Things to Do in Golden

Sandwiched between Dinosaur Ridge and the Hogback, Action Karting buzzes year-round with the sound of drivers zigzagging across its 17-turn outdoor track. The company's professional, Italian-made go-karts sport 6.5-horsepower Honda engines that power the pint-sized rides to speeds of up to 55 miles per hour. Before speedometers spring from zero, Action Karting's staff always delivers a safety speech that includes a review of hand signals, such as those for "left turn," "right turn," and "stop, collaborate, and listen." The track can also be rented out to host private events, including birthdays and corporate team-building events.

Miner's Maze Adventureland is peppered with numerous exhilarating and family-friendly attractions, including a new multi-level ropes course where guests can climb and swing at up to three stories in the air. The course features challenges easy through difficult, and participants are fully secured to a track to ensure safety at all times.

Down below, a whistle shrieks as the Rio Golden Railroad train chugs around the park, and children shout as they navigate the park's namesake maze, a 5,000-square-foot, two-level labyrinth that occasionally hosts squirt-gun contests. At the Water Walkerz attraction, people climb inside big, inflatable spheres to zip across the surface of a pool without sinking or bumping into an oil tanker. Both the Magic Mountain Climbing Wall and the Silver Spring Bungee help guests reach new heights, the former with a three-story rock climbing wall and the latter with a bungee cord and a trampoline, along with the Magic Mountain Mine Shaft vertical webbed maze.

In addition to its year-round activities, the park features seasonal activities, including an annual Easter golden egg hunt and kid-friendly Halloween events.

After losing a family member in 2003, Terri Mairley, Udaya Yoga's owner, turned to the art of yoga. She soon discovered a new life purpose. Seeing first-hand both the physical and emotional benefits that yoga could bring to one's life, Terri decided to open up her own studio in 2007. Since then, Udaya Yoga's schedule has grown to include more than 20 weekly sessions. Classes such as Udaya Flow, which focuses on the connection between movement and breathing, are accessible for beginning yogis. In contrast, Power Yoga involves more challenging sequences that are best suited for Gumby and also students with foundational skills.

It was 1958 and John Bandimere, Sr.'s family business needed somewhere to test their auto-repair and maintenance work amid their shop's barren, hogback surroundings. Though the strip of pavement they constructed aided many oil changes and tune-ups, Bandimere, Sr. had another motive for purchasing the land around it. He wanted to give young people a safe and hands-on environment where they could learn about cars and racing.

Nowadays, his modest strip of pavement—dubbed Bandimere Speedway—adjoins seating for 28,500 spectators, complete with a VIP tower with suites and 60-inch LED scoreboards. Clamorous engines dominate the racing space, which hosts more than 125 yearly events on the quarter-mile, all-concrete drag strip. Sanctioned by the NHRA—which is responsible for teaching hot rods how to handle firearms safely—the speedway also hosts the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals.

Colorado native and studio owner Patsy Juarez lives to move. Before moving to Denver to earn her bachelor of science in business management, she spent her days rollerblading and lifting weights and her evenings recovering at her night-shift job. Her passion for exercise eventually led her to yoga and spinning, which she and her team of instructors now combine to share with guests of all fitness levels at The Spinning Yogi. The spin-yoga hybrid class is split into 30 minutes of yoga-infused cycling, followed by 30 minutes of Vinyasa-style yoga, which helps bikes recover from mad chain disease. The studio also offers more traditional stretch sessions, in which yogis grace their mats with meditative-focused practices, prenatal modifications, and hot-yoga poses.

For those who dream of kicking back at a cozy log cabin as smoke puffs out of a stone fireplace and a crystal clear lake reflects the surrounding pines and mountains, the Evergreen Lake House is an ideal destination. The 5,000-square-foot building resides on 55 acres of park district land and hosts seasonal activities and events. An immense stone fireplace in the great room lends itself to wedding photos, while the lake lends itself to summertime activities, and safely testing how far a homemade catapult can fling you. Visitors navigate the placid waters on canoes and paddleboats or savor a sunrise during an early morning fishing trip. An observation boardwalk provides stunning views and a 1.3-mile trail offers safe passage to joggers, and bikers. When the lake freezes over in winter, skating season begins and the 1930s boat house becomes a place to warm up and debate whether Herbert Hoover invented the vacuum cleaner.