Summer is in full swing in Durango, CO, and there are plenty of free and low-cost things to do, like the railroad museum at the train depot, the Animas River Trail, summer concerts at Buckley Park, and more.
As a local, I can tell you that family activities here don’t require a big budget, just a willingness to follow your kids toward whatever’s making noise, splashing, or blowing off steam, whether figuratively or quite literally in the case of the train.
Free Things to Do with Kids in Durango
Kid fun in Durango doesn’t have to cost a dime. To begin, here are some of our favorite free experiences for kids and the entire family.
The Durango Train Station & D&SNG Railroad Museum
Visit the 12,000-square-foot museum for a peek into Durango’s railroading past. Get a close-up look at full-size steam locomotives, some with a cab that kids can climb into. Explore the vintage coaches and the 800-sq-ft model railroad, and enjoy the hands-on exhibits that make each visit seem new.
Fellow Destination DRO Parent Hayley Engstrom really loves taking her kids there for a day of train-centric delight. “There is a large assortment of exhibits, giving us something new to learn about on each visit,” she said. “My kids love the interactive elements of some of the displays, and wandering through old train cars never seems to get old.”
Locals Tip: Make sure to check departure times so you can watch the D&SNGRR depart from the platform in all its glory!
The Animas River Trail – the Kids Library and the Durango Fish Hatchery + Wildlife Museum
The Kids’ Library at the Durango Public Library is stocked for every age, offering board books and picture books for the littles, beginning readers and chapter books for growing bookworms, plus audiobooks, DVDs, Launchpad tablets, and Playaway Bookpacks to take home. The play area is the real draw for younger kids, with toys, puzzles, puppets and a puppet theater, a train table, a craft corner, and early literacy stations built just for toddlers.
Just a hop, skip, and a jump down the river trail from the library, you’ll find a trail leading directly to the Durango Fish Hatchery. This is Colorado’s oldest state-owned fish hatchery, dating back to 1893, raising around 125,000 catchable rainbow trout and over a million smaller fish each year to stock waters across southwest Colorado.
Locals Tip: Bring plenty of quarters for the fish food dispensers. Young kids have a blast feeding all the fish!
Allen Theatres Free Kids Summer Movie Series
Every Wednesday during the series, Allen Theatres screens free family movies (all ages welcome), with showtimes at 9:00 am, 11:20 am, and 1:40 pm. Seating is first come, first served up to theater capacity, so arrive early for popular titles. Check the schedule before you go.
Free Community Concert Series at Buckley Park
Every summer, the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College brings free live music to Buckley Park on Thursday evenings at 5:30 pm from June 25th through August 6th. The bands are for the grown-ups; the grass is for the kids. While you settle in, they’ll be dancing, turning cartwheels, and making friends with every other kid at the park. Bring blankets or camp chairs, pack a picnic (or grab dinner downtown), and let them run out those zoomies until the music winds down. Check out the calendar here to see who’s performing.
Durango Skate Park
The Durango Skate Park, right off of the 9th Street bridge, is a great option for bigger kids. Scooters, skateboards, and bikes, including pedal-less bikes for the littles, are all welcome. For smaller kids and beginners, try the mornings, when the park is usually quieter.
The Fish Connection
For a not-so-typical excursion, and if your kid is anything like mine, who enjoys seeing a chameleon just as much as a kitten, head to The Fish Connection on East College Drive. Nicknamed “Durango’s local zoo”, it has over 5,000 gallons of freshwater and saltwater tanks, plus snakes, lizards, frogs, tarantulas, and guinea pigs (Oh My!).
It’s free to wander and perfect for a rainy or too-hot afternoon. The staff is genuinely welcoming to little browsers and, who knows, you might find your next precious family member in the form of a cute and cuddly bearded dragon.
Worth the Ticket Price
The Powerhouse
One of the best places in Durango to spend an afternoon with the younger kiddos. Housed in a historic coal-fired power plant right on the Animas River, The Powerhouse is Durango’s hands-on STEAM-based children’s museum. Kids can dig in the augmented-reality sandbox, launch air rockets, build in the TinkerLab with staff scientists, and check out the original generators from one of the country’s earliest AC power plants in the Southwest region.
For the littlest scientists, Toddler Tuesdays reserve morning time for toddlers and their grown-ups, and the summer Power of Plants gardening program (ages 2.5-5, $5 per class) has kids planting and harvesting vegetables in the backyard garden beds: expect digging, water play, and gloriously dirty hands.
Admission is $9.50 per person (under 12 months free; $2 with a SNAP EBT card through Museums for All). The Powerhouse sits right on the Animas River Trail, so it pairs perfectly with the free river-trail afternoon above.
Locals Tip: Make sure to say “hello” to Priscilla, the milksnake and a favorite Powerhouse attraction. She even has her own Facebook page!
Open Gym at Durango Gymnastics
When the weather won’t cooperate, and the walls seem to be closing in, Durango Gymnastics is a great option. This Durango Parks & Recreation program offers drop-in open gym sessions for $8 and includes access to a foam pit, balance beams, bars, and plenty of room to tumble.
Preschoolers (ages 5 and under) get their own session Fridays from 10 to 11 am, no registration needed, while K-5th and 5th-10th graders each get an after-school slot the first Friday of every month.
Locals Tip: The foam pit alone is well worth the admission price.
Durango Community Recreation Center- Pool, Splash Pad & Climbing Wall
I think most Durangoans with children would agree that nothing in town beats the Rec Center. With both lap and leisure pools – the leisure pool has a zero-depth entry and a 160-foot waterslide – plus the hot tub, the outdoor splash pad, and the 30-foot climbing wall, with harnesses and a staff belay included, the Rec Center is a choose-your-own-adventure stop for the entire family.
Also included is a playground right outside, and the Rec Center sits along the Animas River Trail, so it links straight into the free river-trail afternoon above. Youth admission is $6.50 (ages 4-17); kids three and under are free with a paid adult. Check the city’s website for current hours and adult rates.
Locals Tip: the pool area closes 30 minutes before the building does, so plan your swim time accordingly.
Lake Nighthorse Swim Beach & Wibit Aqua Park
When summertime hits, locals and visitors alike flock to Durango’s closest thing to a day at the ocean: the swim beach at Lake Nighthorse. This section of the lake is a lifeguarded, boat-free swimming area (guards on duty daily, 10 am-6 pm), though the main event for kids is the Wibit Aqua Park, a giant floating obstacle course of slides and climbing features out on the water.
Wibit sessions run about an hour and 45 minutes and cost $5 per person on top of the lake’s day-use fee ($10), with City-provided life jackets required and kids 6 and under accompanied by an adult.
Sessions cap out and fill fast on summer weekends. Reservations are made in person at the Swim Beach building at 9:30 am, so make it a morning errand to reserve a session for later in the day.
For everything else the lake offers, see our full Lake Nighthorse guide.
Raising Kids in Durango, CO
The best part about raising kids in Durango isn’t any one thing on this list, to be honest. It’s that many of these are just a walk or bike ride away along the river trail, and half of them are free.
If your family is thinking about making Durango home, we’d love to help. Explore what living in Durango, CO is really like, or contact the Destination DRO team anytime. We’re here to help.