• View the Denver skyline from the Colorado State Capitol, with its spectacular genuine gold roof and sweeping views over the city and the Rockies.

• See the US Mint, the second-largest storehouse of gold bullion in the USA after Fort Knox in Kentucky (website: www.usmint.gov).

• Tour the Coors Brewery at Golden and sample the famous beer made from Rocky Mountain spring water.

• Wander through the Denver Botanic Gardens (website: www.botanicgardens.org), boasting water gardens, a Japanese garden, a rock alpine garden and conservatory housing a collection of orchids and bromeliads.

• Hike, bike or horse ride around the dramatically sculpted red sandstone pinnacles of the Garden of the Gods (website: www.gardenofthegods.com), a National Natural Monument.

• Tour Indian cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park (website: www.nps.gov/meve), in the high plateau country of southwestern Colorado, 56km (35 miles) west of Durango. The 21,044-hectare (52,000-acre) park, a World Heritage Site, contains dramatic Anasazi culture's cliff dwellings built over 700 years ago (website: www.nps.gov/meve).

• Explore Rocky Mountain National Park (website: www.nps.gov/romo) and the resort village of Estes Park (website: www.estesparkresort.com). The Trail Ridge Road, one of the highest continuous highways in North America, is strung with massive peaks, rugged canyons, flower-strewn meadows, peaceful lakes and thundering waterfalls.

• Hike or drive the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (website: www.nps.gov/blca). It preserves the most spectacular 19km (12-mile) stretch of the 85km (53-mile) gorge carved by the Gunnison River. A paved road circles the rim of the canyon, at some points nearly half a mile deep.

• View the plains from Colorado National Monument (website: www.nps.gov/colm), west of Grand Junction, an area of fantastic red rock canyons, monoliths, pillars and cliffs. Dinosaur National Monument (website: www.nps.gov/dino) in Colorado's northwest corner, is a plateau cut by two rivers and home to one of the world's richest deposits of dinosaur and reptile fossils.

• Visit the Great Sand Dunes National Monument (website: www.nps.gov/grsa), with some of the highest inland sand dunes in North America.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.