When you think about Denver the first thing that probably comes to mind is a snow-capped mountain. Although Colorado is a skier’s paradise in winter, there are a whole lot of other ways to get your group communing with the elements. Here are four seasonal outdoor activities that are perfect for groups and don’t require any training or experience beforehand.
Spring: Showshoeing
The mountains around Denver are perfect for skiing, sledding, and snow tubing, but snowshoeing is ideal for groups because each attendee can go at his or her own pace. The speed demons might race ahead and then spread out to experience the quiet beauty of the mountains, since snowshoes are so quiet that a solitary walker will hear little more than the sound of his own breath. Social butterflies, on the other hand, can meander together and chat to their hearts’ content.
Like a good walk, snowshoeing can be as strenuous or as gentle as desired. And it’s hard to pick a bad place to snowshoe in the Rockies.
Silver Dollar Lake, in Georgetown, is a local favorite, as the three-mile roundtrip trail skirts above the treeline as it opens up onto the lake. The Arapaho Glacier Trail in Nederland runs through the Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests. It climbs uphill for two miles before giving way to open land with a panoramic view of Boulder’s watershed and several mountain lakes. Both of these trails are just a few miles from downtown Denver.
If you want to venture farther, St. Mary’s Glacier, about an hour’s drive west of Denver, is renowned for its snowshoeing. The hike to the summit is just over three miles on forest service roads that lead to the glacier, and of course the views from the top are unbeatable.
Rates for group snowshoe guides in the Denver area start at about $80 per participant for a half-day trek.
Summer: Geocaching
A picnic in the mountains—perhaps with delicacies from Denver’s very own Marcyzks Fine Foods—is a no-brainer, but potato sack races and beanbag tossing contests can feel a little worn out. Why not send your attendees on a state-of-the-art scavenger hunt in the Great Outdoors? Geocaching, a treasure-hunting phenomenon, doubles as a great teambuilding exercise.
Simply divide attendees into teams and have them use GPS devices or their smartphones to search for hidden containers called geocaches. The Denver area has over 500 caches organized by difficulty and terrain. Players program coordinates into their devices and then spread out to locate as many caches as they can in the time allotted. The technology is simple, but it’s impossible not to feel like Indiana Jones heading into a grove of trees or a mountain cave to crack open a treasure chest.
Geocaching.com provides tips to get you started, as well as a rundown of geocaching smartphone apps and comparisons of portable GPS units.
You can also hire local help like Denver Adventures to plan a geocaching scavenger hunt. For corporate groups it provides GPS units pre-programmed with various coordinates for your attendees to locate. Each of the challenges in the course will require both individual contributions and teamwork for completion, so winning is only half of the battle.
Stefan Van der Steen, the company’s founder, says that geocaching truly helps participants improve their relationships with their coworkers. “It’s definitely a fun activity. It’s teambuilding as well as resolving issues outside. For corporate groups we can purposely create small conflicts and have our guides monitor group interactions and take notes so that we can debrief everyone later.” Denver Adventures can accommodate groups of up to 50 for geocaching.
Autumn: Mountain biking
There’s no better way to appreciate Colorado’s crisp mountain air than from the seat of a bike. Numerous, well-loved biking trails in and around Denver suit everyone from beginners to seasoned experts.
The Three Sisters’ Loop, in nearby Evergreen, is a seven-mile trail that offers beginner and intermediate riders a slow, steady climb to an elevation of 7,500 feet with some stunning scenery along the way. Evergreen also boasts the Elk Meadow Loop, a single-track ride that’s consistently hailed as one of Colorado’s best. It’s perfect for beginners, since there are only a few switchbacks to navigate along the route.
The north trail through Kenosha Pass in the Pike National Forest is a favorite for autumn color-spotting. The nearly 12-mile ride is only moderately difficult and provides unparalleled views of the Mosquito Range and South Park even when fall colors aren’t at their peak.
Although Denver has pioneered a citywide bike-sharing program, you’ll still have to rent mountain bikes for these trails. It’s easy to find guides for group rides, and you can save a lot of hassle on the ground since they will provide bikes and safety equipment, not to mention their expertise. Colorado Wilderness Rides and Guides (CWRG) designs custom itineraries for groups and even gives them a crash-course—or, rather, no-crash!—in biking techniques.
Guide Joshua Baruch says mountain biking is perfect for corporate groups because anyone can do it. “The only prerequisite is being able to squeeze a brake. We had one guy who was 74 and on oxygen.” He recommends a ride along the Switzerland Trail, an old mining rail line that was dismantled in the 1930s, as the perfect fall jaunt. The more urban downtown-Denver-to- Red-Rocks-Amphitheater ride is also popular with groups.
CWRG can provide guides and gear for groups of up to 100 riders, and recommends 60 to 90 days’ lead time.
Winter: Hot Springs
It sure gets cold in the Rockies, so treat your group to a spa day Colorado-style. Massages and facials are well and good, but there’s nothing more refreshing than a soak in toasty-warm thermal
waters when the snow is clinging to pine boughs and piling up in drifts.
There are several natural hot springs within an easy drive of Denver that can accommodate medium and large groups. Indian Hot Springs, located 32 miles west of Denver, has been welcoming weary travelers for over 100 years.
With geothermal cave baths, outdoor Jacuzzis, indoor private baths, and a mineral-water swimming pool, Indian Springs has something different for every bather. The caves were drilled into solid rock over a period of eight years at the beginning of the 20th century, and are sectioned into women’s and men’s baths. The cedar Jacuzzi tubs are kept at 108 degrees and are surrounded by a six-foot high privacy fence. A translucent dome shelters the swimming pool, which is open year-round, as well as banana and palm trees. The water is sourced directly from a nearby spring and sits at a downright tropical 90 degrees. There’s also “Club Mud,” an indoor refuge where guests slather themselves in mineral-rich mountain clay and then settle into lounge chairs. Those looking for a more traditional spa experience can book massages, facials, salt glows, peels, and waxes.