On August 1, 2026 — exactly 150 years to the day since Colorado was admitted to the Union as the 38th state — I spent the morning at the Colorado State Capitol in downtown Denver for a guided tour. Colorado's admission in the same year as the United States centennial is why it's nicknamed the "Centennial State," and Colorado Day, August 1, is the state's official birthday commemorating that 1876 admission. It felt like exactly the right day to finally take the tour.
What the tour covered
Free guided tours of the Capitol are run by the Colorado Capitol Tours program, and they typically start at the grand staircase and rotunda before working through the legislative chambers and, staffing permitting, up into the dome. Docents usually point out the building's use of Colorado Yule marble and the now-irreplaceable rose onyx that lines the interior walls — the entire known supply of that particular stone was used in the Capitol's construction between 1886 and 1901, so what's on the walls today is literally all there is. The building itself is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A centerpiece of most tours is the gold dome itself — capped in real 24-karat gold leaf, originally applied in the 1900s partly as a nod to the Colorado gold rush that built much of the state's early wealth, and re-gilded several times since. Tours that include dome access climb a narrow spiral staircase to an observation deck that looks out over downtown Denver toward the Front Range — on a clear day it's one of the better views in the city. Just outside the west entrance stands the well-known "Mile High" step marker, long used to mark exactly one mile of elevation above sea level, and re-surveyed and moved slightly over the decades as measurement techniques improved.
Inside, tours typically pass through the chambers of the Colorado General Assembly — the House of Representatives and the Senate — and often the old Colorado Supreme Court chamber, no longer in judicial use but preserved as a showpiece room. Along the way, docents point out the building's stained glass, including a series of portrait windows honoring notable Coloradans, and murals depicting the state's history, with water and irrigation as recurring themes given how central water rights have been to Colorado's development. It's a building that manages to be both a working seat of government and, genuinely, a piece of art.
150 years after statehood, it was a good way to spend Colorado Day — a reminder of how much history is packed into one gold-domed building at the center of the city.
Photos from the tour
A few shots from the visit: