Time to cross another new destination off our travel list.

Back in October 2024, Coldplay announced a US leg of their Music of the Spheres tour and I convinced Jason to try to get tickets with me. Since all cities were going on sale the same day, we made a plan to each try and get tickets to a different show. Luck was on our side and we managed to snag tickets to 3 different cities over the summer. We then landed on going to see them in Denver since it was a place we had never been before and sold the tickets to the other 2 shows.

Fast forward to June 2025 and we were ready to head to the mile high city for a few days to explore Colorado and see Coldplay.

We spent time checking out the Red Rock Amphitheater and walking trails in the area, exploring parts of downtown, touring the Coors brewery and visiting Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our first full day in Denver we headed out for Brunch at Snooze down near Union Station and to walk around some of the downtown area.

After brunch and checking out some of downtown, we made our way to Golden, Colorado, a former gold rush town and tour the Coors Brewery.

We chose to take the brewery tour with samples because why else would you go on the tour. We met in the parking lot and hopped on our bus to take us to the brewery. Once we arrived, we watched a short video and then were taken on a 45-minute tour of the working facility to see the beer making process and were provided 3 different samples to taste along the tour which were much bigger than I expected.

On this trip we also had to check out the Red Rocks Amphitheater. Red Rocks is a famous open air amphitheater that is named for the rock formations that surround and make up the venue. They host movies and concerts throughout the year but you can also visit during the day before evening events to check out the place or if you’re dedicated enough, run the stairs. We got to the venue around 10am and there were quite a few people there getting in their workouts and taking in the views.

The amphitheater is about a 30 min drive from Denver so we spent the morning making the drive to beat the heat and traffic. When visiting, be prepared to walk up a pretty steady incline and stairs if you walk to check out the space. We got a few pictures and took in the view before deciding to walk the Trading Post Trail, a 1.4-mile loop trail located in Red Rocks Park just around the amphitheater.

After taking in a few small hikes near red rock we made a stop at In and Out burger, a must for our west coast visits, and headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up and ready for Coldplay. We stayed at the Origin hotel in Westminster https://www.originhotel.com/hotels/westminster just a short drive from downtown.

This was the 4th Coldplay concert we’ve attended and had just as much fun as the first time. After a 30-min severe weather delay they came out and performed a 2 hour show filled with the old hits and new songs.

Our last day in Denver we decided to check out The Stanley Hotel and visit the Rocky Mountain National Park, both of which were about 2 hours from Denver. If you are planning to visit the National Park from May-October, peak season, then you will likely need to make a timed reservation unless you want visit very early or late in the day. This is key if you want to visit the Bear Lake Road area and parts of the east side of the park. Tickets go on sale a month out and I missed getting them at that time. Luckily they do release a limited number of tickets the night before so we were able to get some to visit the park in the early afternoon.

Before heading to the park we stopped at The Stanley Hotel to see the hotel that inspired Stephen King’s book The Shining. The hotel offers several tours of the property including The Shining tour that walks you through the property and talks about the night Stephen King visited and his experiences and encounters that lead to the horror novel. An important thing to note is that although the hotel and events inspired the story, none of the film was actually shot on the property.

After the tour at The Stanley we made our way over to Rocky Mountain NP for our reservation. By the time we checked in the afternoon clouds and some showers started to roll in so we didn’t get as much hiking in as originally planned. We took the shuttle to Glacier Basin and hiked to Alberta Falls and Bear Lake before the rain started to pick up. We spent time checking out the falls before calling it and heading back to the city.

Our trip to Denver was quick and although we didn’t get to do as much as we initially planned we had a great time and would definitely make plans to visit again.

#Coldplay #Denver #Colorado #TheOutlookHotel #StephenKing #TheShining #RedRocks #ColoradoStatePark #Concert #Hiking #VincentAdventure