Our most recent road trip took us through Colorado. While we splurged on a few unique activities, our pockets aren’t bottomless. Thankfully, Denver came through as a great place to explore without breaking the bank. I hope you find some of these suggestions and reviews to be helpful!
The Denver Mint is a popular choice for a free tour, though I’m not sure it’s worth the fuss. Tickets are only available in-person for same-day tours, with a limit of five tickets per person. The ticket window opens at 7. We arrived at 6:30 on the first Monday in June and were the second group in line; by 7:00, there were 20 people waiting for tickets. When we returned for our tour, we spoke with the man who worked the ticket window. He told us that the tickets were gone by 7:30, and he anticipated that crowds would continue to grow over the summer. He mentioned that before the COVID shutdown, people would line up starting at 3 or 4 am in order to secure tickets. At any rate, we got tickets for our preferred time slot and enjoyed the gift shop (and utilized its single-user restroom with a veeeery slow automatic door) before lining up at the requisite 30-minute-pre-tour mark. While the website mentions all the regulations (no bags, no food or drink, phones off), the tour guide didn’t actually specify all of this, so my husband pulled his phone out and was going to take a picture just after we got inside the building (before the tour), much to my kids’ horror. So make sure all your family members know the rules so they don’t inadvertently break them! On the tour, you view various money samples in a small museum area, sit in a hallway and watch a movie about the Mint, and then proceed to two different viewing rooms to see and hear about the money-making process. The viewing rooms overlook the factory floor and also contain old mint equipment and displays. The tour guide, Michael, did a nice job of sprinkling humor into his presentation and keeping the kids engaged. From the time we walked into the security checkpoint until the time we walked out the door was a 45-minute time span. Having toured the Ft. Worth Bureau of Engraving and Printing, I was surprised that this was much smaller: both the museum portion and the tour itself were not as extensive. That said, the kids were happy to have gotten a coveted ticket to see this rare process. Though the tour tickets were free, we did have to pay for parking. The lot at the Justice Center was already completely full by 8:15, and nearby street parking was also full. Some parking lots only had space for compact cars, so parking a minivan was a challenge, but we succeeded at finding a spot just two blocks away for the very reasonable rate of $12/day. If you plan to visit, make sure to factor parking into your plans.
Dinosaur Ridge is an obvious choice for tourists, since it’s one of the most famous fossil sites in the world. While you can opt to pay for a tour (either on foot or by bus–rather pricey, but supposedly worth it), we visited in the evening when the temperatures were comfortable and the crowds had left for the day. You can park at either end of the trail and walk up and around the ridge, and there are plenty of signs describing what you’re looking at and how it was formed. This made for a lovely evening walk, and it was completely free.
Hammond’s Candy Factory offers a free tour on weekdays, though preregistration is required. Parking is plentiful and free in the factory’s on-site lot. The tour begins with a short movie about the history of the company with some information about the candy-making process, and then you enter a viewing space. Kids can use stools to help them peer through the glass to watch the employees at work, while a large screen allows the tour guide to display feeds from various cameras that allow for a closer view of the action. The high humidity during our visit meant that very little candy was being produced, but we got to watch someone stirring a pot and someone else manhandling a table of candy. Down a hallway was a second viewing room, where we were able to watch a table of marshmallow being spread and a group of workers packaging candy canes. Everyone received a lollipop at the end of the tour (though the adults got flavors like “clove”), but of course you enter and exit through the store full of tempting sweets so make sure your kids know whether you plan to do any purchasing or not.
Mines Museum of Earth Science, located at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, is a small museum that you can visit for free, though the on-site parking costs money during the week. The museum is home to thousands of different mineral samples in a striking array of colors and arrangements, and they rotate their collection regularly to display new samples. My kids’ favorite section was downstairs, where they had a little cave with a room full of glowing rocks, a moon rock on display, and a game where they could match Minecraft blocks with their real-life counterparts. The museum also offers a scavenger hunt, though it’s definitely aimed at younger kids: it asks the kids to search for small donkey figurines hidden in the cases of minerals and rewards them with a sticker or tattoo at the end. The small gift shop area by the entrance had higher-quality nerdy gift options than you find in most muesums, and we enjoyed checking out the wares. Overall we spent about an hour-and-a-half here on a rainy afternoon.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder has an awesome two-level museum with plenty of free on-site parking. While this museum has something for everyone, I think tweens and teens will get more out of the experience than younger kids (though I’m sure littles would enjoy the main level’s hands-on activities and the coloring area upstairs, even if they don’t necessarily follow the science). The main level offers the chance to touch a cloud or a tornado, explore downbursts and the effects of Earth’s rotation, and watch several short (roughly 10-minute) movies. Upstairs, you can explore the changing climate and learn about mitigating climate change, though this is definitely aimed at an audience that can read. There are several interactive screens throughout the museum offering the opportunity to do things like categorize clouds, hear climate change (yes, you read that right!), and see the polluting effects of various sources. We spent an hour-and-a-half wandering and exploring. There are also trails available on-site, but we visited on a rainy day and didn’t get to check them out.
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is also completely free to visit. You can stop by their Visitors’ Center, listen to a downloadable narration as you drive around the refuge, or get out of the car to hike or fish. It was raining when we had scheduled to visit, but we still managed to see a number of bison, plenty of deer, and a variety of birds on our drive (and my 11-year-old loved the information about the place’s history).
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