Golden sits twenty minutes west of Denver, wedged in the gap where Clear Creek leaves the mountains and the Front Range begins to climb. For a small foothills town it carries a lot of history: it was briefly the territorial capital of Colorado in the 1860s, before the seat moved to Denver, and the old main street along Washington Avenue is still one block of red brick that survives largely intact from the 1880s. A welcome arch spanning the street announces, with no irony, "Howdy Folks, Welcome to Golden."
The town's biggest landmark is the Coors Brewery, the largest single brewing site on earth, which has packed itself into the canyon mouth at the edge of downtown. The free tour walks you through the malting, brewing, and packaging halls and ends, generously, in a tasting room. Just up the hill, the Colorado School of Mines campus and its excellent geology museum hold one of the best mineral collections in the country, including fluorescent rocks and meteorites.
Golden is also a gateway to the foothills. North Table Mountain and South Table Mountain, the flat-topped mesas that bracket the town, have good hiking and rock climbing, and Clear Creek itself runs a whitewater kayak course right through the center, popular with tubers on hot afternoons. Lookout Mountain rises just to the south, with Buffalo Bill's grave and a winding scenic road to the top.
For a visitor based in Denver, Golden makes an easy half-day or full-day trip — close enough to reach without committing to the high country, but with enough mountain air, history, and beer to feel like a proper escape from the city.