Things to Do in Southglenn

The Denver Outlaws joined Major League Lacrosse as an expansion team in 2006, immediately staking out their territory with a Western Conference title and a trip to the league championship. In the years since, they have never once missed the playoffs, even when something good was on TV. From their inception, the Outlaws have marauded the league record books, setting attendance records in their inaugural season and improving from there, with recent Fourth of July games drawing more than 30,000 fans to Sports Authority Field at Mile High. This year’s Independence Day game continues the tradition of fireworks exploding over the field and a wave of apple pie filling flooding the parking lot.

Even though they haven't always played under the same name, or even in the same city, the Avalanche franchise has consistently enjoyed success on the ice. It was 1972 when the Quebec Nordiques joined the now defunct World Hockey Association, which eventually merged with the NHL prior to the 1979-80 season. The Nordiques played a total of 16 seasons in the NHL before moving to Denver, where they became the Avalanche and immediately won the Stanley Cup—the first NHL team ever to do so in their first season after relocation. In 2001, the Avs struck again in dominating fashion, collecting 118 points, reclaiming the sports world's best trophy. In total, the franchise has made 21 playoff appearances, highlighted by a string of 11 straight from 1994–2005.

With a blazing marquee declaring “Hollywood” in towering neon letters, SouthGlenn Stadium 14 invokes the image of classic cinemas while still using the latest moviegoing technology. More than 2,500 high-backed seats cradle viewers across 14 theaters equipped with state-of-the-art Sony Digital 4K projection systems. Nine of these theaters also surround audiences with RealD 3-D systems, allowing them to revel in the thrills of endless snakes-in-a-nut-can scenes. Before films, the SkyboX Bar and Grill offers up a full-service menu of café entrees and craft drinks, including $1 domestic beers, $2 craft beers, and $1 fountain sodas. Entrees and beverages can be delivered to viewers lounging in Premiere Cinema balcony seats or enjoyed in the Skybox lounge.

JumpStreet is an indoor trampoline park where taut floors and angled walls made of springy trampoline surfaces beckon children and adults to bounce back and forth or try aerodynamic flips and gravity-defying leaps. The arena is structured like a skateboard park, though bouncers don’t need any equipment to hop across the wall-to-wall planes or climb up, slide down, or spring off the tilted trampoline walls, which can also be used to recreate the summer Olympics’ popular trampoline belly-flop event. Guests can hop on over to the springy dodgeball courts, where safe, competitive play is enhanced with ample bouncing, and arcades and batting cages offer engaging activities for those who need to rest their feet. Scattered across JumpStreet’s various locations are an assortment of other safe, kinetic activities, including a bull ride, a multicolored maze, and a foam pit.

Former professional motorcycle racer and 20-year veteran street rider Jason Curdy dedicates his company, Full Throttle Riding Academy—a state-sponsored school and recognized training provider of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation—to teaching motorcyclists to ride safely and respect the road. Starting with the two-day Basic Rider Course, students learn to safely maneuver their vehicles on an off-street range and study riding regulations within the classroom. By the end of the course, they’ll have the knowledge and command of their bikes necessary to start riding. Riders can also brush up on their street skills in the half-day Experienced Rider Course, which incorporates more advanced riding techniques, showing them how to optimize lane position and how not to read a book at the wheel.

A year after Scott Kerkmans created the role of Chief Beer Officer for the Four Points by Sheraton hotels, it began to get around that Denver was the "Napa Valley of Beer." As NPR later reports, the rumor is a culmination of a life spent steeped in beer culture. Before creating Colorado Beer Week and beating out more than 7,000 applicants for the title of CBO, Kerkmans was on the production side at Alaskan Brewing Company. He’s since authored articles for Draft Magazine, taught at Cook Street School of Fine Cooking, and judged burped renditions of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Great American Beer Festival. He shares his taste in microbrews with more than 140 hotels and restaurants worldwide through the Four Point's beer program, but keeps his feet planted firmly on his home turf during his nine-day spring festival, which highlights the finest pours from Colorado breweries including New Belgium, Oskar Blues, and Ska Brewing Company.