Families
Windsor with kids: the lake, two pools, the library and the river trail
Where to take children in Windsor, Colorado: Boardwalk Park and the swim beach on Windsor Lake, the rec center's lazy river and the summer pool at Chimney Park, the library's storytimes, Eastman Park and the Poudre River Trail, and the free museums on the lake shore.
· Checked October 1, 2026
Windsor has a lake in the middle of it, which settles most summer arguments, and a rec center with a lazy river for the other eight months. Here is what there is, with the hours and prices the Town publishes.
The lake: Boardwalk Park
Boardwalk Park at 100 N 5th Street is the town’s front yard, on the north shore of Windsor Lake beside the History Museum and the Art & Heritage Center. The Boundless Playground, built with Colorado Lottery money in 2008, is here, and the Windsor Lake Trail runs 2.25 miles round the water, a flat loop that a child on a first bike can manage. The swim beach at 105 N 5th Street is free, open in daylight hours from mid-May through September, roped off with buoys and without a lifeguard, so swimming is at your own risk. From Memorial Day weekend the Town rents kayaks, canoes, paddle boards, aqua trikes, Corcls and GoBoats at $10 a half hour ($12 for the GoBoats); the rental shack has closed for 2026 and reopens Memorial Day weekend 2027. There is fishing, a dog park and, on Saturday mornings from June to early September, the farmers market under the pavilion with free yoga at 8:30.
Two pools
The Community Recreation Center at 250 N 11th Street is the year-round answer: an indoor pool with a lazy river, an enclosed water slide, a zero-depth pool with play features, three lap lanes and a 23-person hot tub, all included in daily admission, a punch pass or a membership. The pool opens at 5 am on weekdays, 8 on Saturday and noon on Sunday, and closes at 8, 6 and 5 respectively; the slide and the play features switch on at 10 each morning, and the activity pool is given over to swim lessons 5 to 7 on weekday evenings and 8 to 10 on Saturday mornings. The building also has two gyms and an indoor walking track for strollers in January. It turns ten on October 9, 2026, with free admission for the day.
Chimney Park Pool at 421 Chimney Park Drive is the outdoor pool: lap lanes, a separate kiddie pool half a foot to a foot deep, three shelters and picnic tables, life jackets on request, and a water slide promised for 2027. It is closed for the season now. In 2026 admission was $4 for under-fives and seniors, $5 for youth, $6 for adults, $18 for a family of four and $4 for a twilight swim after 6.
The library
The Windsor Library at 720 3rd Street is the Clearview Library District’s main branch, open 9 to 7 Monday to Thursday, 9 to 5 Friday and Saturday and 1 to 5 on Sunday. The district runs several storytimes a week for ages 0 to 5, in person and online, plus preschool book clubs, a monthly STEAM session for the youngest, yoga storytimes, a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program, and a StoryWalk that alternates every other month between Eastman Park Pond in Windsor and Lakeview Park in Severance. Over the summer the Windsor schedule had a Friday lapsit storytime for babies at 9:30 and a Tuesday Read, Rhyme and Romp at 10; the week’s storytimes, afterschool science sessions, book clubs and teen cooking nights are on the events calendar, and neither of the summer storytimes needed registration. There is also a bookmobile, a Severance branch at 5 Timber Ridge Parkway, and an outpost inside the rec center.
The river: Eastman Park and the trail
Eastman Park, 25 acres at Eastman Park Drive and 7th Street in the south-east corner of town, has a big playground, a picnic shelter, a skate park built in 2003, benches along the river and the pond with the StoryWalk, and it is where Windsor gets onto the Poudre River Trail, the paved path along the Cache la Poudre. From here the Weld County section runs 21 miles east to Island Grove Park in Greeley; west, it joins Larimer County’s River Bluffs Open Space and continues to Fort Collins and Bellvue, 45 continuous miles since the last gap was bridged in June 2026. Just east of the park is Treasure Island Garden, a flower-and-vegetable garden the Town keeps with the Weld County master gardeners. The Town counts more than 40 miles of trail altogether, paved and unpaved.
Free museums on the shore
The Windsor History Museum at 100 N 5th Street is a village of moved buildings on the lake shore: the 1882 train depot, an 1885 one-room schoolhouse, a farmhouse, a chapel and a sugar-beet shack. Admission is free, it opens Thursday to Sunday from late May to early September, and group tours of five or more run year-round. The Historic Halfway Homestead, the old stagecoach stop, has a nature-based playground, an interactive water feature, demonstration gardens and a grain bin turned into a stage.
The Town’s family calendar
The Town’s special-events list runs through the year: the Easter Eggstravaganza, Kids to Park Day and Bike Everywhere Day in spring, a Family Campout, Movies in the Park, the summer concerts and the Fourth of July, the Halloween Carnival at Boardwalk Park and the Pumpkin Plunge in the rec center pool in October, and Windsor Wonderland with Santa’s train and the tree lighting in December, plus a Daddy Daughter Dance and a Mother Son Dance. The ones with published dates are on the events page; if you know of one that is missing, send it in.