Golden is located 21 miles south of Boulder and 19 miles west of Denver, Colorado, abutting the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Due to its proximity to these two cities and closer distance to the ski slopes, this conservative town of ~18,000 people is pretty ideally situated. It also has a nice-but-small downtown with a western theme. Housing is also a lot less expensive than Boulder’s. However, I found the scenery much to “golden” and dry for my tastes and much less inspiring than, say, Breckenridge‘s.
The drive through the US-6 canyon roads to Golden from around Idaho Springs was a pretty scenic drive. My friend Mike S. says it is a good route to take on winter weekends when I-70 is totally congested with cars heading to the ski slopes.
Golden is about 60 miles from the slopes and hence more ideally situated (for a skier) than, say, Boulder or Fort Collins. However, its summer scenery is much too "golden" for my tastes.
Welcome to Golden - Where the West Lives.
Downtown Golden is small but does feel very western. It is popular with the Harley crowd and you can often here country music from a couple of the surprisingly few restaurants.
American flag with a bike rack shaped as a bicycle.
Another bike rack shaped as a bicycle in front of a park. I love these!
The Coors factory, founded by german immigrant Adolph Coors, is right next to downtown and is the 3rd largest beer company in the U.S. It has supported many conservative and Republican causes.
Golden has quite a few parks.
Golden also has quite a few tract home developments in the brown landscape.
