Frederick with kids: a lazy river, a foam pit, a 30,000-square-foot skate park, storytimes and Santa in Crist Park

Frederick’s big indoor things for children are in two buildings run by the Carbon Valley Parks and Recreation District, the rec center on Fifth Street and the gymnastics center on Frederick Way, and in the regional library a few minutes away on Park Avenue in Firestone, which serves all three towns. Outside, the Town’s parks do the rest. Hours, prices and rules below are as the operators posted them on November 2, 2026.

The rec center pools

The Carbon Valley Recreation Center at 701 Fifth Street has a lap pool with a diving board and a climbing wall and an activity pool with a play structure, lily pads, a lazy river and a slide. The fall and winter schedule, through January 3, has open swim from 1 to 8:30 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 1 to 4:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 to 4:30 on Saturdays and 10 to 4:30 on Sundays, with the first Sunday hour a quieter Sensory Swim. On the no-school days left this year (November 23 to 27 and December 21 to 31) open swim starts at 11 and the slide opens at 1; in the weeks without lessons (November 9 to 13 and December 14 to January 1) Tuesday and Thursday open swim runs to 7.

The rules: children 7 and under, and anyone who cannot swim, stay within arm’s reach of someone 14 or older; 8- and 9-year-olds must be actively watched in the pool area; 10- to 13-year-olds need someone 14 or older in the building. Under-14s take a swim test before the deep end. Riders must be 48 inches tall for the slide. No one 8 or under in the hot tub, no one 10 or under in the sauna. Everyone not toilet-trained wears a swim diaper (sold at the desk), and only Coast Guard-approved vests and puddle jumpers are allowed, which staff will lend.

A visit is $4 for ages 5 to 17 and $5.50 for adults if your address is in the district, $6 and $8 if it is not; under-5s are free. Not every Frederick address is in the district: look for “Carbon Valley Rec” under tax authorities on the Weld County property portal. Kid Zone takes children from 6 months to 9 years for up to two hours while a parent stays in the building, Monday to Saturday 8 am to 1 pm and Monday to Thursday 4 to 8 pm, at $4 an hour for district residents.

Lessons, leagues, camps and the foam pit

Swim lessons run in four-week sessions from six months old; the last of the year starts November 17 (Tuesdays and Thursdays) or November 21 (Saturdays), and registration is November 9 to 12, district residents first. The winter basketball leagues for 5th/6th grade coed and 7th/8th grade boys take registrations through December 7 ($127 in the district) and play from mid-January to the end of February; younger divisions are already playing Saturdays through December 19. No School Day camps for ages 5 to 12 cover November 23 to 25 and December 28 to 30, 8:30 to 4:30, $180 in the district; Camp Frost registration opens November 2.

The district’s Gymnastics Center at 6615 Frederick Way has a 40-foot trampoline track into a foam pit. Open gym is by reservation in age slots on Friday mornings (4 and under at 9:15, 7 and under at 10:15, 14 and under at 11:15) and Saturdays at noon, $5 for district residents and $7 for others; classes start with Parent Tot for 2 to 4-year-olds, and the fall session ends November 23.

The library

The Carbon Valley Regional Library at 7 Park Avenue, Firestone is open until 8 on weeknights, 10 to 5 Friday and Saturday and 1 to 5 Sunday. Its storytimes run most mornings through the second week of December: Twinkle Babies for the under-18-months set (register for the series), Tales for Tots for 18 months to 3, Music and Movement for 3 to 5 and Family Storytime for 2 to 5, each twice a week. On the second Tuesday evening there is a yoga storytime for 3 to 6-year-olds. For school-age children the library runs LEGO Club, Science Fun, Let’s Draw!, Tween Craft Club and Paws to Read, where readers 5 and up read for ten minutes to a therapy dog; teens have an advisory board, a sketch club, a chess club, monthly Dungeons & Dragons and a quarterly bubble-tea social. The library closes November 11, November 26 and December 24 and 25.

Playgrounds, the skate park and the lake

Crist Park at the entrance to downtown, 105 Fifth Street, has a playground, a gazebo, bocce courts and a splash pad that runs from early June to late August (step on the yellow dome to start it), with the Miners Memorial Museum in the same park, open first Fridays 5 to 7 pm. Centennial Park on Eighth Street adds a playground, a bouldering area and a fitness loop. The neighbourhood parks with playgrounds and swings in the Town’s directory are Coalridge on Warwick Street and Countryside on Forest Drive.

The Frederick Recreation Area at 8201 Colorado Boulevard has two playgrounds (one for ages 1 to 12 by the main lot), an off-leash dog park, a basketball court and horseshoe pits, fishing piers on Milavec Lake (a Colorado licence over 16; no ice fishing, because the aerators keep the ice thin) and a 1.26-mile loop around the water, with bald and golden eagles in winter. At its south-west corner the Frederick Skate Park is 30,000 square feet of poured concrete, from a street course to a 10,000-square-foot flow bowl and two full pipes, open dawn to 10 pm, unsupervised and lit; no metal pegs, and helmets recommended.

The fire district reads to 3- to 5-year-olds at Story Time at the Firehouse six times a year, free for district residents; every 2026 date is full, and 2027’s are not yet posted.

This fall and winter

• Election Day, November 3: the rec center is a county vote centre, 7 am to 7 pm.
• Empty Bowls, Saturday, November 14, 11 to 2 at Frederick High School: the Help Center’s soup lunch with a kids’ menu, free carnival games and a painted bowl to keep; $8 in advance for ages 6 to 11, under 5 free (listing).
• Harvest & Holly Market, Sunday, November 15, 11 to 3 at the rec center, with a kids’ corner of crafts, a photo booth and princess meet-and-greets (listing).
• Thanksgiving break is November 23 to 27 in St. Vrain Valley Schools; winter break December 21 to January 1, with January 4 a no-student day too.
• Santa Cops: referrals for children up to 16 in families in hardship, and Angel Tree gifts at the police station, by November 30 (details).
• Festival of Lights, Saturday, December 5, 5:30 to 8 pm in Crist Park: the tree lighting, a parade of lights, free horse-drawn carriage rides, an ice-sculpture demonstration, selfies with Santa and carolers (listing). The museum opens 5 to 7 the evening before.
• The Santa Run: the fire district’s three evenings of Santa touring the neighbourhoods by fire engine, from about 5 pm; the 2026 routes go up on fffd.us in late November.