Skaters finally got onto Evergreen Lake on Jan. 23, 2026. The Canyon Courier called it the latest opening the lake had ever had. Two weeks later, on Feb. 6, warm weather and bad ice closed it again. CBS Colorado later reported that the season never came back. It ran two weeks in total, the shortest the town has seen.
The Evergreen Park & Recreation District could have treated that as one bad winter. It didn't. The board has taken its first steps toward a skating rink that doesn't depend on the lake freezing. Buchanan Park will soon have an indoor fieldhouse. And the December events that fill the Lake House calendar were never built around ice to begin with. Put those together and Evergreen's winter now runs on a plan that counts natural lake ice as a bonus, not the foundation.
Two weeks of ice, and who noticed
Lay the last few seasons side by side and the drift is easy to see. It isn't a straight line, though.
| Season | What the lake did |
|---|---|
| 2021–22 | Open by New Year's Eve, with the expected freeze now in late November |
| 2022–23 | One of the best ice years in memory, with skating into early March |
| 2024–25 | Closed for the season Feb. 19 after warm spells left the surface rough |
| 2025–26 | Opened Jan. 23, closed Feb. 6, about two weeks of skating |
The Colorado Sun reported in 2022 that the lake crew used to expect the freeze to start in late October and hoped to open by mid-December. By then, those expectations had moved to a late-November freeze and a New Year's Eve opening. In 2024 the Sun described a normal season as about two months, from late December through February. Last winter fit roughly a quarter of that window.
The short season reached well past the rink. The Canyon Courier listed what the late freeze knocked off EPRD's schedule. The 15th annual Pond Hockey Championship Tournament and the New Year's Eve Icefest were canceled, and the New Year's Day Evergreen Lake Plunge moved to March 1. Lake House manager Krista Emrich told the paper she had seen openings as early as Dec. 22 and as late as Dec. 31, "but never anything like this." She described a ripple effect too. "People often come up, skate and go to lunch," she said. "But it's been quiet. I can't get my high school staff hours. It affects everyone."
Why a warm week can undo a cold month
Natural ice in Evergreen is a high bar to clear. 9News, citing EPRD, reported that the lake needs 12 inches of ice before it opens to the public and 16 inches before a Zamboni can groom it. Depth isn't the whole story. When warm spells closed the lake on Feb. 19 in a recent season, the Canyon Courier reported the ice was still about 20 inches thick. The problem was its surface condition. The Sun profiled the crew that works the lake overnight, spraying water under the stars to fill cracks. Last February that kind of work was losing ground. "We're going to water and try to do some icing to get it open for the long weekend," Emrich told the Courier. "But it's been so warm we're losing ice."
The district's own wording for this winter is careful. EPRD's public ice skating page, updated Oct. 20, 2026, says 2026/27 season details will come out once there's an opening day. It also says EPRD can't guarantee opening days, hours or ice quality. The page lists a $200 season pass and a $120 punch pass covering 10 admissions, both with no refunds, transfers or credits. Neither was open for purchase yet when the page was updated. Single admission is listed at $15, or $20 with skate rental. If you're thinking about a pass, a two-week season and a two-month season cost the same.
The rink EPRD is starting to price out
This is where the planning changes. The Canyon Courier reported that, "with ice season on Evergreen Lake growing ever shorter," the EPRD board approved $50,000 for staff to buy a secondhand dasher board system. Those are the low walls that enclose a rink. The district also plans a feasibility study. The rink would most likely be outdoors and uncovered, and it would need a refrigeration system to make ice independent of the weather.
Executive director Cory Vander Veen told the Courier where it could go:
- On the grass area at the Lake House
- At Wulf Recreation Center, on the site of the old skate park
- Possibly under a roof, with natural or refrigerated ice
"This would be for hockey, ice skaters, broomball curling — any of our program users that need some high quality ice," he said. "We'll still keep using the lake as weather allows, but this would give us an extended season." That sentence captures the plan. The lake stays, and the season stops depending on it.
Some residents want more than that. A community group called Rally the Rink has been pushing for an indoor facility. The Courier reported that the group's survey of 185 respondents found 98% in favor of an ice rink, with most preferring an indoor one that could offer closer-to-home hockey and year-round public skating. Its case rests partly on the drive. Hockey families now head "down the hill" to metro-area rinks for practice. Vander Veen addressed that directly. "I know hockey proponents want an indoor, year-round facility, but that's a tough one to justify."
So far, the dasher-board money and a planned study are all that's committed. Site, cost and timing are still open questions.
Buchanan Park takes on the indoor side of winter
Ice is one piece of winter. A place to stay active when it's 15 degrees and snowing is the other, and that piece has a contractor and a schedule.
The Courier reported that the EPRD board picked Centennial-based A.D. Miller to build a fieldhouse at the Buchanan Park recreation complex. It approved a maximum cost of $3.4 million, plus up to $400,000 in contingency. According to EPRD's Buchanan Park project page, the building will include a 14,000 to 20,000 square foot indoor gym. It will have two to three dividable courts for pickleball, tennis, volleyball, basketball or turf sports, along with an indoor walking track. Completion is expected in spring or summer 2027. The walking track may matter most in a mountain winter. Laps under a roof don't depend on how icy the trail is.
The Courier reported a public open house on the fieldhouse plans for Nov. 9 at 6 p.m., in the Bergen Peak room at Buchanan Park Recreation Center. Before you go, check EPRD's site to confirm it's still on.
The rest of the park has more going on as well:
- All Wheels Park and open-air pavilion. Both broke ground this spring and summer, on May 26 and June 10. EPRD's October 2026 update described them as approaching completion. The 2,250-square-foot pavilion is designed as a stage for music and performing arts. EPRD still lists fall 2026 completion for both and calls the schedule preliminary.
- Aquatics expansion. An eight-lane, 25-yard competition lap pool is planned, with a springboard diving board and a natatorium enclosure that has indoor/outdoor garage doors. Completion is expected in spring 2027.
- Fieldhouse. Construction starts this winter.
EPRD credits property tax contributions and voters' approval of ballot measure 6C in 2023 for making the work possible.
A December calendar that never needed ice
The Lake House has quietly gone ahead without ice already. Look at what's scheduled there and downtown this December. None of it requires 12 inches of frozen water.
- Dec. 4, 5–9 p.m. The free Downtown Evergreen Holiday Walk starts with a tree lighting at Evergreen Lake House. It then moves downtown for Santa, performances, fire pits and shops open as a walking mall.
- Dec. 5, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Center for the Arts Evergreen's free Winterfest artisan market and holiday festival, with crafts, food trucks, hot cocoa and live holiday music.
- Dec. 12, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Frostival at Evergreen Lake House, with a holiday market, crafts and live music.
- Dec. 12, 4–7 p.m. Second Saturdays downtown, with a holiday shopping theme and shops and galleries open late.
- Dec. 18–20. The Evergreen Players' "A Christmas Carol" at Center Stage, 27608 Fireweed Drive.
Getting downtown should be easier than it was all summer. CDOT's $6.5 million resurfacing of Highway 74 between Evergreen Lake and Lair o' the Bear Park was on track for its original fall 2026 finish, the Canyon Courier reported. Most downtown work was wrapping up first.
If the lake does freeze, EPRD's winter lineup there includes skating lessons, youth and adult pickup pond hockey, ice fishing rentals and icebocce. The skating hotline is 720-880-1391. Call it before you load the car.
We follow EPRD's rink study and the Buchanan Park work as they move along. If you'd like help getting connected in Evergreen, whether that's finding the people behind these projects or settling into a new routine up the hill, reach out to Denver Does It. Start With Us.
