Cheesman Park is one of Denver’s most beautiful green spaces: 80 acres of rolling lawn, tall trees and a gleaming marble pavilion with sweeping views of the Front Range, plus a famously spooky past as the city’s first cemetery.

Before it was a park, this hilltop was Denver’s City Cemetery, first known as Mount Prospect. In 1890 Congress cleared the way for the city to turn it into a park, first called Congress Park, and the removal of graves began in 1893. The job went badly: a contractor was caught cutting corners, the work was halted in scandal, and many graves were never moved. Those stories have made Cheesman one of Colorado’s best-known ghost-story spots. The landscape design began with Reinhard Schuetze in 1898 and was completed by S.R. DeBoer.

The centerpiece is the Cheesman Memorial Pavilion, a neoclassical structure of white Colorado Yule marble dedicated in 1910 and paid for by the family of Walter Cheesman with a $100,000 gift. Stand between its columns at sunset and you get one of the best mountain views in the city. The Olmsted Brothers designed the park’s Esplanade in 1914, and the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Today it is a favorite for picnics, sunbathing, frisbee and evening walks. Denver Botanic Gardens sits right next door, and City Park and Washington Park make good additions to a Denver parks day.

Insider tip: Head to the pavilion about 30 minutes before sunset for golden light on the marble and the mountains. Parking on the park loop fills fast on summer weekends, so walk, bike or take a rideshare.

Cheesman Park is open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. year-round. On winter days after a snowfall, the park’s gentle hills draw sledders and photographers, and the pavilion makes a striking backdrop. Learn more about the park’s history at cheesmanpark.org.