Lyons with kids: the river park, the library, soft-serve and a bike park

Lyons is a river town, and for children that is the whole point between June and September. The rest of the year the library and the museum carry more of the day than you would guess. Here is both versions.

Summer: the river

LaVern M. Johnson Park is the Town’s riverside park under the cliffs, rebuilt after the 2013 flood. A quarter-mile of engineered pools and drops on the North St. Vrain takes kayaks in June and tubes in July and August; beside it are a splash pad, playgrounds, the Town campground, and in a cold January an outdoor ice rink. Open dawn to dusk.

Tubing the St. Vrain is the town’s summer sport. There are three free put-ins: the Apple Valley Road bridge just west of town for the long float, the park itself for the short run through the whitewater features. The float works when the gauge reads between about 40 and 300 cubic feet per second, which is usually July and August. Small children belong on the short run, on a warm afternoon, with an adult in the water.

Across the river, Bohn Park on the south bank has the ball fields, the fenced dog park, an accessible fishing platform on the St. Vrain and the trailhead for the dirt-jump bike park. Dawn to dusk. The river path joins it all to Sandstone Park and the Depot without crossing the highway, which is the walk to do with a stroller.

After the water

The walk-up window at the east end of Main, long the Lyons Dairy Bar, has changed hands more than once; check that it is open before promising soft-serve. Smokin Dave’s mid-block on Main is the answer for a hungry group, and Oskar Blues has been feeding families on Main Street since 1997.

Any season: the library

The Lyons Regional Library, built in 2019 after the flood put the old Depot library out of use, runs programmes most days: a baby storytime and stay-and-play, a toddler and preschool storytime, kids’ chess with Chess Wizards, a LEGO Club, creative movement on second Thursdays, and Dogs Enjoy Afternoon Reading on third Thursdays, where children read to a dog. Monday to Thursday 10 to 7, Friday to 5, Saturday to 2. The events page has the current dates.

Summer weekends: the museum

The Lyons Redstone Museum is local history in the 1881 sandstone schoolhouse on High Street, run by the Historical Society since 1979: the quarry days, the railroad, the floods. Free, and open in the summer season, Monday to Saturday 9:30 to 4:30 and Sunday afternoons, June to September.

A hike that suits small legs

Rabbit Mountain, north-east of town, is the low, dry option that dries first in spring and stays walkable in winter. The Little Thompson Overlook is a mile and a half one way with the big view back to Longs Peak, and leashed dogs are welcome, which is not true of Hall Ranch or Heil Valley. Sunrise to sunset.