Black Forest, CO Outdoor Activities

Since 1989, Play It Again Sports has been keeping sports green, recycling gently used athletic equipment into new-to-you gear. Products from brands such as Nike, Adidas, and Wilson make up each store's enormous selection of new and recycled gear, which is replenished daily with goods for a wide selection of sports that range from baseball and football to snowboarding, skiing, and ice skating. Treadmills and exercise bikes equip bodies with muscular suits of armor, and pintsize and adolescent equipment arms youngsters with protective padding until they eat enough bologna to grow muscles of their own. Knowledgeable staffers man each location, ready to answer questions, arrange gear deliveries or pickups, and even sharpen skates or wax snowboards. To ensure their stock remains robust, they also encourage athletes to collect their lightly used gear—including bicycles—and bring it into a local store to either sell or trade.

For more than 15 years, the company’s Seattle outpost has fused the best aspects of a family-owned business and a national franchise. The friendly staffers can pinpoint the best gear for hitting nearby ski slopes, but they're also able to tap into a nationwide stock of new and gently used sporting goods.

Voted “Best Ice Rink” by the Colorado Springs Gazette in 2009, and sweeping the category ever since, The Sertich Ice Center houses an NHL-sized ice rink and seating for up to 2,000 inside a 35,000 square foot facility. The Center regularly hosts open skating for the public, as well as birthday party packages, lessons, figure skating, and youth and adult hockey.

Looking to put a new spin on a classic family activity, the minds behind Glowgolf decided to give the game a phosphorescent update. Incandescent courses place friends and family amid a tropical-fantasy golf world of neon orange, green, and violet surroundings. Players putt luminous orbs through vibrant treasure chests and glimmering windmills while negotiating tricky obstacles near walls portraying black-light-lit aquatic scenes. With more than 20 locations spread over 10 states, Glowgolf's fluorescent labyrinths challenge human players and traveling gnomes.

At 14,000 square feet, the Bank of America City Center dwarfs the famed ice rink at New York City's Rockefeller Center and provides visitors with plenty of room to skate for hours. All winter long, the rink hosts public sessions as well as Learn-to-Skate classes for beginners and drop-in refresher classes for adults. Located in Kennedy Plaza, skaters can enjoy a day of gliding against a backdrop of Providence landmarks during open skate sessions, group skating and birthday parties. After graceful spins across the ice, guests can indulge in cocoa, coffee, and delicious eats from downtown Providence's nearby local haunts.

As part of the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, located at the historic Chelsea Piers, the Golf Club perches over the same port that once welcomed ships into New York City. Now, golfers tee up in the driving range's 52 heated and weather-protected stalls, which overlook the glinting waters of the Hudson River. Automatic tee-up systems position balls for launch across the 200-yard, net-enclosed fairway. A putting green allows patrons to improve their short game, and two Full Swing simulators encourage them to take hacks in virtual environs, transporting them to famous courses across the country or fifth-grade birthday parties where they missed the piñata.

Children and adults alike can enlist in Golf Club at Chelsea Piers’ classes, which stratify students by experience level. The 13-member coaching staff includes PGA and LPGA professionals, and sessions take place in a 2,000-square-foot teaching facility.

Gleaming under the pale light of the winter sun, blades slice along the smooth surface of Resort Center Ice Skating Rink, sending icy dust spraying in their wake. Surrounded by the quaint, Bavarian-style walls of the Village shopping center, the outdoor oval beckons guests wishing to discover what ice skating was like before indoor rinks confined it and ice sharks rendered neighborhood ponds off-limits. Periodically throughout each public-skate session, a zamboni buffs the subzero sheet to present skaters with a surface as smooth and gentle as the festive tunes filling the air. Guests circle around hand-in-hand, remarking on the surrounding Christmas lights and fir trees while fledgling skaters focus on their footing and grasp complimentary ice-skate trainers for balance.

Between pirouettes or mad dashes across the rink, hands can warm up with steaming mugs of hot chocolate in the skate house. Nearby, in the Village shopping center, more balanced meals can be found at Food for Thought or Kristi’s Café, refueling skaters before they explore more than 40 winter-gear hubs and gift shops.