Winters are mild with an average daily high temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit and days reaching 60 degrees are not uncommon. Snow doesn't stay on the ground long in Denver so golf courses and outdoor cafes are able to stay open all year.
While it can get decidedly chilly sometimes, overall temperatures during the winter months are actually pretty moderate. Even the coldest month, December, has an average daily high temperature of 45 degrees, and days reaching 60 degrees are fairly common.
Denver does enjoy a beautiful climate throughout most of the year that is the envy of many other U.S. cities.
Snow usually begins falling starting in late October and continues until April, or sometimes even later months.
The first signs of winter can start as early as September, but typically cooler temps and snowy days start to appear in October. Temperatures get cold a lot quicker and the transition from fall to winter is fast.
And by the time November rolls around it has likely already snowed a handful of times.
The Packer Days festival was established in 1983 and in its heyday, embraced the morbid with a touch of whimsy through events like coffin races. The festival went on hiatus in 2004, but on May 27–29, 2017, Packer Days were brought back from the dead (so to speak) with new events and activities.
Alferd Griner Packer[a] (January 21, 1842 – April 23, 1907), also known as "The Colorado Cannibal", was an American prospector and self-proclaimed professional wilderness guide who confessed to cannibalism during the winter of 1874. He and five other men had attempted to travel through the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, during the peak of a harsh winter. When only Packer reached civilization, he said that he had been abandoned by his party, but eventually confessed that the party had resorted to forced cannibalism of dead members to stay alive when they became lost. He later recanted this story, and confessed to having singularly lived off the flesh of his companions, during his snowbound state – after they had fallen victim to party member Shannon Bell, whom Packer said he shot in self-defense. He confessed to having used their flesh to survive, while stranded and during his trek out of the mountains, nearly two and a half months later.
After Packer's story was called into question, he escaped jail and hid from justice for nine years before being tried, convicted of premeditated murder, and sentenced to death. Packer won a retrial, and was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison, on five counts of voluntary manslaughter.[1][2]
An almost completely fictitious biopic of his exploits, The Legend of Alfred Packer, was released in 1980. A more comedic and heavily fabricated take on the story, titled Cannibal! The Musical, was released in 1993. Home
