As much we love our cars, Denver is best experienced on foot, according to local author Mindy Sink.
All one really needs to explore the city’s distinct neighborhoods, architecture and culture is a comfy pair of shoes, Sink suggests in her book out earlier this summer, “Walking Denver: 30 of the Mile-High City’s Best Urban Trails, Historic Architecture, River and Creekside Paths, and Cultural Highways” (Wilderness Press, $17.95).
This is the ninth book in a series that highlights urban trekking through such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. Denver was an easy sell for the series, Sink says, because the Queen City of the Plains often gets high praise for natural beauty, temperate weather and diverse neighborhoods.
Compact and easy to transport, the book is a love letter to Denver that includes local trivia and insights about where walkers can eat, drink or shop along their path.
Walking is the way to intimately experience Denver, Sink writes. The 40-something author learned to appreciate her city this way during the decade she spent commuting by foot from her home in Highland to her job at the now-closed New York Times Rocky Mountain Bureau.
Here, the California-born freelance journalist who has long called Colorado home talks about her drive to walk.
Q:Why do you think Denver is one of the country’s most walkable cities?
A:Denver is so walkable (because) its downtown is so compact. If you get a hotel in downtown Denver, you can take a third of the walks in this book just by starting from the front door of your hotel.
For example, if you stay at the Brown Palace and do the first walk in the book, in just two blocks you would be at Civic Center park and the Golden Triangle and the city’s (major) cultural institutions including the Denver Art Museum.
Q:What are your favorite places to walk in Denver?
A:I like to highlight a walk at Riverside Cemetery because it’s so close to downtown, but hardly anybody knows about it . . . (The cemetery) has such an interesting history. It was built back in the day when a handshake was an agreement. They unfortunately lost their water rights for that area, so it is very dry, and there’s not a lot of shade.
It seems weird, taking a walk in a dead cemetery. But I’m trying to illustrate how these walks can layer atop one another and make connections. In the book, I mention seeing the grave markers for (former slaves and early Denver entrepreneurs) Aunt Clara Brown and Barney Ford at Riverside. Then there is a mention that there are stained glass portraits of these people at the State Capitol that you will see while doing the Capitol Hill walk. These walks aren’t isolated pockets; everything is connected.
Q:What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had walking in Denver?
A:One (place) I didn’t know about is on my LoDo walk. I happened upon one of the most subtle public art installations called “Soundwalk.” (It’s on the the 1500 block of Curtis Street). You are walking over these six ordinary-looking grates, and all the sudden you hear these sounds coming out of the grates — clucking chicken, goats, gurgling water, subway cars that seem to get louder as you walk. You just wouldn’t be able to experience that unless you were walking.
Q:Do you have other favorite walking spots in the Colorado?
A:I like to drive up to Morrison and walk from there along the creek and over to Bear Creek Lake Park. It’s a really nice getaway, walking along the creek and listening to the soothing sounds of the river. There is a bike path, so you aren’t completely alone, but when you get over to the park, it’s really peaceful, and you feel like you took a day trip to the mountains.
If you drive into Bear Creek Lake Park, you have to pay a fee, but when you do the walk, you don’t pay anything. Some might question that you had to drive to get there, but in the book, I suggest that you can rent a bike. People should definitely take advantage of Denver’s light rail and B-cycle system because it makes it reasonable for you to walk just about anywhere.
Sheba R. Wheeler: 303-954-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com
