The Winding Pathways of City Park: Denver’s Historical Hub

City Park is undoubtedly Denver’s best. It’s a vibrant center for the city to learn, exercise, or simply gather with friends. This tour meanders along the 5km gravel walking path that passes by City Park’s monuments, historic buildings, lakes, and towering trees.

Your tour starts at the viewing platform at Duck Lake. As you stroll through the park, you’ll hear about Denver’s gold mining past, the area’s significant dinosaur bone discoveries, our local celebrities, and the city’s sociocultural landscape. This historical park boasts plenty of natural beauty, too, and at Ferril Lake, you may see egrets, geese, squirrels, cormorants, and magpies. You’ll go on to make your way around part of the City Park Golf Course where you’ll see just how active our citizens are. Denver is the fourth-fittest city in the U.S! You’ll get an opportunity to take a photo of Denver’s iconic skyline with its mountainous backdrop, from the vantage of a grassy hill. This circular route will lead you back to your starting point, after encountering statues of the freedom fighters Mahatma Gandhi, Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, and Sojourner Truth at the Martin Luther King Memorial.

Along the way, you'll find out the answers to questions like:

• Why is Denver called the Mile-High City? (It’s not the marijuana)
• How many fossils are housed at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science?
• What City Park monument was destroyed because of links to a German statue during World War II?
• Why does Denver have one of the only zoos with male elephants in the U.S?
• What residential architecture is typical in the city of Denver?
• Which celebrities have called Denver (and Colorado) home over the past couple of decades?
• How did a famous Denver sports team get its name from a dinosaur discovery?

By the end of this tour, you’ll have seen a few symbols of Denver’s history and identity in beautiful City Park. You’ll also have heard some great local recommendations for brunch, lunch, coffee, and dinner. As the path is gravel, you’ll need good walking shoes.