Things to Do in Farmington

At any given time, Momentum Indoor Climbing probably has more visitors clung to its walls than standing on its floor. With 20,000 square feet of climbable terrain, the indoor climbing gym challenges sportspeople of all ability levels. During lead climbs, routes up to 50 feet high guide climbers over verticals, slabs, overhangs, and arêtes. Visitors can also develop skills in a safe environment at top-roping stations, as well as a bouldering area outfitted with foam and vinyl padding for soft landings. Crack climbing challenges the most seasoned of mountaineers, recreating the fissures found in desert sandstone and the crows' feet on the faces of Mount Rushmore’s presidents.

Momentum's team members also lead skill-building classes and youth programs, and help clients stay in shape with fitness training that incorporates yoga and Pilates, cardio conditioning, and strength training. Additional amenities range from locker rooms to daycare to companion pet rocks.

The experienced instructors at The Front Climbing Club's summer camp guide restless, rock-bound children ages 6–14 through a work-week-long clinic in cave climbing, wall scaling, and skill building. Strength- and agility-improving activities on the indoor facility's climbing walls and caves transform scrambling amateur lizards into scaling connoisseurs, developing skill sets and learning to respect gravity like a bully with the power to de-pants the solar system. Group work, games, and competitions elevate the fun and encourage team building, and an emphasis on safety and equipment use ensures educated climbing. Campers learn to elevate their problem solving skills as they work together to plan their way around obstacles, simultaneously honing their motor skills, balance, and ability to turn adrenaline into sugar cookies. The camp runs weekly, Monday through Friday, and campers can attend four-hour classes in the morning or the afternoon.

The whirring carnival attractions inside Jungle Jim's Playland never pack up and leave town. Instead, the year-round kiddie complex keeps its stable of rides completely indoors at its climate-controlled facility. Proud parents look on or join the action for free as kids 11 and younger enjoy jungle patrol cars, a ground-level roller coaster, and a traditional carousel. In all, seven rides and a multilevel jungle gym provide all the fun of an outdoor carnival without having to endure sticky, summer heat and long carnie lectures about 17th-century Italian operas. Kids split up their bumper car sessions with Skee-Ball and other arcade games or sit at picnic tables and nosh on a house-made pizza from The Jungle Cafe concession stand.

The surfer was getting dangerously close to the crest. It was a huge wave, spanning 34 feet, but the last thing he wanted was to bail in front of his friends. Leaning into the water and weaving side to side, he kept his balance for just a few moments longer before tumbling onto the soft mats and safe bail area of the Flowrider. He'd be ready for the real thing come summer. This is just one of the adventures that await thrill-seekers-in-training at the Salomon Center. Away from the Flowrider's manmade surf, top-rope belay systems cradle climbers as they scale iRock's craggy, gray peaks. Incorporating holds that change monthly, these indoor climbing walls shoot upwards to heights of 55 feet. Alternatively, bouldering areas stay closer to the ground and exchange ropes for padded surfaces. Meanwhile, iFLY exchanges footholds for a column of high-speed, shooting air, which elevates would-be fliers to simulate the feeling of skydiving or being kicked out of a moving UFO.

Open Memorial Day through Labor Day, North Shore Aquatic Center features a pool, waterslides, and other water-related diversions to stoke family-friendly fun all summer long. In the center of a shallow pool, a brightly colored jungle gym invites young hydrophiles to unleash their inner amphibians on its slides and spraying fountains. Elsewhere, a sinuous powder-blue standalone slide whisks giggling riders along its curves and bends before jettisoning them out into the pool, while both high and low diving boards test courage and cannonball splash trajectories. North Shore also holds classes for yoga and Zumba, in addition to lifeguard classes, and American Red Cross swimming lessons, which impart the basics of paddling and mermaid sign language.

Tiffany Crosswhite’s journey toward becoming a Pilates instructor began, oddly enough, at the Ice Capades, where the lights, music, and graceful glides inspired her to pursue a career as a professional ice skater. As this career progressed, she eventually became a coach for young skaters, constantly hunting for a form of exercise that would help them grow stronger without harming their developing bodies. Thanks to a gift certificate given to her by her mother, Tiffany discovered Pilates and quickly fell in love with the low-impact, powerful-results exercise. In fact, she was so head over heels that she opened her own studio.

Beneath a fun, globular chandelier, Tiffany infuses her Pilates routines with conditioning exercises drawn from her years of figure-skating training. She, along with her team of passionate instructors, help students tighten core muscles using mat exercises and the fleet of Pilates machines that line the walls, which include Reformers, Wunda Chairs, and bionic replicas of Joseph Pilates himself.