Elitch Gardens Theme Park
— a hundred and thirty-six summers and counting.
Not only on a wall.
“A summer park older than most American cities west of the Mississippi. Mary and John Elitch opened the original gardens in north-west Denver in 1890, with a small zoo and the first summer-stock theatre west of the river. The park relocated to its current sixty-eight-acre site in the Platte Valley in 1995. Twister II, rebuilt from the original wooden Mister Twister coaster, still runs every season.
Elitch Gardens Theme Park, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Elitch Gardens sits on roughly 68 acres in the Platte Valley, just north-west of downtown Denver, between Interstate 25, Speer Boulevard, and the South Platte River. The park opened in 1890 as Elitch Zoological Gardens at 38th and Tennyson in north-west Denver, founded by Mary and John Elitch. It relocated to the current downtown site in 1995. The grounds include around forty-five rides, a water park called Island Kingdom, and a clear sightline to Empower Field at Mile High from the upper rides.
The season runs from late April through October, with Island Kingdom open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. The headline coaster is Twister II, a wooden ride rebuilt in 1995 from the 1965 Mister Twister design that ran at the old north-west park. Mind Eraser, a suspended steel inverter, joined the lineup in 1997. Fright Fest overlays the park on October weekends, the busiest stretch of the late season. Elitch Gardens has run as a Denver summer fixture for more than a century and a quarter.
The main gate sits at 2000 Elitch Circle, two blocks from Union Station and within walking distance of most downtown Denver hotels. RTD light rail and the A-Line train from Denver International Airport both stop at Union Station. Parking is on-site for a fee. Single-day tickets and season passes are sold through the park's website; the park honours Premier Parks-affiliated season passes from sister parks. Bag policies and ride-height rules are posted at the entrance and updated each season.