Denver sprang up 155 years ago when prospectors hunkered down on the banks of the South Platte river near the Rocky Mountains to pan for specks of gold. They established an unlikely future metropolis, now home to two and a half million people. When I was growing up here, Denver suffered a post-1980s oil-bust funk and seemed content with its image as a sleepy stopover. But a 90s revitalisation transformed it, making it walkable, bikeable, even kayak-able, and attracting tech companies, startups, innovative chefs and creatives.

Denver only suffers about 35 overcast days a year. Consequently, Denverites are a sunny, sincere lot, traits so characteristic that whenever I encounter a crabby person, I always ask where they're from. In Denver, happiness is a way of life: a recent Gallup poll measured Colorado second only to Hawaii in its US wellbeing index. It's little wonder we're content in Denver, with a big blue sky, devotion to outdoor exercise that floods us with endorphins, and liberal consumption of craft beer.

If you want to pretend you're a Denverite, wake early and jog around Washington Park or pedal the Cherry Creek or South Platte river cycle paths on a sturdy rental bike from one of over 40 Denver Bcycle stations. True to its reputation as a fitness mecca, Denver was the first US city to launch an extensive bike-sharing programme in 2010. Denverites love their bikes: on Wednesdays hundreds of costumed riders on tricked-out cycles take over the streets with the Denver Cruiser Ride, a roving two-wheeled hootenanny.

Pinche Tacos food cart, Denver. Photograph: Cyrus Mccrimmon/Denver Post via Getty Images

For lunch, head to the always-packed Pinche Tacos at 1514 York Street , where inspired fillings come wrapped in tender corn tortillas. If you're brave, try the sinus-clearing xni pec salsa, which the bartender translated as "so spicy it would make a dog sneeze". You'll leave happy, with messy fingers and spice-tingling lips.

If you're not up for additional vigorous exercise, take a culture break. The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver mounts interactive exhibits such as "Thinking About Flying", which gave visitors homing pigeons to take home and release. For Black Sheep Fridays it throws themed cocktail parties, with an air guitar workshop or a lesson in buffalo butchery.

The new Clyfford Still museum is a striking home for the work of the abstract expressionist whose paintings were rarely shown before. Concrete has never looked so light as it does in the building's delicate, latticed ceiling, permeated with oval holes, letting skylight shift over its floors of blue-tinged wood under Still's bold paintings.

The Kirkland Museum is packed with decorative art, including "futuristic" chairs from Woody Allen's 1973 movie Sleeper. Or seek your art fix on the streets: on the first Friday of each month, the Art District on Santa Fe teems with performances, upscale food trucks and art. Last November, Aztec performers wearing face paint and pheasant feather crowns danced past me down Santa Fe Drive beating hand drums, shell ankle bracelets rattling as they moved.

It's not only oxygen-deprived Denverites who think the Tattered Cover Book Store at 1628 16th Street is the best in the US: it was the only one author Neil Gaiman appeared in during his recent US tour. My friends and I visit the Tattered Cover for our Denver Literary Kidnapping and Drinking Club, attending a reading and then gently coercing the author to come drink tequila with us at Mezcal, also on East Colfax.

For live music, head 10 miles west to scenic Red Rocks, where if you've been exercising properly you can win the uphill race for front general admission seats in the stunning natural amphitheatre, site of U2's Under A Blood Red Sky concert video. Or stay in town and catch bands at a hotspot such as Hi-Dive, Meadowlark Bar, Lion's Lair (2022 East Colfax) or Bluebird Theater.

Rioja restaurant. Photograph: Cyrus Mccrimmon/Denver Post via Getty Images

Dinner options are endless, since lots of talented chefs have migrated here. I've been feasting at Rioja for years, and in May, when the James Beard Foundation named Rioja's Jennifer Jasinski best chef in the Southwest, I thought well, it's about time. Linger serves global street food from a rehabbed mortuary in the bustling Highlands neighbourhood. Try Z Cuisine for savoury Colorado boeuf bourguignon, The Kitchen or Potager for impeccable farm-to-table fare, and The Squeaky Bean for the unexpected: "shaved torchon, dippin dots, torn crouton, currant pate de fruit" anyone?

When in Denver, always save room for beer. Denver brews more beer than any other American city, and tickets to the annual Great American Beer Festival held at Colorado Convention Center from 10-12 October sell out within minutes of going on sale (on 31 July this year).

Don't even mention weak Coors pilsner at Denver's many craft breweries. Visit the Barrel Cellar (1441 West 46th Avenue) home of the Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, where master brewer Chad Yakobson shows off what he learned from his degree in brewing (and distilling) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Drink a Red Saison at the Black Shirt Brewing Company (3719 Walnut Street), a Yeti Stout at Great Divide (201 Arapahoe Street), or a Hello, Darkness Black IPA at River North Brewery).

If you're not used to Denver's dry air, strong sun and mile-high altitude, remember, drink half the alcohol and twice the water and bathe in sunblock. Or ignore these rules – even when tipsy you surely can remember that the mountains mark the west. And if you want to fit in, hit the hiking trails next day, hangover and all.

Jenny Shank Jenny's debut novel, The Ringer, set in Denver, her home town, won the 2012 High Plains Book Award in fiction

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