Posts Tagged With: Denver Union Station

May 23, 2025 Denver

We are in Denver for two reasons. First, we have not spent any significant time here, usually just driving through. Second, we wanted to take the Amtrak California Zephyr through the Rocky Mountains, a very scenic trip. Scenic, at least, if the train is on time so our travel is during daylight hours through the Colorado mountains and part of the Utah mountains. Trains in America are frequently delayed by freight trains and my mechanical difficulties with the old equipment.

We flew out Wednesday, flying first class for the first time in decades. The cost to Denver was minimal. Our flight home from Sacramento will be in Delta Comfort. Normally we fly the cheapest seats, sitting in back. I wanted to see if the more expensive seats were worth the cost to lessen the difficulty and pain with my restless legs. I found that first class on Delta gave me plenty of room-as much as a coach seat on Amtrak.

Our travel arrangements did not give us any time to do sightseeing on Wednesday. Lunch was at the Denver airport after we got off the flight. We are not renting a car so we took the Denver light rail from the airport to downtown Denver Union Station. Union Station is where we will pick up the Amtrak on Saturday morning so we spent a little time checking out Union Station. It’s busier than the St. Paul Union Depot.

The city of Denver has about the same population as the two cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul combined but the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is about 20% greater. What did surprise us was the greater number of passengers flying through Denver International Airport. Denver has over twice as many passengers flying in and out. In fact, Denver is the 5th busiest airport in the world.

Our Residence Inn hotel is a 20 minute walk from Union Station. We will be staying here for three nights before we get on the California Zephyr Saturday morning. The hotel is about halfway between Union Station and the Colorado Capitol building.

Denver has a free downtown bus shuttle so Thursday morning we took it to the Capitol. It is supposed to travel up and down a pedestrian mall but the mall is under renovations so it took a parallel street instead. We made it to the Capitol in time for the 10 AM tour. It is a lovely building with the usual stone surfaces but an attractive mix of wood features, stained glass, and painted murals.

As usual on a tour, several highlights are pointed out. Local construction materials predominate, even if those materials were located in areas of the state which were not particularly accessible at the time of its construction (1886-1894). That added to the final cost of the building. Portraits of U.S. Presidents are in one gallery, most were donated rather than purchased. The one of Abraham Lincoln was stolen and so a copy of his portrait is on display. Donald Trump did not like his portrait so it was removed and as yet no one has donated a satisfactory replacement.

The green color in the House of Representatives and the red color in the Senate follow the English traditions of the House of Commons and House of Lords. The Colorado State Capitol is not the highest in the U.S. Cheyenne WY and Santa Fe NM are at higher elevations. However, the Capitol is situated one mile above sea level, as noted on one of the steps leading up to the entrance.

One Colorado Governor back in 1936 closed the border with New Mexico to keep out indigents and aliens. (Boo) He was persuaded to open it back up before too many days had gone by. Another Colorado Governor refused to intern Colorado residents of Japanese background during the WWII and treated Japaneses Americans from other states interned by the US government in Colorado with respect. (Yay)

A visitor on the tour is able to get close to the Capitol Dome but today we chose not to climb the additional 99 steps. Our climb to the Wisconsin State Capitol dome a few weeks ago left my left hip sore the next day. I decided to pass on the dome in order to do more walking on Friday.

After the tour we headed for History Colorado, the state history museum. We were quite impressed. The history museum has four floors, the top floor was on the Ute Indians and Sand Creek Massacre. Since we have been to Sand Creek, we did not spend much time. It was gratifying to observe the historical accuracy of the incident, and not a whitewashing.

Side note: In March, Donald Trump issued an executive order on “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. Talk about the title meaning the opposite as last week The Secretary of the Interior, former ND Governor Doug Burgum started implementing the EO by mandating that signs be posted at Dept of Interior property (national parks, monuments, and more) to have visitors report any information presented that reports a negative view of American history. Thus negative history must be downplayed or ignored. Let’s hope Colorado keeps its honesty in the forefront.

The third floor was devoted to a display of 100 artifacts that summarize Colorado both in well known and in obscure objects. As on the fourth floor, history was not whitewashed. Colorado was depicted in its glory and in its warts. It was impossible to examine all 100 artifacts but we gave it a diligent try. Some well known artifacts are shown in pictures below.

Floor two was heavy on stories of Colorado communities and individuals that exemplify the state. We spent more time on the Denver from A to Z exhibit that tried to highlight Denver in 26 ways. Some of them seemed a little farfetched but enjoyable.

We ate a late lunch here and then finished up the day in the basement of the museum. Their special exhibit was a retrospective of the 1990s, globally, nationally, and locally. Several times we had to stop and say, “That happened back in the 90s?”

Friday was art day, visiting the Denver Art Museum (DAM) and Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art. The Denver Museum was not busy in the morning until some school groups came in. If you can believe it, I spent more time looking at art than did Chris although we both spent considerable time on the seventh floor (western art) of the Martin Building. (There is also a Hamilton Building.)

We took a docent tour in the afternoon about the work, primarily textile, of Nancy Hemenway Barton.

The Kirkland had been a specialty museum which recently merged with the Denver Art Museum. Kirkland had been a local artist and educator and his collection of his works and other stylistic art pieces is now overseen by DAM. One of his signature styles was the application of numerous dots buried within large works of art. He applied the dots while hanging above the works in a hanger type apparatus.

Since I am not knowledgeable about art, I will simply display some works that are a part of the Kirkland Institute of DAM that struck my fancy.

Tomorow’s blog. Amtrak’s California Zephyr.

Ed and Chris, Sacramento May 25.