There are two other DIA threads.
Anyway, I live in the Denver area (south and east of DIA), and it's a weird airport. I was born here, and most of my flying that I can remember has
been done out of DIA.
First, DIA is very, very far from Denver. People joke that you're practically in Kansas when you get there -- and once you take the exit on Pena
Boulevard to get to DIA, you drive further east through empty fields, rental car lots, and C-DOT buildings. That airport is in the middle of
nowhere... and yet, it's Denver's main airport, aside from a few private airports.
Second, Concourse A is indeed very weird. To get there, you have to take a moving sidewalk (the bridge, I'd estimate, is about five hundred feet in
length or so), and then you get into a separate security line, which I find handy. After you go through security, you turn either right or left to get
to your gate. Those forking halls are very bare and... not serene, but tense. Waiting, somehow.
Third, seen from a ways off, DIA's funny roof does indeed look like the Rockies... sort of. More like a gigantic circus tent, I'd say. And of all
colours, they made it
white. Not brown with white on top, like the actual Rockies, nor grey. Shining, pristine, bizarre white.
Since I grew up with the airport as a place of happiness (not only do I enjoy traveling, it's where my grandparents flew in to when I was a child...
which really shows my young age), I find it only mildly eerie thus far.
However, on a recent flight back into DIA from vacation, I saw what appeared to be a dirt runway with a little shed, metal-roofed, near it. This was
on the south end of the airport, and I found it weird enough to consider taking a picture. Unfortunately, I only got a view of it for a moment. Does
someone know what this is?