The Best Way to See Golden, Colorado

During our travels, we’re always looking for exciting and new ways to discover a city. Sure, you can get online, do tons of research, and then go out fully prepared. But the true glory of a road trip is when you pull into a Visitor’s Center to stretch your legs and stumble into an unexpected adventure. This exact thing happened to us, and we discovered the best way to see Golden, Colorado: the Itty Bitty Art Tour!

A bit of Golden History

Golden, Colorado, originally named Golden City, was founded in 1859. In 1862, it became the capitol of the Colorado Territory, holding the title until 1876, when Colorado became a state and Denver took the accolade. Due to its location, Golden became a supply location, and continued to thrive. Today, people might visit the city to see Coors brewing, the Colorado School of Mines, or William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s grave site. And please make sure you see all of those places when you visit! We found the best way to see Golden, Colorado, especially the downtown area, is to focus on Golden’s art scene.

The Itty Bitty Art Tour

The Itty Bitty Art Tour leads you down Washington Ave. and along the banks of Clear Creek as you discover this outdoor art show of miniature paintings and art installments from eleven local artists. These pieces of art (fourteen in total), have turned light posts, water pipes, cracks in the sidewalk, and even tree trunks into masterpieces. First, stop at the Visitor’s Center and grab an Itty Bitty Art Tour map. Then, start your hunt. While there was some flooding in the area, which means we didn’t get to see two of the installments, we had so much fun searching for the other twelve! There really isn’t a bad location to park in order to start your hunt; however, we parked just past 1119 Washington Avenue, since that’s the first art installment listed on the map. We then walked until we found the last installment at Golden Library.

The Art Installments

While we had a blast finding these twelve installments, we would’ve loved to have seen the other two as they look pretty amazing themselves. However, we completed understood as the trails closest to the creek were roped off due to high water.

A Few Tips

While several of these installments were easy to spot, there are some that we really had to search for. Here are a few tips to aid in your hunt. First, all of the installments on Washington Ave. are exactly where we’ve said to find them, and they’re all on the same side of the street. When you find “Cowboy Compy,” go ahead and cross to the opposite side of the street. That will put you on the correct side of the bridge to find “Take Flight.” When walking down Clear Creek Trail, most of the installments are on the upper portion. The only two that aren’t are “It Takes a Village” and “Scaling the Bricks,” the two we didn’t get to see. Lastly, “Portal Through the Depths,” “Connections,” and “Making Tracks” are in the exact same area. “Connections” is the easiest one to find, so look for that first and then focus on the other two. (I actually had to clear some leaves out of the way in order to find “Making Tracks.”)

Which art installment are you the most looking forward to finding?

Want to know more about our trip to Colorado? Click here to read The Best Way to Discover Sterling, Colorado.