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Start a new Father’s Day tradition with these ideas in Denver

By Mile High Mamas on June 7, 2023 No Comments

With Father’s Day almost upon us, here are fantastic ideas to start new traditions with Dad in Denver.

Looking for adventurous ideas with Dad? Don’t miss The Ultimate Denver Summer Activity Guide (250+ Ideas) and the Colorado Bucket List: 100 Offbeat Destinations You Must Visit. Scroll down for even more ideas!

The joy of cooking. Most Father’s Days start with kids wanting to bring dad breakfast in bed. Try to keep that tradition going, even as kids grow older. Then, when their age is right, try having them grill dad dinner. As the years pass, that meal will go from hot dogs and hamburgers to salmon and steaks. “I had a very memorable day when my middle-school son discovered Bobby Flay’s grilling book,” Knippenberg says.

Sands of time. Dads who want to have fun with younger kids might try building drip sand castles at the local park. Watch an online video for instructions, then all you’ll need are a couple of buckets and a trowel. “We once had 20 kids helping us make a giant town at the park in Manitou Springs,” Kippenberg recalls.

Dive in to colorful Colorado. This state has so many great museums and heritage sites within a short drive of Denver. Pick a new adventure each year. Whether getting damp in the Cave of the Winds, going down under at the mine tours near Idaho Springs, looking for fossils on Dinosaur Ridge, or watching the trains roll by while dropping a bobber in Larkspurs’ town park, any one of these adventures will promise a memorable Father’s Day. For a souvenir, visit one of the many Colorado rock shops afterward.

Climb a fourteener. Colorado has 54 of these peaks that are 14,000 feet or higher. For younger families, try driving up Mount Evans or take the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. For rookie climbers, make Mount Bierstadt your first fourteener. If your kids are old enough, mid-June is the perfect time to climb many of the steeper peaks.

Catch crawdads. The Front Range is loaded with streams that meander through metro parks and are home to many crawfish. Nothing beats summer fun like tying chicken liver to a string and waiting for these mini-lobsters to lock on. More adventurous children can use a net or simply grab them with their hands. (Just be sure to toss them back in when they’re done.) Last summer at Robert H. McWilliams Park (2701 E. Yale Ave.), Kippenberg’s group caught 109 crawdads in just 30 minutes!

Make it a bang-up day. The Cherry Creek State Park’s Family Shooting Center is the perfect place to introduce your kids — and perhaps yourself — to the joy of shooting. They have everything you need to try pistols, rifles and shotguns on the trap range. They are extremely family-friendly and typically offer a special machine-gun shoot on Father’s Day. Kippenberg and his son went for five years in a row and tried a new gun each year. Exploding a milk jug with a .50-caliber last year was a huge thrill for them.

Hit the links. Golf is generally not very kid-friendly. But Denver has many great public courses where families can go out toward the end of the day. Rent a cart and pile in the kids. They will love watching Dad hit balls, holding the cart steering wheel, tending the pin and raking out the sand traps. And if you tee off late, you won’t have to worry about slowing play.

-Craig A. Knippenberg

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