Golden

Golden sits where the plains meet the Front Range, in a valley carved by Clear Creek between Lookout Mountain to the west and the flat-topped basalt mesas of North and South Table Mountain. The town was founded in June 1859 during the Pike’s Peak gold rush and served as the territorial capital of Colorado from 1862 to 1867 before the seat moved to Denver.

Today it is a compact city of roughly 20,000 residents with a walkable historic core, a nationally known engineering university and a brewery that has operated here since 1873. Megan has called Golden home since 2014, and it is the center of Haven & Co’s business.

Downtown and the creek

Washington Avenue is Golden’s main street, spanned by the “Howdy Folks! Welcome to Golden” arch and lined with more than fifty historic commercial buildings between roughly 10th and 14th Streets. Clear Creek runs one block north, with a paved in-town trail loop of about two miles, a whitewater park used by kayakers and tubers, and pedestrian bridges that connect downtown to the Mines campus and the neighborhoods uphill.

The arts have a real footprint here: Miners Alley Performing Arts Center moved into the renovated Meyer Hardware building at 11th and Arapahoe in late 2023, and Foothills Art Center now shows work in the 1867 Astor House on Arapahoe Street. Long-running local spots include Golden City Brewery (1993), Woody’s Wood-Fired Pizza (1993), D’Deli (open since 1975), Mountain Toad Brewing on Washington Avenue and Cannonball Creek Brewing on the north side of town.

Trails, mesas and mountain parks

North Table Mountain Park covers nearly 2,000 acres with about 17 miles of trail, accessed off Highway 93 just north of downtown. Apex Park climbs a historic wagon road from Heritage Square toward Lookout Mountain, where Buffalo Bill’s grave and museum sit at roughly 7,377 feet along the Lariat Loop scenic byway. The Clear Creek Trail continues about 24 miles east toward Denver, and Golden Gate Canyon State Park, 12,000 acres with 35 miles of trail, is about 16 miles northwest of town.

Fossil Trace Golf Club, a municipal course designed by Jim Engh, opened in 2003 on the south side of town near the Jefferson County Government Center.

Getting around

Golden is served by I-70, US-6, Highway 93 and Highway 58. The RTD W Line light rail, which opened in 2013, terminates at Jefferson County Government Center–Golden station with 705 parking spaces and access to the 6th Avenue Trail. Drive times to downtown Denver vary with traffic and weather.

Events through the year

Buffalo Bill Days fills downtown in late July with a parade and vendors in Parfet Park. The Golden Farmers Market runs Saturday mornings from May through October at the library lot on 10th Street, and the Olde Golden Candlelight Walk closes the year each December.

Homes and housing character

• The 12th Street Historic District, on the National Register, holds brick and wood-frame homes from the 1870s to 1920 — Italianate two-stories, classic cottages and bungalows on a walkable grid above Washington Avenue.
• South of downtown, Golden Heights dates to the 1960s with ranch-style homes, and Heritage Dells was platted in 1978 with 218 lots built mostly in 1979–80 along the natural gulches, without an HOA. Mesa View Estates and Sixth Avenue West Estates, near the 6th Avenue corridor, add 1990s two-story homes.
• North of the creek, Mesa Meadows and Fox Haven (built roughly 1985–1998) and Canyon Point (late 1990s) climb the base of North Table Mountain with direct trail access.
• Clayworks, a 16-acre mixed-use district rising on the former CoorsTek site, is planned to add roughly 550 residences, offices and a hotel over the next decade; its first building topped out in May 2025.