Evergreen with kids: paddling and skating on the lake, two rec center pools, trout ponds, a Family Place library and the elk

Most of what Evergreen has for children is run by the Evergreen Park & Recreation District: two recreation centers with pools, the boating and skating on Evergreen Lake, and the parks with playgrounds. The trails are Jefferson County Open Space’s and the library is the county library’s. The district charges two prices. Residents of the district pay less; everyone else pays 25 percent more unless they buy a $375 annual opt-in, and the district warns that not everyone with an Evergreen address lives inside its boundaries. Prices and hours below are the operators’ own, read on 7 October 2026.

Evergreen Lake in summer

Evergreen Lake belongs to Denver’s Dedisse Park, and the district runs the boating and skating from the Evergreen Lake House at 29612 Upper Bear Creek Road. Boating is closed for 2026; the district says it resumes in summer 2027 and posts each day’s opening on its hotline, 720-880-1391.

In 2026 the rental boats were first come, first served, by the hour: $25 for a single kayak or a stand-up paddleboard, $40 for a canoe or a double kayak, and $50 for an XL paddleboard that holds four or a swan pedal boat for two adults and two children. Life jackets come with the rental, in sizes from baby to adult XXL, and everyone on the water wears one at all times. A child under 13 needs an adult who signs the waiver and goes out with them, the lake rules say. There is no swimming, for people or dogs, because the lake is the community’s drinking water, though leashed dogs may ride in a boat. The lot fills on summer weekends, when the district runs a free shuttle from Stagecoach Park; the picnic tables are first come, grills are not allowed, and there are portable toilets and drinking fountains.

The lake trail circles the shore past an observation boardwalk over the wetlands. The district gives the trail as 1.25 miles on one page and 1.3 on another, and the lake as 55 acres and 40. Fishing for the stocked rainbow trout needs a Colorado license; the rules allow artificial bait only, sunrise to sunset, and no fishing around the Lake House or off the boat docks.

The district’s summer programs return in 2027: Kids Club on Monday mornings, 9 to 11, for ages 7 to 12 who can swim on their own, out on paddleboards, kayaks and canoes; Evergreen Explorers, run with Evergreen Audubon for children under 5 and an adult, stroller-friendly along the boardwalk; and day-long field trips and survival-skills Fridays leaving the lake at 9 and back by 3.

Evergreen Lake in winter

Skating depends on the ice, and the district says it will announce the 2026–27 season once it has an opening day. Last winter admission was $15 a person for the whole day, $20 with skate rental, and free for children 4 and under, and the price was the same for residents and non-residents because the lake is Denver’s. Rental skates run from toddler size 8 to men’s 16, skate helpers are free for paying skaters, and open skating takes no reservations. Dogs are not allowed on the rinks or in the warming hut, and nobody walks, skis or sleds on the groomed ice. It was a poor winter: every holiday date in 2025–26 was closed for lack of ice, and the district’s winter page still carries a notice that the pond hockey tournament was canceled for poor ice quality. The January 2027 tournament is taking team registrations.

When the ice is in, the district runs beginner skating clinics for ages 4 to 12, learn-to-play hockey clinics for the same ages with skates, sticks and pucks provided (bring a helmet), and a free try-hockey session with the Colorado Avalanche youth program, all to be posted for 2026–27.

The pools and the rec centers

Buchanan Park Recreation Center at 32003 Ellingwood Trail has a leisure pool with a slide and water features, two lap lanes, a hot tub and dry sauna, and a 41-foot freestanding climbing pinnacle. It opens 5:30 am to 8 pm Monday to Thursday, to 7 pm Friday, and 7 am to 4 pm at weekends, and the pool closes half an hour before the building. Wulf Recreation Center at 5300 S Olive Road has a six-lane, 25-yard pool, a gymnasium and a gymnastics gym; the building is open 5:30 am to 9 pm on weekdays, 7 to 4 on Saturday and 7 to 6 on Sunday, but the pool closes at 3 pm every day.

A day’s admission to either is $7 for a district resident aged 4 to 18 and $10 for a non-resident; adults pay $8 and $12, a household of two $13 and $17, and each additional person $5 and $7. Children 9 to 12 may use the cardio and weight rooms only with a paying adult; at 13 to 15 they can go alone after a weight room orientation, $10 or $13.

Swim lessons run in sessions through the year: parent-and-tot classes for 8 months to 3 years and preschool levels for ages 3 to 5 at Buchanan, and Level 1 for ages 5 to 12 at Wulf. Wulf’s Playschool is drop-in child care for children from about 5 weeks to 9 years, Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:45 to 11 am, while the parent stays on district property and uses the center. Register by 7 am that day; it is closed October 12 and 13, November 23 to 25 and December 21 to January 5. The district’s family nights at Buchanan, with swimming and snacks, are on October 17 and December 5, and a Kid’s Night Out, dinner included, is on November 6.

Playgrounds, ponds and parks

Buchanan Park, around the rec center, has a playground, two ball fields, a paved trail system with a loop to Denver’s Bergen Park, and two stocked trout ponds. The district gives the park as 41.25 acres on its park page and 42 on its plans page. The ponds need a district permit rather than a state license: $16 a day for a resident child 4 to 18 and $20 for a non-resident, sold online or at the rec center desk, ten a day at most. Fishing is catch and release with barbless flies or lures and a landing net. The district’s plans for the park add an all-wheels park, expected in fall 2026, and an all-abilities adventure playground with a splash pad beside it, built in phases through spring and summer 2027.

The district’s other playgrounds:

• Wulf Park, beside the Wulf center, with a skate park, four tennis courts and a fitness trail.
• Stagecoach Park, at Stagecoach Boulevard and Highway 74, whose playground has outdoor musical instruments.
• Kittredge Park, 1.5 acres on Highway 74 at Welch Avenue, where children under 12 must be with an adult and the creek is reached only by the posted path during park hours.
• Marshdale Park, off North Turkey Creek Road, with a rubber-surfaced playground and eight pickleball courts.
• Arrowhead Park, on Parmalee Gulch Road in Indian Hills.

The library

The Evergreen Library at 5000 County Road 73 is one of three Jefferson County Public Library branches with a Family Place, an early-learning play space with books and toys for babies, toddlers and preschoolers and staff trained to help their caregivers. Any full-service branch gives out a free baby book, the Rock-A-Bye Baby Reader, in English or Spanish; the library runs 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, and sensory aids such as noise-reduction headphones are kept in the play areas and at story time. The library is open 9 to 8 Monday to Thursday, 9 to 5 Friday and Saturday and noon to 5 Sunday, and closes for Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and Christmas Eve and Day, and at 5 pm on New Year’s Eve. Roof repairs after hail damage are expected to run into October, with the library open. Story times and the rest of the children’s programs are on the library’s events calendar.

Elk, trails and history

Elk Meadow Park is, in the county’s words, the most likely place in its open space system to see herds of elk, and the Pioneer Trail runs through it from Bergen Park to Evergreen Lake. Alderfer/Three Sisters Park has the most trails per acre of any foothills park, with two first-come picnic shelters and two more reserved through the recreation district. The county’s ranger-led programs set their own ages; October’s full-moon hike is for 13 and up with an adult.

Hiwan Heritage Park & Museum at 28473 Meadow Drive gives free guided tours of the old log lodge, about 45 minutes long. The county lists the museum as open Thursday to Sunday, noon to 4:30; the historical society’s site says 12:30 to 4:30. Its free Hiwan Halloween, with storytelling, crafts and a costume parade, is on Saturday, October 24.

The Center for the Arts Evergreen runs after-school art classes for elementary and middle schoolers, ceramics clubs for teens and homeschoolers, and art camps in school breaks, with summer camps posted in February. MakeSpace, its free monthly art night for teens, is next on October 21, 5 to 7 pm, and Winterfest on December 5 has free photos with Santa, crafts and face painting.

Through the year

Witches & Warlocks on the lake on October 10, the Trick-or-Treat Trail and E.T. on the Buchanan ball fields on October 30, the Santa Breakfasts and the district’s Frostival are on the events page. If you know of a family event that is missing, send it in.