City Park is a 370 acre expanse of garden, greenery, fountains, ponds, and sculpture, located just east of downtown. Built in the early 1900’s as part of the popular City Beautiful movement, it is a favorite tourist attraction for visitors from all over Colorado and the world.
Two of the region’s top attractions are located within the park. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science hosts a variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities to help Museum visitors experience the natural wonders of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The Museum hosts a variety of programs, including special traveling exhibitions, IMAX Theater films, Gates Planetarium shows and many interactive exhibits. The Denver Zoo is home to over 3,500 different animals, representing over 650 species and is one of the most popular zoos in the United States. Toyota Elephant Passage is an expansive new complex that will allow Zoo visitors to explore and discover the rich history of animals in the Asian culture, their complicated relationship with humans and the efforts of Denver Zoo and its colleagues to protect their future.
City Park includes two playgrounds for young children, an interactive water feature, H2o Odyssey, where people of all ages can run through the dancing water spouts, the historic Pavilion that hosts events and weddings, and the Mile High loop, a 5k running and walking trail that tracks along the city’s 5280 contour line.
Twenty four acre Ferril Lake is in the middle of the park where people gather, walk the paths around the lake, rent paddle boats, and enjoy the Electric Fountain that was renovated and re-dedicated in August of 2008. The exciting displays of water in motion and colored light is just as the 1908 fountain was 100 years ago. A 5.5 acre Duck Pond sits just north of Ferril Lake. Both are inviting to naturalists who can be seen with their binoculars, studying wildlife.
The City Park Golf Course is an 18-hole course on the north end of the Park that also offers a junior course for younger golfers, and has its own clubhouse at the southwest corner of the main course. Golfers are often able to play on the City Park links year-round.
Other amenities of the park include: the Martin Luther King Memorial, fountains, flowers and water gardens, soccer, lacrosse, and baseball fields, a 12-court tennis complex, and racquetball courts and picnic areas.
For better traffic flow, several roundabouts have been built along the inner perimeter of the park. Only certain areas of the park allow automobile traffic. The rest of the park is designed for pedestrians.
The Sunday night free summer jazz concerts, sponsored by City Park Jazz, are held from June through early August at the turn-of-the-century bandstand and pavilion, at the western edge of Ferril Lake. Families come to picnic, dance, and just enjoy listening to some of the best jazz artists Denver has to offer.
