Kids at Denver Museum of Nature and Science

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Kid-Friendly Denver

Kids are often tough to please, but they’ll be grinning from ear to ear when they’re in The Mile High City, thanks to Denver’s wide array of kid-friendly activities. Interactive museums, incredible zoos and aquariums, wide-open parks — they’re all perfect ways to entertain your little travelers!

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Meow Wolf Denver

Meow Wolf Denver's Convergence Station is an unforgettable and transformational experience for all ages. Discover immersive, mind-bending art across the four alien worlds of C Street, Eemia, Ossuary and Numina. Uncover the secrets within. Inside the bustling multiverse transit station known as Convergence Station lies HELLOFOOD, an oasis of combined culinary cultures serving QDOT for 2,500 years and counting! Here, visitors can recharge from their cosmic exploration and find sustenance in tasty treats from local vendors.

Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park

Nearby, Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park offers exhilarating adventures on more than 50 rides, including Meow Wolf's mind-bending voyage, Kaleidoscape. There's also an area for young kiddos, plenty of family rides and a 10-acre swimming area with slippery slides, crashing waves and lazy rivers.

Downtown Aquarium

Just a short walk away is the Downtown Aquarium, a seaworthy spectacle of kaleidoscopic fish coupled with reptile, bird and tiger habitats. Here, amid astounding marine life, kids can feed the stingrays, swim with the sharks, pan for gold, see a mermaid show, become a marine biologist for a day or even spend the night in the aquarium. Kids will also enjoy taking a ride on the Aquarium Express electric train or the Aquatic Carousel.

Denver Trolley

While you're in the area, hop aboard the Denver Trolley, an open-air streetcar that resembles the trolley on the "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" TV show. The narrated tours provide a fascinating historical account of Denver from its Gold Rush days to the present.

Attractions Near Downtown Denver

Metropolitan State University – Center for Visual Art

Located in the heart of the Art District on Santa Fe, the Center for Visual Art is the off-campus art gallery of Metropolitan State University of Denver. In addition to showing significant contemporary art, the award-winning CVA serves as an interactive art laboratory for MSU Denver students and the community.

Denver Firefighters Museum

Located in historic Denver Fire Station No. 1, families will love the Denver Firefighters Museum. The building was erected in 1909 and served as a working fire station until 1974. The kids will enjoy the hands-on activities, as well as the exhibits that provide information on fire safety and prevention. Be sure to have the camera ready as they try on equipment, slide down the pole, ride on a fire truck designed specifically for kids and pretend to put out fires. The museum also has a gift shop with toys, apparel, books and more.

History Colorado Center

The History Colorado Center brings history to life with amazing interactive presentations. Traverse a 60-foot map of the state using a "time machine." Virtually zoom across the plains in a Model T Ford. And, soar off of a re-creation of one of the world's first ski jumps in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Denver Botanic Gardens

This oasis in the city is a great place to relax and learn about nature with lots of programs specifically for children and families. A truly unique aspect for youngsters, though, is the Mordecai Children’s Garden. It's one of Denver’s first green rooftops and is a magical everyday escape where kids of all ages can play and learn about six of Colorado’s ecosystems, which change in appearance with every season. Best of all, each ecosystem has exploratory features for little ones to try out: swinging bridges, water features, places to dig in the dirt pit, streams to splash around in, and gardens that show how vegetables we eat every day take root and grow.

Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum

At the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, more than 50 planes and riveting space-oriented displays occupy the sprawling space, an aviation wonderland that allows families to get up close and personal with giant bombers, fighter jets, antique planes and a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter. The museum always has seasonal exhibits, and on the second Saturday of each month, both kids and adults can experience the electrifying buzz of climbing into the planes' cockpits.

 

Attractions Outside of Denver

Colorado Railroad Museum

The Colorado Railroad Museum has the state's largest collection of locomotives, cars, photos and historic railroad mementos. At one point, more than 2,000 miles of narrow-gauge track probed the mountains of Colorado, and this exciting era comes to life at the museum. Located in Golden, the museum is circled by a half-mile track, which allows them to do monthly "steam ups" with operating locomotives. On alternate weekends, the museum also runs the Galloping Goose, a rare bus mounted on train wheels that used to take passengers over Lizard Head Pass near Telluride.

iFLY Denver

Try an exhilarating activity for all ages. Indoor skydiving provides the sensations of real skydiving without the need for a parachute or the right weather. iFLY Denver is located south of Park Meadows Mall in the Lone Tree Entertainment District.

Dinosaur Ridge

At Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison (near Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre), an outdoor museum and visitor center, you can touch the bones of Allosaurus and Stegosaurus at the site where important dinosaur discoveries were made in the late 1800s. See how Iguanadons walked by viewing real dinosaur footprints preserved in the sandstone. There's a free, self-guided tour, so you and your little ones can explore at your own pace. 

Morrison Natural History Museum

Get a glimpse of early dinosaur discoveries from Colorado, including fossils from the first Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus ever found. Located 25 minutes west of downtown Denver, the 3,000-square-foot Morrison Natural History Museum offers a relaxed environment that's perfect for kids of all ages to explore rocks and fossils. The exhibits and guides connect visitors with the ancient story of the Front Range. Local excavations yielded famous baby dinosaur footprints that were featured in Smithsonian magazine and worldwide press.

Butterfly Pavilion

Located in Westminster, just a 15-minute drive from downtown Denver, the Butterfly Pavilion is the perfect indoor refuge in which to interact with live invertebrates fluttering around a lush rainforest or to hold Rosie, a Chilean Rose Hair tarantula, in the palm of your hand — if you dare. The tropical conservatory is filled with lush greenery, trickling streams and more than 1,600 flitting butterflies, moths and skippers shipped from farms as far away as Kenya and Ecuador. Also, stop by the Water's Edge exhibit to be immersed in an underwater world full of sea creatures.

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Learn about climate change, the 21st century's hottest topic, at the fascinating National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. See a hailstone the size of a softball, watch as a miniature tornado is whipped up in front of your eyes and get an up-close look at how lightning is created. Free public tours are available.

Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre

Aside from being a geological wonder 70 million years in the making, Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre is one of the world's most famous concert venues and a must-see site for any music enthusiast, young or old. Kids love exploring the trails surrounding the amphitheater, and a spectacular view of the plains makes it a perfect place for a kid-friendly hike. 

Hammond's Candies

Anyone with even the smallest sweet tooth will love this free tour, which gets you behind the scenes at Hammond's Candies, a company that has been making candy in Denver since 1920. You'll come away with a newfound respect for the candy industry, plenty of free samples — and maybe a cavity or two.

Tattered Cover Book Store

The Tattered Cover Book Store, arguably the top independent bookseller in the country, hosts hundreds of free children's events throughout the year, including lectures, book release parties and author appearances. 

Washington Park

The 155-acre park is one of Denver's largest and is consistently voted by locals as their favorite. Wash Park's expansive lawns, manicured gardens and Smith Lake offer plentiful recreation opportunities, including paddle boating, and there are several trails, including one that goes around the perimeter of the park. This is an ideal setting for a family picnic, tossing the Frisbee around or just hanging out in the sunshine.

Colorado Rockies Baseball

Denver is an undisputed sports paradise, and while tickets to the major sporting events don't come cheap, in-the-know baseball fanatics purchase Colorado Rockies baseball Rockpile seats at deeply discounted rates.

Art Programs for Kids 

Denver Art Museum

The world-class Denver Art Museum — free for those 18 and younger every day and free for all the first Saturday of each month — is a great place to introduce kids to the wide and wonderful world of art. Every gallery on every floor of this expansive museum has something fun for families.

First, stop by the family space on level three of the Hamilton Building for activities. Then pick up Gallery Games —small activity boards that help kids learn about artwork through games similar to I spy, bingo and memory matching — which you'll find in various galleries and exhibits throughout the museum.

Smudge, squiggle and splatter at Create Playdates on the second Wednesday of the month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (extended to 2 p.m. June–August). Drop in with your little ones (the program is geared toward ages 3–5, but older and younger kids are also welcome) to meet up with other tots for artmaking, storytime throughout the museum and instructor-guided "close looking" to explore artwork. Create Playdates explore a new theme every other month and are available in English and Spanish. Got some little detectives? They'll love Foxy and Shmoxy: Art Detectives, held the second Sunday of each month from September to May. 

DAM also offers a wide array of art-centric classes and camps for kids every spring break, fall break, Thanksgiving break, winter break and throughout the summer. 

MCA Denver

Contemporary art can be for kids, too! The Bubble Garden at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver is a dedicated, artist-designed space for kids and families that engages families in creative and imaginative ways. This space provides opportunities for families to be together and play, and is a destination inside the museum.

MCA Denver is free for all kids and teens 18 and younger. 

The Hudson Gardens & Event Center

Not only does Hudson Gardens have thirty acres of gardens and trails, but they also have tons of family-friendly classes and programs! From programs like the hands-on Photography & Painting Enrichment Program to drum circles and beyond, Hudson Gardens is so much more than a garden.

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