Family & Childcare in Denver

Denver-area families have access to America's only downtown amusement park, one of the largest natural history museums in the country, and Colorado's oldest zoo.

Every item on this page clears one bar: not commonplace, not everywhere. These are real, named resources with their actual verified designation or certification — not a generic "has a hospital" or "has a gym" list. We left out anything we couldn't independently verify or that didn't clearly clear that bar, the same honesty rule used throughout this site — a shorter, accurate list beats a padded one.

One of the largest natural history museums in the country

Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Founded in 1897, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science occupies a 716,000-square-foot building holding more than one million objects in its collections, drawing roughly 700,000 visitors a year as the leading science-education resource for the entire Rocky Mountain region.

Source: Denver Museum of Nature & Science

America's only downtown amusement park

Elitch Gardens

Elitch Gardens, founded in 1890 and Colorado's oldest amusement park, moved to downtown Denver in 1994 — becoming, in its own words, America's only downtown theme park, and the first amusement park built in a major U.S. urban core in more than 30 years.

Source: Elitch Gardens — Park History

Colorado's oldest zoo, founded with a single rescued bear cub

Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance

Founded in 1896 with a single orphaned black bear cub, Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance is Colorado's oldest zoo. Its 1918 Bear Mountain exhibit made it the first American zoo to use Carl Hagenbeck's barless, moated enclosure design — the concept behind modern naturalistic zoo habitats. Today it cares for more than 3,000 animals across 450+ species.

Source: Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance — History

A 9-acre campus drawing half a million visitors a year

Children's Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus

Open since 1973, the Children's Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus welcomes roughly half a million visitors a year to its 9-acre campus of hands-on exhibits, and was named a runner-up for Best Children's Museum in USA Today's 10Best readers' poll.

Source: Children's Museum of Denver

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