Denver, CO
‘Ghosts in the Gardens’ blends history and spooky tales at the Denver Botanic Gardens
DENVER — As the leaves change color and cool evenings settle over the city, the Denver Botanic Gardens is offering a seasonal mix of spooky storytelling and family-friendly fall activities.
An after-dark event called Ghosts in the Gardens will be held from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. on October 17, 18, 19, and 30. Visitors can wander illuminated paths while trained storytellers recount eerie tales about the gardens and the Denver area.
“The weather is still usually gorgeous, so it’s kind of that shoulder season where people get to enjoy being outside,” Manager of Adult Programs for the gardens Sydney Goldade said. “They know how to tell a good story in detail, but also make you feel the story a little bit more and take it on as your own.”
Denver7’s Ethan Carlson
The gardens are decorated for the Glow at the Gardens event with playful displays like skeletons with pool floaties, to darker decorations for visitors who prefer something scarier. The decorations are all viewable throughout the day, even outside of special event times.
“There’s something for everyone, and it can be as fun or it can be as serious as you want it to be,” Goldade said. “You get to go at your own pace. There’s no rush for the night.”
‘Ghosts in the Gardens’ blends history, spooky tales at Denver Botanic Gardens
Ghosts in the Gardens also gives guests rare access to the Waring House, a nearly century-old staff building on the property that is often the subject of rumors about hauntings.
“If you’ve ever seen this giant house and wondered what it looks like inside, this is your only chance to do so during the year,” Goldade said.
Denver7’s Ethan Carlson
The event blends local history with entertainment. Goldade noted that the gardens were once a burial ground for early Denver residents and that storytellers weave those historical elements into their performances.
“It’s a little history lesson, and a little fun storytelling, but they really bring in some of those elements from the greater Denver area,” she said. “It’s really fun to know a little bit more about the space that that we all live now and what it used to look like.”
Tickets are $29 for members and $34 for nonmembers. Goldade said all proceeds support the gardens’ education programs, which offer more than 700 classes and activities each year — from school and kids’ programs to adult workshops in gardening, cooking, and floral arranging.
Organizers recommend Ghosts in the Gardens for visitors 12 years of age and older.
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Denverites looking for a stellar cup of Joe don’t need to travel far to savor the flavor of excellent coffee.
That’s according to The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, a website that rates global hospitality establishments where coffee lovers can find better brew. The website recently announced its 2026 list of the best coffee shops in North America, Central America and the Caribbean and two local companies made the list.
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters came in at No. 43, while Queen City Collective Coffee ranked No. 61. Not bad for a list that includes must-hit destinations in places like Guatemala and Costa Rica, which are known for their exports of coffee beans.
The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops decided the ranking through a mix of nominations and voting by both the public and experts. Places were evaluated based on the quality of coffee served, barista expertise, ambiance, sustainability practices, and innovation among other criteria, according to the website.
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters, which came on the scene in 2013, helped usher the so-called fourth wave of coffee locally, which focuses on honoring the beans’ agricultural roots and using techniques like pour-over to extract more flavor from each brew. The company started with a wholesale roastery and retail shop in Lakewood before expanding to Arvada through a merger with another company called Two Rivers, and later to Westminster. In 2022, Food and Wine magazine named Sweet Bloom’s Westminster locale the best coffee shop in Colorado.
Queen City Collective has certainly earned the popular vote among Mile High City coffee drinkers if the company’s expansion is an indication. Since opening its first retail location in 2018, in a spot shared with Novel Strand Brewing Co., Queen City has expanded to seven locations between Denver and surrounding suburbs, including Wheat Ridge and Aurora.
To see the full list of must-hit coffee shops across the globe, visit theworlds100bestcoffeeshops.com. For additional recommendations, check out our list of Colorado’s best coffee shops with picturesque patios and views.
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DENVER (KDVR) — With the mild winter and warm start to spring, beekeepers are seeing swarms earlier in the year and expect the season to be longer than usual.
Gregg McMahan is a dispatcher for the Colorado Swarm Hotline. It’s usually his job to send a beekeeper to collect a swarm when someone calls, but on Sunday afternoon, he decided to handle one himself.
“Nice little swarm,” McMahan said. “It’s tricky, though, because it’s hanging on a fence.”
A warm winter and spring mean swarm season has begun four weeks early.
“Never seen it like this ever,” McMahan said.
This call is to a house on Denver’s east side. When McMahan arrived, he saw a swarm had taken up residence on the fence.
“Absolutely typical, it is on the small side,” McMahan said.
He got to work, first luring them into a box when he spotted a good sign.
“See all these girls, they got their butts up, they’re fanning their wings. That’s telling us the queens in here,” McMahan said.
With the queen in hand, the rest began to follow her into the box.
McMahan said two years ago, he had 400 calls like this. Last year, only 100, the Swarm Hotline was as unpredictable as the weather, which has caused bee activity earlier in the year than ever.
“It makes it hard on the bees, you know? Two days ago, I’m collecting swarms in the snow,” McMahan said.
Rescuing them is integral to Colorado’s ecosystem. McMahan hopes people give a beekeeper a call instead of spraying them or harming them in any other way.
“They do a phenomenal amount of pollination within this state. Not only our native flowers but all the other flowers that people bring in,” McMahan said.
Slowly but surely, the swarm left the fence and moved into the box. McMahan loaded them into his truck to deliver them to their new home.
“Westminster to the Stanley Lake Wildlife Refuge, so these girls will have lakefront property tonight,” he said.
As he wrapped up, McMahan’s phone was buzzing more than the bees. Just another call to start a swarm season, he thinks, could be a long one.
“This year I’m already 20 swarms deep, so I’m expecting way more than 100 this year,” McMahan said.
To have a bee swarm removed for free from your property anywhere statewide, the Swarm Hotline number is 1-844-SPY-BEES.
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