They came in diamond rings and nose rings. They wore spiked hair and pinstriped suits.

As President Bush entered a downtown Denver hotel, anti-war demonstrators massed outside the Denver City and County Building to demand that the United States stay out of Iraq.

It was an eclectic mix of mothers with strollers and fuchsia-haired youths, a group estimated by police at between 1,500 and 2,500.

They clutched black balloons and waved signs demanding "No blood for oil" and "Let Iraq Live." They chanted, "No war for votes."

Leora Wertin came from Aurora. She stood next to her grown son, Leo, with a simple sign.

"My son served in Vietnam. My grandson doesn't need to go to Iraq."

They aimed their ire at Bush's push for force against Iraq.

"I think we can conclude that a lot of people are opposed to the war against Iraq," said Howard Greenebaum, spokesman for the Colorado Coalition for Middle East Peace. "We don't buy $1,000 lunches. This is the only way we can talk to this administration."

Coloradans Against Bush's War on Iraq organized the protest. It is a loose coalition of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, the Colorado Friends Service Organization and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.

Other groups - from the bizarre to the brash - showed up on their own. Take the "Raging Grannies of Denver."

"I am a grandmother of 13 children, I am basically a pacifist and I feel the only way we can get along with people is to push peace, not war," said Natalie Warner, 78, who carried a poster with the words, "Raging Grannies of Denver say no war."

Many had no affiliation with any of the groups. People identified themselves as coming from as far away as Durango and Gunnison to attend the rally.

In scenes reminiscent of protests in the 1960s, marchers wore Richard Nixon masks and sang We Shall Overcome.

"We were thinking that we would have about 200 people. We were thinking that would be good," said Remy Kachadourian, a member of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace. "The feeling is starting to get out that this is a truly dangerous war."

After gathering at the City and County Building, the protesters marched four blocks to Denver's Adam's Mark Hotel, as about 66 Denver police officers worked crowd control. Police were forced to shut down one of Denver's main traffic arteries, West Colfax Avenue, for about 30 minutes while the procession passed.

Cost estimates won't be available for about three days, said Detective Virginia Lopez, spokeswoman for the Denver Police Department. But she said standard precautions were taken for Bush's visit.

"Because of the presidential status, they would have gone above and beyond the needed security to ensure the security of the president, regardless of Sept. 11," Lopez said.

No arrests were made during the protests. Police were able to clear the 16th Street Mall - which had been virtually shut down by the protest - and allow normal bus traffic to resume shortly after the lunch hour.

A minor stir was created when Aurora police spotted a gun inside a man's car after he stopped near a roadblock for the president's motorcade at Sixth Avenue and Norfolk Street. The man didn't threaten anyone and cooperated with police who questioned him.

Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Lon Garner said the man was released a short time later.

Garner said he has "no information to lead me to believe there was any direction of interest" toward harming the president.

Toward the back of the crowd, Kathy Bizzarro stood with her son, Giancarlo, an 11th-grader at Palmer High School in Colorado Springs.

They held an American flag they said was sent to them by a West Point cadet who opposes an invasion of Iraq.

"I wanted to bring my son. He wanted to come," Bizzarro said.

"He realizes that it's his generation that is going to pay the price for bad foreign policy."

News Staff Writer Sarah Huntley contributed to this report. amesm@RockyMountainNews.com or (303) 892-2327.