2024 Tri-Lakes Guide – Play
While the communities of the Tri-Lakes region continue to find and develop new ideas to create more ways for all ages to play during their free time, there is a variety of places to create memorable days and nights already existing either in the region or with very little travel.
One of the most unique venues for family fun as well as a frozen farm for upcoming figure skating and hockey talent is the Monument Ice Rinks in Monument, located at 16240 Old Denver Road.
The venue features ice skating lessons in its Learn To Skate program which accommodates both child and adult super beginners but also facilitates those who have developed to competitive level to manage their way through competitive ice skating in Colorado. LTS events are scheduled several times throughout the week as are public skates where all ages can leisurely make their way around the ice for fun.
“The biggest draw for our facility is that we offer both figure skating and hockey classes for all ages and all levels,” Dalilah Sappenfield, administrative director at Monument Ice Rinks said. “So it’s a fun family environment.”
The Monument Ice Rinks is also the headquarters and home ice for the Colorado Rampage, a hockey development program with national competitive teams at several age levels once learners graduate from its own recreational calendar.
In addition, adult pickup hockey is available as well as year-round programs to teach adults to play hockey as an absolute beginner. The Little Rookies program is directed by former NHL defenseman Al Pedersen (Boston Bruins, Minnesota North Stars, Hartford Whalers) who also serves as the facilities manager at the ice rinks.
In the past few years, the Monument Ice Rinks have experienced a large growth in multiple levels, both in its competitive figure skating program as well as its hockey teams, Sappenfield said.
“Monument Ice Rinks is a family-owned facility dedicated to giving back to the community and fostering young talent,” she said.
Parks & Trails
The Colorado Pumpkin Patch was able to solve its parking available issues to accommodate its growing popularity, offering families a jaunt to a fun fall pumpkin ranch, located at 18065 Saddlewood Road, Monument, Colorado.
“Agritourism is something that we feel like has a big value to the public,” Colorado Pumpkin Patch owner J.D. Chapman said last year when the approval from EPC was handed down. “It allows us to continue what we’re doing for the community and allows us to continue some of these other things that we’re doing outside of the pumpkin patch, like the Johnny Pumpkinseed Program for foster kids and special needs kids and their families.”
More information on the Colorado Pumpkin Patch can be found at www.ColoradoKidsRanch.com.
Playgrounds for children and adults in the Tri-Lakes area are developing quickly where some parks were once outdated. Limbach Park in downtown Monument is to see an upgrade to its playground equipment late this year.
At Palmer Lake, north of Monument, the park at the lake is in a constant state of development, adding new features regularly including a pickleball court looking to be a new addition this year.
Monument Lake has also developed over the past year, now offering two piers instead of one from which anglers can get their lines into deeper portions of the lake. The new pier, completed late last Spring, allows anglers to conveniently access the northern shoreline, allowing fishing enthusiasts to avoid crossing lines and bumping elbows.
In recent years, the town also unveiled its Waterwise Demonstration Garden and Trailhead Square at the 3rd Street Santa Fe Trailhead in Monument. This is a water conservation-conscious garden where visitors can not only enjoy its growth and ambience but also learn how to perform similar landscaping for their own homes. In addition, it’s placed at a trailhead for the Sante Fe Trail which runs the length of town and up to Palmer Lake, of which many use for walking, running and biking. Numerous neighborhood parks and trails in the national forest round out what is available in the Town of Monument.
Live Music & Karaoke
Arguably the largest venue for live music near the Tri-Lakes area is the Boot Barn Hall at Bourbon Brothers, located at 13071 Bass Pro Drive in Colorado Springs. With music events featured almost every Friday and Saturday nights, with the occasional Thursdays, Boot Barn Hall’s line up of acts include an eclectic array of country artists like Creed Fisher, Pat Green and Aaron Watson, as well as alternative rock acts as Mason Ramsey, SofaKillers, Lucero and the Long Run. In addition, their calendar of events always features a variety of tribute acts including the music of Abba, Van Halen, Foreigner, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Bob Seeger and many others as well.
If you’re looking for quality live music featuring some of the region’s best and most notable acts, you don’t have to travel much farther than Palmer Lake Pub, located at 876 Hwy 105. Palmer Lake Pub regularly features popular live music acts such as Wirewood Station, Missy and the Dirty Secrets, Brandon Henderson, Go Go GirlZilla, Skin & Bones and others every Friday and Saturday nights.
The only thing better than a live music event is a free live music event, and if it’s outdoors it could be even better. This is why the Town of Monument’s Concerts in the Park series at Limbach Park in downtown Monument is such a draw for hundreds in the region. Featuring a live music event at the stage in Limbach Park almost every Wednesday evening, this year, from early June to late August, the concert series is considered a community tradition.
The 2024 lineup includes some new acts like Hand Turkey Band, King Stan Band and Hot Boots Band as well as staples from previous lineups the Ashtonz, Wirewood Station and Missy & the Dirty Secrets among others.
“Each summer families enjoy live music by local and regional bands in beautiful Limbach Park, right in the heart of Downtown Monument,” Town of Monument Parks and Community Partnerships Director Madeline VanDenHoek said. “Kids enjoy playing at the playground and families can either enjoy food from food trucks or bring a picnic. Concert goers will often dance and watch the sun set behind the mountains. It is a good way to kick off summer and something people look forward to.”
Nestled in the woods of Black Forest, The Chicken Coop, located at 11627 Black Forest Road in Colorado Springs, also regularly features a variety of blues rock and country rock music acts offering a boot stomping good night for patrons.
Notes Bar opened in Feb. 2023 and since has provided live music and karaoke as well as a unique Jazz brunch for patrons in the area. Across the north parking lot of Boot Barn Hall, Notes Bar also book live music acts every Friday and Saturday nights. For those who like Jazz, Notes Bar also features a Jazz Brunch Buffet most Saturdays and Sundays with food served at 9 a.m. and music starting at 10 a.m.
Palmer Lake Pub features Karaoke Wednesday for local crooners who look to be the star of the bar themselves. The pub’s karaoke night is every Wednesday evening for three hours with KJ Party Marty. Notes Bar also offers a Karaoke Night each Thursday night at 8 p.m. after Music Bingo.
Family Fun at Northgate
Off of Northgate Blvd. near Gleneagle, nested among a variety of quality restaurants and eateries are enough places for family fun to entertain everyone in some way for most of the day and evening.
With a street in the subdivision named after it, Bass Pro Shops remains a beacon of attraction just south of Northgate Blvd in northern Colorado Springs. It also offers the closest option for families in the Tri-Lakes area who look to spend time bowling together with an alley and restaurant inside the monolith of outdoorsman shopping.
Ever since its arrival, Top Golf has remained a venue for the entire family as well as fun corporate events to allow patrons a chance to rent bays in its multi-level golf driving range. Those making use of the bays are able to not only practice their driving skills but also leisurely incorporate video games with each ball they hit.
Also in the subdivision is iFly Indoor Skydiving which allows its clients to experience the feeling of skydiving within a wind controlled tube instead of making a leap of faith out of an airplane. Families can have the opportunity to hunt and shoot each other with Nerf guns without the mess at home by visiting Dart Wars in the same subdivision. This Nerf gun arena offers 1-hour, 2-hour and family passes among other options as well as party rooms to meet their patrons’ Nerf war needs.
Offering two 1⁄4-mile Formula One go-kart tracks, Overdrive Raceway allows kids and adults a chance to experience the fast pacing of go-kart racing in the same subdivision, also offering accommodations for corporate events, parties and a calendar of special events.
Painting & Game Nights
While not many places in the region offer more than live music and karaoke events, some have mixed up its lineup of events throughout each month and the coming year to include even more fun reasons to visit.
Pikes Peak Brewing Company’s calendar of events this year included a stop from stand-up comic Zane Lamphrey’s new Thirsty! Comedy tour. It also features recurring painting nights titled Brushes & Brews where patrons visit to sip the brewery’s list of products while being walked through a painting workshop step-by-step. No painting experience is required and art supplies are provided so patrons can take home their own completed custom work of art.
If you do enjoy drinks and painting events, you may want to check out the Black Forest Brewing Company, located at 11590 Black Forest Road, Suite 50, which also hosts occasional events titled Brews and Brushes and Black Forest Brewing.
If Dungeons & Dragons is your thing, Pikes Peak Brewing Company also offers a Thursday Game Night each month. Back East Bar & Grill in Monument tends to also feature additional nights of fun like Trivia with Brendan, a high-speed quizzing trivia game boasting its energetic host, every Wednesday night.
In addition to its extensive live music event calendar, Palmer Lake Pub also features a fun trivia night called Tacos & Trivia Tuesdays. This is three rounds of trivia, 10 questions each round with prizes for the first place team at the end every Tuesday evening.
After its own trivia event had taken a hiatus, Brass Tap boasts the return of its Trivia Night late February. Their Trivia Night is each Thursday evening and offers prizes for first, second and third place teams, and participation is free.
Alternative Bingo & Poker
Pikes Peak Brewing Company also features regularly scheduled Music Bingo events, each event with a different theme recently including Broken Hearts Night and Disco Night. Music Bingo is every other Thursday evening.
Prior to its Karaoke Night, Notes Bar features a Music Bingo event at 6 p.m. as well with host Cat Country with at times ticket giveaways.
The Brass Tap also offers a different kind of bingo night with Beer Bingo on Monday nights, free to participate and boasting awesome prizes. The beer bar also features Free Poker Wednesdays, hosted by Pikes Peak Poker each Wednesday evening with prizes for first and second places.
The Waterwise Demonstration Garden and Trailhead Square is just one of several public parks to enjoy within the Town of Monument.
Young competitive figure skater Rylan MacDougall and local business owner Scot Sund perform during the Monument Ice Rinks’ Holiday Spectacular Dec. 10 last year.
You must have pumpkins at a pumpkin patch, and the Colorado Pumpkin Patch has them.
This old farm truck is one of many displays of vintage farming equipment at the Colorado Pumpkin Patch in Monument.
A display in front of the ticket booth at the Colorado Pumpkin Patch in Monument.
Colorado Pumpkin Patch Owner J.D. Chapman.
Anglers seek a nibble from the fishing Pier on Monument Lake.
WireWood Station in action during a past Memorial Day Weekend at Boot Barn Hall.
Amelia Robertson looks at Santa Claus as he visits with her and her older sister Sarina Robertson during the annual Santa’s Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops.
People swing at golf balls from the bays at TopGolf, located at Polaris Pointe retail center. The two-level venue offers 74 climate-controlled bay driving ranges with TopTracer technology, a ball-tracking system.
A golfer drives at TopGolf, located at Polaris Pointe retail center. The two-level venue offers 74 climate-controlled bay driving ranges with TopTracer technology, a ball-tracing system.
The Ashtonz take the stage at Limbach Park during Monument’s Concerts in the Park series.
Two instructors practice their skydiving in the wind tunnel at iFLY Colorado Springs. The wind speeds inside the tunnel range from 90 to 130 mph depending on the flyer’s weight and experience level. The indoor skydiving business is in the Polaris Pointe shopping area.
