasonal: it reopens around Memorial Day weekend, weather permitting, and in 2026 the stretch above Summit Lake closed on 8 September. A timed entry reservation on Recreation.gov is required in season, released two days ahead, with a $2 reservation fee on top of the entry fee. Our guide to day trips from Denver covers the drive.
The Great American Beer Festival (fall)
Every fall, the Great American Beer Festival brings hundreds of American breweries to Denver for one of the largest beer festivals in the world. In 2026 it moved outdoors for the first time, to the Levitt Pavilion. Tickets sell fast and hotel rates spike that weekend, so check next year’s dates before you book a fall trip.
Unique Denver With Kids
Children tend to love the odder end of this list. The Big Boy locomotive at the Forney, the dinosaur tracks at Dinosaur Ridge, the bison at Genesee Park and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, and the cliff divers at Casa Bonita are all hits with younger children, and Meow Wolf works brilliantly for older ones. Two practical notes: the Denver Mint tour is for ages 7 and up, and Meow Wolf does not allow strollers. Our guide to Denver with kids covers the rest of a family trip.
Unique, but Not for Everyone
- Casa Bonita is about the spectacle. Go for the cliff divers and the sheer oddity of the place, and do not judge the trip by the food.
- Meow Wolf divides people. Explorers love it; visitors who want labels and a clear route can find it frustrating.
- Rocky Mountain oysters are exactly what the menu says they are. Order them for the story.
- The Buckhorn Exchange and the Brown Palace tea are splurges. Both are worth it for the setting, if the setting is what you are after.
- The Denver Mint needs planning a month ahead. Without a booking, it simply is not an option.
Putting Unique Denver Together
Several of these pair naturally. The bison overlook at Genesee Park is on the way to the mountains and to Mount Blue Sky in summer. Dinosaur Ridge sits beside Red Rocks, so one morning covers both. The Molly Brown House, Cheesman Park and the Capitol’s mile-high step are all in or near Capitol Hill. The Clyfford Still is a block from the Capitol, and the Buckhorn Exchange is a short ride south for dinner. The Forney Museum and the RiNo murals are both on the north side of downtown. Our Denver itinerary guide shows how to fold a few into a longer trip, and if this is your first visit, our list of Denver attractions for first-time visitors covers the essentials to see alongside them.
If you only do three
Climb the steps at Red Rocks early on a morning without a show, when the light is soft and the amphitheatre is nearly empty. Pull over at the Genesee Park overlook on your way into the mountains and watch the city’s bison. And book dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange, order the Rocky Mountain oysters for the story, and spend the meal reading the walls. Together they cost little more than one dinner, and nothing else on earth quite matches them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Denver known for that you can’t do anywhere else?
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, standing exactly one mile above sea level on the Capitol steps, the Denver Mint tour, the city-owned bison herd beside I-70, Casa Bonita’s cliff divers, Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station and Rocky Mountain oysters at the Buckhorn Exchange, the oldest restaurant in the city.
Where can I see bison near Denver?
At Genesee Park, about 20 miles west of downtown, where overlooks just west of I-70 exit 254 look over the city’s herd, and at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge northeast of the city, where a wildlife drive passes through bison habitat. Both are free.
What is the oldest restaurant in Denver?
The Buckhorn Exchange, at 1000 Osage Street, which opened in 1893 and holds Colorado Liquor License No. 1. It is known for its game, steaks and Rocky Mountain oysters.
Is Casa Bonita worth it?
For the spectacle, yes: cliff divers, caves and a fantasy village make it unlike any other restaurant. It is reservation-only with no walk-ins, adult entrées cost about $30 to $40, and a 15 percent service charge is added.
What unusual museums are in Denver?
The Clyfford Still Museum, devoted to a single painter; the Forney Museum of Transportation, home to Big Boy locomotive No. 4005; Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, which is free; and the Molly Brown House Museum, the home of a Titanic survivor.
What unique things can you do in Denver in winter?
The National Western Stock Show in January, the Winter Park Express ski train, afternoon tea at the Brown Palace in its holiday finery, and the indoor oddities: Meow Wolf, the Forney Museum and the Clyfford Still.
Related Denver Guides
- Things to Do in Denver: the full list, with prices and verdicts.
- Free Things to Do in Denver: the genuinely free list.
- Denver Museums: from the big institutions to the specialists.
- Denver Food: green chile, steak and the award lists.
- Denver Events: the stock show and the year’s calendar.
- Day Trips from Denver: Golden, Mount Blue Sky and the foothills.
- Denver Breweries: taprooms, districts and the beer.
- Red Rocks Amphitheatre: shows, the park and the steps.
Photo Credits
Bison herd at Genesee Park beside I-70: photo by Postdlf / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Molly Brown House Museum, Denver: photo by Jonathan Mauer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Casa Bonita at night, Lakewood: photo by Kevin Payravi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4005 at the Forney Museum of Transportation: photo by Didier Duforest / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Buckhorn Exchange, Denver: photo by Another Believer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Prices, hours, booking rules and event dates were checked against each operator’s own website and published sources in September and October 2026 and change without notice. Restaurants change faster than anything else on this page; confirm before you go.
Denver Tourism Guide is an independent publication. We are not affiliated with VISIT DENVER, the City and County of Denver or any restaurant, museum or attraction listed here.