On March 1, 2026, about 100 people in costumes jumped off the docks at the Evergreen Lake House into open water. It was the Evergreen Lake Plunge, two months late. Usually, as CBS Colorado reported, jumpers go through a hole cut in ice 10 or more inches thick. Last winter only a fraction of that ice ever formed, so they jumped from the docks set up by the Lake House. Evergreen Fire Rescue stood by, and the event still raised money for the Active 4 All Evergreen Foundation and programs like INSPIRE.
The 2026/27 winter is about to start the same way. Evergreen's biggest cold-weather events are already scheduled, with registration open, on a lake that has no opening day yet. Meanwhile, the Evergreen Park & Recreation District has started paying for the parts of a rink that wouldn't need the lake to freeze.
Last Winter Set a Record Nobody Wanted
Evergreen Lake opened for skating on Jan. 23, 2026, its latest opening ever, and closed on Feb. 6 because warm weather had left the ice in poor shape. Canyon Courier reported that Lake House manager Krista Emrich described the normal range this way: "There have been years we've been able to open Dec. 22, and years where the first time we skated was Dec. 31, but never anything like this."
CBS Colorado says the lake usually opens for skating around Dec. 15. Last winter it opened more than five weeks after that and lasted two weeks. CBS later called it the shortest skating season the lake has ever had, and ice fishing was off the table too because the ice was too thin.
The calendar took the hit. The Pond Hockey Championship was canceled, the New Year's Eve Icefest was canceled, and the Lake Plunge moved to March. Winterfest went on, but the Mushies Cup tubing races were dropped because of the weather and low sign-ups. Emrich told the Courier that the quiet spread beyond the lake: "People often come up, skate and go to lunch. But it's been quiet. I can't get my high school staff hours."
The year before was cut short too. Evergreen Lake closed for the season on Feb. 19, 2025, after a warm spell left the ice surface rough and unsafe. Thickness isn't the only issue. In a Canyon Courier report on an earlier season, the ice was about 20 inches deep when the lake closed, five times Colorado Parks and Wildlife's general four-inch safety guideline. Warm days followed by snow insulate the softer ice and make it hard to groom.
This Winter Starts With a Pass and No Date
EPRD's public skating page, updated Oct. 28, 2026, says details for the 2026/27 season will come out once there's an opening day. Passes are already on sale:
- 2026/27 Season Pass: $200, all ages, with skate admission and rentals included.
- 2026/27 Punch Pass: $120 for 10 admissions, priced as 10 for the price of 8 and shareable across the family. Kids 3 and under skate free. Rentals cost extra on site.
Both passes are sold only online, and EPRD says there will be no refunds, transfers or credits because it can't guarantee opening days, hours or ice quality. The punch pass works out to $12 an admission, so the season pass covers about 17 visits' worth of punches before rentals are counted. Last winter, the whole season lasted two weeks.
EPRD's holiday hours table lists Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 18, 2027, all as TBD, weather and ice permitting. The district also lists youth and adult skating lessons, pickup hockey and ice-fishing rentals as coming back this season, without registration details yet.
The Dates Already Set on the Lake
Some winter traditions here only need the Lake House. Others need solid ice. Here's how the season lines up as of mid-November, next to how each event fared last winter.
| Event | 2026/27 date | Where it happens | Last winter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holiday Walk, 34th annual | Dec. 4, 2026, 5 to 9 p.m. | Tree lighting at Evergreen Lake House, then downtown | No ice needed |
| Second Saturday holiday shopping | Dec. 12, 2026 | Downtown Evergreen | No ice needed |
| Icefest | Dec. 31, 2026, noon to 6 p.m., per the Evergreen Chamber calendar | Family skating on Evergreen Lake | Canceled |
| Evergreen Lake Plunge | Jan. 1, 2027 | Evergreen Lake | Moved to March 1, held in open water |
| Pond Hockey Championship | Jan. 30 and 31, 2027 | Multiple rinks on Evergreen Lake | Canceled |
The Downtown Evergreen Holiday Walk is the safest bet. It starts at the Lake House tree lighting, then moves downtown for Santa photos, performances, fire pits, shopping and a walking mall closed to cars. Nothing about it depends on ice.
Pond hockey has the most riding on the lake. EPRD's 2027 Pond Hockey Championship page shows registration opened Oct. 1, 2026, at $750 per team in the Competitive, Intermediate and Novice divisions, with 4-on-4 games starting at 7 a.m. each day. The page calls the 2027 event the 15th annual, the same number last winter's canceled tournament had. It also notes the tournament can be canceled for weather or poor ice.
EPRD Is Buying the Walls Before It Has a Rink
The district's answer to all this has started small. Canyon Courier reported that, "with ice season on Evergreen Lake growing ever shorter," the EPRD board approved $50,000 for staff to buy a secondhand dasher board system, the low walls around a rink. It also plans a feasibility study for what would most likely be an outdoor, uncovered rink. A rink like that also needs a refrigeration system, typically a chiller that pumps cold liquid through pipes or mats under the ice so the water freezes from the bottom up.
Two sites have been floated: the grass area at the Lake House, and the old skate park at Wulf Recreation Center. EPRD executive director Cory Vander Veen described the goal to the Courier:
"This would be for hockey, ice skaters, broomball curling — any of our program users that need some high quality ice. We'll still keep using the lake as weather allows, but this would give us an extended season."
So the lake stays in use, and a rink would add skating days on either side of whatever window the lake gives each year. Vander Veen also said a roof and either natural or refrigerated ice are possibilities. He called a year-round indoor facility "a tough one to justify."
An indoor rink is exactly what the community group Rally for the Rink has been asking for. Founders Brad Strong and Joe Blackwell held their first public meeting on May 14 at Wulf Recreation Center, where more than 30 residents turned out. The group's early survey drew 185 responses, and 98% said Evergreen needs an ice rink. Bringing youth and adult hockey closer to home topped the list of reasons, with year-round public skating close behind, and respondents strongly preferred an indoor rink. The same Canyon Courier coverage of that meeting noted concerns about the water a facility like that would use, and about land and zoning.
The group called the board's recent moves "exciting milestones" and plans to raise money for both the current early plans and its long-term goal of a permanent indoor rink. Residents can share opinions or volunteer for its research work at rinkrally.com.
A fieldhouse comes first
The district's next big indoor building isn't for ice. The board picked Centennial-based contractor A.D. Miller to build a fieldhouse at Buchanan Park, with a maximum cost of $3.4 million plus up to $400,000 in contingency. Plans call for a 14,000- to 20,000-square-foot gym with two to three dividable courts for pickleball, tennis, volleyball, basketball and turf sports, plus an indoor walking track. EPRD expects construction to start this winter and finish in spring or summer 2027. For a family whose winter used to center on the lake, that's a guaranteed indoor option that doesn't depend on a cold snap.
Before You Drive to the Lake This Winter
- Call the skating hotline first. EPRD's skating page lists the boating and skating hotline at 720-880-1391, and Canyon Courier's report on last winter's closure told skaters to check it first.
- Know where to park on busy days. The Evergreen Lake House is at 29612 Upper Bear Creek Road. Parking there is first come, first served and fills quickly, so EPRD runs free weekend and holiday shuttles from Stagecoach Park at 3229 El Pinal Dr.
- Pick a pass with last winter in mind. Neither pass can be refunded, and the season pass covers about 17 punches' worth of visits.
- Treat Jan. 30 and 31 as tentative. Team registration has been open since Oct. 1, 2026, and EPRD's own page notes the event depends on the ice.
- Save Dec. 4 no matter what. The Holiday Walk starts at the Lake House tree lighting at 5 p.m., whether or not the lake has frozen.
Whether the lake freezes in mid-December or late January, the Holiday Walk tree lighting at the Lake House on Dec. 4 is a good night to be out in Evergreen. If this winter has your family thinking about what comes next, whether that's a home closer to the lake or room for a growing hockey player's gear, Brad and Shanna at Next Chapter Partners are happy to talk it through over cocoa. Start Your Next Chapter.
