Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i 5280 Magazine

For decades, the third weekend of June heralded complicated identity-juggling for Colorado’s Black LGBTQ community. Denver Pride, the celebration of queer liberation run by the Center on Colfax since 1977, attracted 450,000 revelers in 2019. Yet some of those attendees were missing another important observance. Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, falls on June 19, so festivities—including the nine-year-old Juneteenth Music Festival, which brought in 90,000 celebrants in 2019—usually coincided with Denver Pride. “We wanted our community to be able to attend both,” says Joe Foster, the center’s vice president of development and communication. So when city officials suggested moving Denver Pride one weekend later, Foster’s team happily complied. That’s no small thing, says Juneteenth Music Festival director Norman Harris, but the resulting alliance outshines…

BOULDER RESERVOIR Once you’ve made it back from the two floating platforms, crack open a cold beverage (no glass bottles allowed), and marvel at the Flatirons in the distance. $11 day fee for adults; bouldercolorado.gov CHATFIELD STATE PARK The reservoir’s swimming beach is a popular destination. Enjoy the peoplewatching—and look up to spot the hot air balloons that often soar by. $10 daily vehicle pass; cpw.state.co.us BIG SODA LAKE Sure, this watering hole in Lakewood’s Bear Creek Lake Park is within view of C-470. That just means it’s mere minutes from most places in the metro area. $10 day pass per vehicle; lakewood.org/bclp…

Somewhere between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, just off the coast of a tiny volcanic island called Raikoke, a small vessel bobbed in the chop of the Sea of Okhotsk. An assorted group of photographers, scientists, and filmmakers lined the boat’s railing and stared in disbelief as the landscape came into focus. The island, usually lush and green, smoldered in an ashy gray state of complete desolation. The air was heavy with sulfuric smoke tendrils, and flocks of birds circled in infinite loops overhead with nowhere to land. The sea-lapped shores, once home to a thriving sea lion rookery, had been reduced to smoking rubble. The volcano had been dormant for almost a century. Colorado-based filmmakers Taylor Rees, 35, and Renan Ozturk, 41, hadn’t planned to…

~ 1 IN 4 Denverites on OkCupid who said their ideal socially distanced date was a picnic. In other words, it’s time to swap dinner and a movie for a basket and blanket. 82% Denver daters on OkCupid who think it’s important to have an emotional connection before a physical one. Just don’t go apocalypsing1the first person you meet. There’s no need to go from Zoom to groom in a single date. > ½ Daters on Bumble who are taking longer to move a match offline. Welcome to the world of slow dating,2my friend. Think of it as extra time to spot the red flags. Fewer frogs, more princes. 59% OkCupid users in Denver who said they enjoyed phone sex during the lockdown. Was it good for you too? 46%…

The doctor’s office should be a place of healing. For a transgender person, it’s often the site of trauma, where quality of care can run the gamut from microaggressive to downright discriminatory. “Physical and emotional safety in a health care setting is a big deal for a trans person,” says Denver physician Jerrica Kirkley. Which is why she co-founded Plume in August 2019, along with her medical school friend Dr. Matthew Wetschler. One of the first known telehealth services exclusively for trans and nonbinary people, the Denver startup provides virtual access to gender-affirming care in 33 states. And that’s just the start. With $14 million in new venture capital funding announced this past February, Plume has likely become the largest trans-specializing health care provider in the country, if not the…

Suzi Q. Smith’s new book, Poems for the End of the World, may seem like a macabre manifesto born from the pandemic. But the Denverite wrote many of the verses in 2019, responding to earlier global and personal upheaval: The Amazon rainforest was on fire, her daughter was headed to college, and Smith had recently left her position as executive director of nonprofit Poetry Slam Inc., which shuttered soon after. “I was spending time in gardens and thinking about how the world continues on, even after change or catastrophe,” she says. That theme echoes through one of the few COVID-19-inspired pieces, “Mezzo Sopranos Get the Sad Songs,” to appear in Smith’s book, out this month. We asked her to break down the poem for us.…

The year of COVID lockdown increased my drinking, my blood pressure, and my weight, and it reminded me that, although I love my home, I need to be far away from it, traveling, for eight or 10 weeks a year. But the routines of the pandemic also gave me clues to the nature of nature, and did so with a force such that no day of snorkeling off Mooréa or hiking in the Hindu Kush ever had done. (Don’t let me exaggerate my taste for global adventure, though: My idea of fun mostly runs to prowling the backstreets of Tokyo for ramen shops.) It is to the local birds I’ve observed over the past 15 months that I owe a philosophical, even spiritual, gain. Our deck had hosted bird feeders…

PEARL LAKE STATE PARK: This shoreline campground north of Steamboat Springs has an amenity Cottonwood can’t match: yurts, at spots six and 16, that overlook a tranquil lake (motorized craft are allowed, but big wakes are not) ringed by wildflowers in the summer. ELEVEN MILE STATE PARK: Snag campsite 910 at this Park County refuge (pictured below), roughly 40 miles southeast of Fairplay; it’s in the backcountry campground, but the hike is only a mile and you can hire someone at 11 Mile Marina to schlep your gear in by boat. The site boasts a rocky shore from which to cast a line and an inlet for launching SUPs, canoes, and kayaks. The only distractions here are the tail-slapping beavers that share the cove.…

Dear Colorado, I write to you today in desperation. As a member of the Rocky Mountain bat community, I’ve grown up amid a swirl of unflattering stories about my kind. (I’ve never even met Dracula.) And now, research suggests the virus responsible for COVID-19 originated with our bat brothers and sisters. I can’t hang by as this news fuels the haters. Whether or not it’s true, the accusation shouldn’t blot out the good my species brings to Colorado—or overshadow the danger we face. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, bats save the country’s agricultural system as much as $53 billion a year. How? Our sonar deters many of the pests that would otherwise feast on your crops, and we try our best to eat the rest. Even our waste benefits…

When chef-owner Francesca Ruiz shuttered the cult-favorite lunch buffet at her Peruvian restaurant, Los Cabos, due to COVID-19-related concerns in spring 2020, she anticipated the worst. Thankfully, demand for her distinctive, takeout-friendly family recipes ensured the 33-year-old business survived the pandemic’s most difficult days. Some of those dishes were inspired by immigrants—from Africa, China, and Europe—who helped shape Peruvian cuisine over the centuries. Sopa a la criolla is a Creole-inspired soup loaded with sirloin steak and angel hair pasta, while lomo saltado is a Chinese-style steak, onion, and tomato stir-fry served on a bed of french fries. Both are excellent choices at the loungy, red-walled restaurant, which Ruiz runs with the help of her sister Nelly Castillo. But the object of our true affection is the ceviche mixto, a medley…

NO. 1 HIGH AND MIGHTY Rock climbing can be as scary as it is thrilling—unless you’re tackling Kent Mountain Adventure Center’s (KMAC) two-year-old via ferrata in Estes Park. Italian for “iron path,” this style of mountaineering allows almost anyone to ascend sheer cliffs along metal ladders sunk into the stone while clipped onto safety wires. From $289 per person; kentmountain.com Detour: Book one of KMAC’s cliff camping experiences and spend the night suspended hundreds of feet up a rock face on a portaledge while the guides serve you everything from steak dinners to wine to morning lattes. $1,600 for two people NO. 2 BRAVEHEARTS Mountain style doesn’t just mean flannels in Estes Park. It also means tartans and kilts during the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival, the largest gathering of…

PRICEKEY (Average Entrée) $ UNDER $10 ■ $$ $11 TO $15 ■ $$$ $16 TO $ 25 ■ $$$$ $ 26 AND HIGHER. Want More Dining Options? Visit our online listings at 5280.com/restaurants. SYMBOL KEY NEW Indicates a restaurant featured in 5280 for the first time (though not necessarily a restaurant that has just opened). 25 BEST Indicates inclusion in 5280’s 2019 list of Denver’s best restaurants; we did not release a 2020 list due to COVID-19 disruptions and closures. These selections are at the discretion of 5280 editors and are subject to change. A Abejas $$$$ Golden / American The ever-changing menu at this restaurant features farm-fresh produce, sustainable fish, and organic meats, while the bar highlights small wineries and local brewers. Reservations accepted. 807 13th St., Golden, 303-952-9745.…