We love taking daytrips up into the mountains. We moved here five years ago from Chicago, where there is not a mountain in sight, and you can only day trip to the same place to hike so many times before it gets old. But here, the possibilities are endless, I don’t even know if you could see everything here in a lifetime! So when we get a chance to head up into the mountains, especially in the summer, we take it!
This weekend we loaded up the kids and headed to Breckenridge’s Epic Discovery, and we had an incredibly fun day! The kids couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had, and they even passed out in the car on the way home, which is a win in my book!
I woke up early with the intention of us arriving at Breckenridge around 9:00am, but apparently I took it easy that morning because I don’t think we left the house until 9:15 (this happens to other moms too, right?). And then it always takes us forever to get on the road – we stop for gas, stop at Starbucks halfway up (tip: if your family also has to make a coffee stop, we’ve found that it’s less busy to stop just past Idaho Springs!), and by then it was lunch time, so we stopped to pick up some food in Frisco at Whole Foods. By the time we made it up to Breckenridge, I think it was almost noon. But if you’re a non-dawdling family, it’s only a two hour drive, which is perfect for a day trip! (For the record, we made it home in less than two hours!)
The first thrill for the kids was the gondola ride from the parking lot, they couldn’t have had more fun! (And it’s free!) Our daughter has been on one before, and so had our son, but I think he was under one, so it was really fun to watch him have the experience for the first time, and be totally unafraid!
Once we arrived and picked up our passes, we headed straight to the GoldRunner Alpine Coaster, which is a fun coaster ride on a track down the mountain. It’s a one car coaster, and you have complete control (although it does automatically slow you down if you’re going too fast!). Our kids both rode with us, and they couldn’t have had more fun. We rode it twice in a row, and then decided to head to the Alpine Slide.
The Alpine Slide is a little more rustic version of the Alpine Coaster. Same concept, you go hurtling down the mountain with the controls in your hands, but the track is more like a luge track, and if you are going a little faster than you should be, there’s a risk of leaving the track. But I’ve been on alpine coaster’s before, both here and in Europe, and have never left the track once! On the first ride down, both kids rode with one of us. My daughter and husband went down again a couple times, and she was ready to go by herself, and had the best time. One thing to know about the Alpine Slide is that you need to ride a chair lift to get to the top (the Mountain Coaster pulls you up in the car), and neither of our kids had been on one before. I was pretty nervous about taking our three year old son on the chair lift, but my husband went with him and he did a great job of holding still and letting his Daddy keep him safe. Our daughter did awesome on the chair lift, she got on and off with no problems. Now I can’t wait to get them skiing this winter!
After the coaster and slide we headed over to the Kids Adventure area, which included Tom’s Nugget Tubing, Lil’ Climber Ropes Course, and Little Flyer Zipline. Both kids loved the tubing ride. They grabbed a tube at the bottom (after being weighed to find the right one), then hopped on a magic carpet ride to the top. Once there, they jumped in the tube, and slid down the curve to the bottom, mostly spinning all the way. My son must have gone at least five times on this ride while his sister was exploring the other activities!
For the ropes course and zipline, kids need to get into harnesses, which did take a little bit of time. But once she was geared up, my daughter started with the ropes course. She loved the challenge and immediately went for a second time around. Then she switched to the zipline, which of course she loved too. She loves flying through the air, and this was no disappointment!
During our visit we also enjoyed the Bungee Trampoline, Mini Miner Gemstone Panning, Ripperoo’s Bounce House, Mineshaft Maze and Mini golf!
We were at Epic Discovery for about five hours, and I think the kids could have spent a couple more hours there. The prospect of hopping back into the gondola sure made convincing them to go back down the mountain a little easier though! (Not to mention the fact that we’d stayed until closing time!) At the bottom we loaded our exhausted kids into the car, and they both fell asleep within 45 minutes (making it a very quiet and peaceful ride home!). While they were still awake, they both couldn’t stop talking about what a fun day they’d had. It really was one of the best family adventures we’ve had together and we can’t wait to go back next year!
Tips:
Afternoon storms can roll through the area, and lighting within a nine mile radius will shut the park down for thirty minutes. To make the most of your time, get there early and pack in the fun, that way if an afternoon storm rolls in, you’ve already had enough fun to not leave disappointed. (They will do rain checks after 3:00 though, check out their website for all the details on eligibility for this.)
There are several tiers of passes that can be purchased. For our visit we had the Adventure Pass, which is an all-day, unlimited pass. And it is well worth the money! The unlimited access to both the alpine coaster and alpine slide were invaluable, we did both at least five times. It would have been really hard to only go for one ride on each, for both the adults and the kids! This pass is definitely an investment for a family of four, but it’s not much different than spending a day skiing. I think they also have great deals on the passes if you’re staying at Breckenridge, so check those out! We didn’t spend the night, but it sure would have been nice to sit down to dinner after our fun day and then just head to the hotel!
Bring a jacket or rain coat! It was beautiful weather when we arrived, but at the end it was cloudy and cool. It was a lot to bring with us, but we were definitely happy we had them at the end of the day!
Parking:
You can’t park near the adventure park, you need to park at the bottom in the Peak 8 lot, and then either ride the gondola or bus up to the adventure area. Both the gondola and the parking are free!
Want to know more? Here’s their website!
I received complimentary tickets for our family to enjoy a day at Epic Discovery and share it with you. The opinions are all my own!
