Playgrounds
Breckenridge:
- River Park Playground and Bike Track*/** (one of our favorites; it has a play area for toddlers as well as bigs, plus a bike track and is close to the river and bike paths)
- Breckenridge Elementary School
- Prospector Park at Main Street/Wellington St Park: more like climbing structures, usually busy*
High Line Railroad Park (not great for young kids; next to outside train museum and same parking lot as Troll Hike)
Dillon:
Dillon Marinara Park*/** (also has water/beach access. See below)
Frisco Marina Playground*/**
Frisco Elementary School
- Walter Byron Park** This newly rebuilt park (opened during covid) has a toddler and big kid play structure (limited parking, but also walkable from Frisco Main Street)
Meadow Creek Park** (super basic playground, has a walking path around small pond with a bridge and a block from Outer Range; note this doesn't have a permanent restroom, but has a portapotty in the summer)
Rainbow Park** (This is a fav! There’s a big kid playground to the west/off the parking lot with smaller kid area and if you keep walking back past the tennis courts (to the east) there’s an entirely separate smaller kid area too
Arctic Placer Park (see Fairy Trail hike below for a fun way to access); pavilion with
picnic tables but no restroom
Notes:
*Sunny (almost all of the playgrounds are straight sun and offer little shade)
** Has public restrooms (and generally most of these have a shaded pavilion with picnic tables and drinking fountain)
Water Activities
- If you walk down the bike path at Dillon Marina Park, almost directly below the hill from the playground there’s water access/rocky beach to play
- Frisco Marina has a beach area just northeast of the playground. It gets super busy, recommend going early on weekends or during week days . There are public bathrooms and the marinara restaurant has limited food; but you can bring your own. You can also launch paddleboards from this location. Parking is available with an overflow lot.
Access to sandy/rocky area water area off Dillon Dam road, park at parking on the road, right before Giberson Day Use area (which has a fee, parking on Dillon Dam is free)
Rent a pontoon boat from Frisco Marina or Dillon Marina for 2hrs; life jackets included in rental. Book online in advance (typically they sell out); rental is $200ish (depending on size) and includes life jackets, even for young kids and infants
Broken Compass BYO food, typically has a food truck, indoor and outdoor seating
Breckenridge Brewery has restaurant and outside seating
Dillon:
Dillon Dam Brewery happy hour M-F, 3-6p, $3.50 select pints and half off no; has
outside seating, - also a full restaurant
Pug Ryan’s we're not huge fans; but it is convenient with outdoor seating and a full
restaurant
Frisco:
Outer Range is no longer BYO food, now has a fried chicken company open inside the brewery (Birdcraft) as well as Mountain Dwellers coffee, which is good and a great quick spot for breakfast. This is our absolute favorite brewery in the state of Colorado!
HighSide has BBQ and some outside seating
Prost (not associated with Denver and technically not a brewery, but German beer hall with sausages)
Silverthorne:
Baker’s Brewery Also a restaurant, good food, outdoor dining
Angry James like their citra lager; has snack food available but can BYO
Toddler Friendly Hikes/Exercise
Breckenridge:
Isak the Troll: Park at Ice Rink Lot in the far SW corner of the parking lot. You’ll see brown signs for the troll and cross a little bridge to get to the trail. It’s a quick loop (maybe 0.5mi total)? But there are more trails in the area.
Aspen Alley: if you continue up Boreas Pass Rd from the Troll, there’s dirt parking area on the left and on the right farther ahead is Aspen Alley Trail
Breck Blue River trail: From River Park, if you walk towards the river, there’s a trail on the right (before the bridge) that is a dirt path to walk alongside the water
Minnie Mine: Colorado has so many abandoned mines left over from the days of gold and mineral extraction. This loop is rated as easy and is 1.5miles long, passing across a few old mines.
Cucumber Gulch: goes around the base of the mountain and wetlands; under the gondolas. There’s a beaver pond and old cabin (Josie’s Cabin) . If you're not staying in walking distance of this on the base of Breck mountains, you can park at Breck Nordic Center and take the trail to the west/left of the building towards the mountain
Sapphire Point Overlook 0.6mi (quick loop trail area with great views of the lake and mountains); or just park and go check out the lookout
Dillon Reservoir has a bike/walk path around the entire lake
Old Dillon Reservoir Trail (1.7mi total), hike up above the reservoir to a pond area. Really pretty views and easy (Great for aspen trees!)
Rainbow Lake trail (1.5mi r/t, mainly wooded trail; in town; usually busy!!)
Lily Pad Lake (3.3mi total), hike through woods to lake
Silverthorne:
Blue River Silverthorne Trail: paved/shaded path, popular for running, walking, and biking. It’s not really a “hike”. Park at Red Buffalo Coffee and walk behind the buildings to the river. Left/North of coffee shop there’s a bridge. Cross it and go left. (Note, Red Buffalo Coffee shop is about two blocks from Angry James Brewery. You can also access/walk to Rainbow Park from this path)
- Fairy Trail: This is a must do! In Silverthorne, follow 5th St to Brian and park at the soccer fields. Look across the soccer field and you'll see an opening in the chain link fence. Follow the bath from the opening and you'll find a 1/4-mile trail filled with fairy and gnome houses. Best park? There's a playground at the beginning and end points of the trail (This is also just a few blocks away from the new Bluebird Market - with food, drinks, ice cream, and a game room!)
Nearby:
- Clinton Gulch (outside of Copper), 2 miles, can fish reservoir, Mountain View’s and wildflowers (but mud and bugs!)
- Lower Cataract Loop (About 35min north of Silverthorne near Heeney): This trail is listed as easy and 2.3 miles long. When we did it, we clock 2.8 miles and thought about 1/3 of the trail was moderate (due to inclines and rocks). The trail is a loop and we started off going to the left/clockwise. The last third of the trail was the more difficult part. My 4.75yr old hiked the entire way with not too much difficulty. My 3yr old hiked about half (to the base of the waterfall). Although we hiked mid-June wildflowers were already popping. This trail has so many aspen, it would be a great fall colors hike too
Fav Brewery/Park Combos
Outer Range and Meadow Creek Park (or Frisco Elementary)
HighSide Brewery and Frisco Marina Playground
Broken Compass and Breck River Playground (about 0.5mi walk)
Silverthorne rainbow park and Angry James brewery
Indoor Ideas
- Breck rec center has indoor swimming/water park
- Silverthorne rec center has indoor swimming/water park
- Libraries: Breckenridge, Frisco, Silverthorne
- Wild and Free Indoor Playground Silverthorne (admission fee)
- Dillon Movie Theater
- Mountaintop Explorium (kids museum; admission fee) has finally reopened 2022 after years of being closed; this was always a fav!
Misc
Ride Breck gondola up to the base of Peak 8 for free (there are kid activities you can pay for at the top too)
Check the schedule for free outdoor concerts on Frisco Main Street or at Dillon Amphitheater
Frisco Adventure Park has a bike track in the summer and tubing hill (fee) in the winter. The bike track is better for older/experienced bikers
All of the towns have bike rental shops that will allow you to rent bikes, trailers, helmets, and even electronic-bikes to scoot around the various bike paths
Summer Fridays, 9a-2p: Dillon Farmer's Market at Dillon Amphitheater
Breckenridge, Keystone, and Copper resorts have a variety of activities at the mountain like alpine roller coaster, scenic rides, water bumper boats, etc (all for a fee)
I will come back to this post to add lodging and food reccs!
And as always - update this list with new activities as we find them. If I missed some of your favorite activities, reach out so that we can give them a try too!
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