What do Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, have in common in Washington Park this year? Saturday is the last Saturday you can rent a swan boat on the lake. That same afternoon, the 1000 block of South Gaylord hosts Trick or Treat Street. Sunday is the last day the boat and bike rental booth is open before it closes for winter.
So one weekend covers both halves of the neighborhood's fall. The park winds down on a fixed date. Gaylord fills the weeks after that with a reopened anchor restaurant and two street events. Below is how the handoff works and what changed this year.
The Lake Runs on a City Clock This Year
This is the first year the city has run the rentals itself. Denver ended its contract with Wheel Fun Rentals in early 2026, after more than 20 years. Washington Park's new Adventure Hub opened in early June, ahead of City Park's. A Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson told the Denver Post that running it in-house costs less and gives the city more control over how it works.
That control includes the schedule. Summer hours at Washington Park were 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. The fall season runs August 24 through November 1, 2026, with much shorter hours:
- Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Monday through Friday: 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- Last rental: one hour before close
- Early close: the booth closes 45 minutes early if no one has rented in the last hour
- After November 1: closed for the winter, and also closed on city holidays
On a weekday, the last rental goes out at 7 p.m. That leaves a three-and-a-half-hour window after school or work. If the booth is quiet late in the day, it may close sooner.
Prices are a flat fee per item, not per person. Stand-up paddleboards and single kayaks are $15 an hour. Swan, dragon and duck pedal boats hold up to four people and cost $35 an hour. On land, a single beach cruiser is $15 an hour, and the six-seat surrey bike, which the city calls a "stretch limousine," is $45 an hour. So a family of four on a pedal boat pays the same $35 as two people.
Counting this one, that leaves five weekends of rentals: October 3–4, 10–11, 17–18, 24–25, and Halloween weekend.
October in the Park, Week by Week
The flower beds go before the boats do. Denver Parks and Recreation's general horticulture guidance says elaborate flower displays come out in early October. The city hasn't posted a specific 2026 date for Washington Park's gardens, so if you want one more look, go this week.
The rest of the month has a few dated events:
| Date | What | Where | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat–Sun, Oct. 3–4 | South Denver Artists Open Studio Tour, 20-plus studios, three in West Washington Park | Self-guided, across south Denver | 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Mon, Oct. 12 | Free Cycling Without Age trishaw ride around the park, listed by FANS | Starts at the Boathouse, 701 S. Franklin St. | 10 a.m.–noon |
| Sat, Oct. 31 | Trick or Treat Street | 1000 block of S. Gaylord St. | 3–6 p.m. |
| Sun, Nov. 1 | Last day of Adventure Hub rentals | Washington Park | 10 a.m.–8 p.m. |
| Sat–Sun, Nov. 21–22 | Firefly Handmade Holiday Market | Old South Gaylord Street | 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
The West Washington Park Neighborhood Association lists the studio tour this weekend, which also makes it the first weekend of October rentals. FANS, Friends and Neighbors of Washington Park, starts the October 12 trishaw ride at the Boathouse. That's the same lakeside spot where the rental season ends three weeks later.
After November 1, the park's organized calendar empties out, and the rest of the fall happens on Gaylord.
The Corner That Came Back at 1096 S. Gaylord
Gaylord can carry that load this year because its biggest corner is open again. Wash Park Grille closed for good in February 2025. In October 2025, the building at 1096 S. Gaylord St. sold for $6 million to Aaron Grant, a Wash Park resident who owns Park Coworking on the same block, and Kris Johnson, a Hilltop resident with an office on South Gaylord. They own the new restaurant, Wash Park Social, with chef Bart Hickey and Justin Martinez. Hickey told BusinessDen that the interior build-out cost between $1 million and $1.5 million, covering new floors, ceilings, walls, furniture and equipment.
Westword listed it in its roundup of April 2026 openings. That makes this its first fall. In March, Hickey described where the money went:
"A lot of our investment went into the things you see right when you walk in the door."
He meant the horseshoe bar at the entrance and a room with more booths than the Grille had. His plan for the menu was about 75% familiar dishes and 25% more adventurous ones. Ingredients come mostly from nearby sources, including grains from Rebel Bread in West Wash Park and whiskey from Laws Whiskey House in Platt Park. The current menu online lists Rocky Mountain grilled octopus, salmon crudo, and a crispy chicken sandwich.
The posted hours line up well with the park's fall schedule:
- Saturday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Sunday: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Friday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
On weekends, the restaurant opens at 10 a.m., the same time the rental booth does. It also stays open after the booth closes at 8 p.m. The restaurant's website lists two covered, dog-friendly patios. Covered seating is useful once fall evenings turn cold.
Next door, Hickey planned a second concept for the former Agave Taco Bar space. It's a 700-square-foot street taco and margarita spot called Provecho's, and in March he expected it to open about two months after Wash Park Social. The South Gaylord merchants' directory now lists Provecho at 2217 E. Mississippi Ave. The listing doesn't give an opening date or hours, so check before you walk over.
When the Street Becomes the Venue
The park has fixed facilities that shut down for winter. Gaylord's fall events instead use the street itself.
Trick or Treat Street on Saturday, October 31, runs 3 to 6 p.m. on the 1000 block. Local businesses hand out candy, and the event includes a costume contest, red-carpet photos and a photographer. The event page doesn't say whether the street will be closed to cars, so plan as if it's open. The rental booth runs until 8 p.m. that day. You could go out on the lake in the late morning, trick-or-treat on Gaylord in the afternoon, and still have time for a last ride before the Sunday close.
Three weeks later, Firefly Handmade's Holiday Market fills Old South Gaylord on November 21 and 22, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with more than 80 artisans and live music. The organizer says the street is closed during the market, entry is free, and the merchants' association runs a bar. The organizer's page gives those dates without a year, so check them closer to the weekend. If they hold for 2026, that's the weekend before Thanksgiving and the last dated neighborhood event on the calendar this fall.
The South Gaylord association's events page currently lists Trick or Treat Street as its only upcoming event. The Labor Day block party, September 5 through 7, already happened. With that, Gaylord's fall calendar has three anchors: the Labor Day block party at the start, Trick or Treat Street at the end of October, and the Firefly market before Thanksgiving.
Getting There on the New Alameda
If you're crossing Alameda Avenue to get to the north end of the park this fall, the road is different. In August, Denver's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure started a temporary test on about a mile of Alameda, from Franklin to Lincoln streets. The test cuts the road to one travel lane in each direction with dedicated turn pockets, lowers the speed limit to 25 mph, and adds pedestrian improvements at some intersections.
The lane layout is painted in a type of paint that can be easily removed or changed, and it's expected to stay until early 2027. Some changes will stay no matter what happens to the lanes: the pedestrian improvements, better signage, left-turn signals and the lower speed limit. The city will use crash counts, vehicle speeds and effects on side streets to decide whether the lane layout becomes permanent, and Denverite reported that decision could come next summer.
Inside the park, Denver Parks and Recreation says some park road and parking closures that started in 2020 are still in place. Cars can still reach the Washington Park Recreation Center from Franklin Street at Exposition and Kentucky. For a Halloween weekend that combines the lake and Gaylord, there's another option. The Boathouse at 701 S. Franklin St. and the 1000 block of South Gaylord are both in the neighborhood, so you can walk or bike between them without driving on Alameda.
Wash Park homeowners often ask how changes like the Alameda pilot and the reopened Gaylord corner affect a property. If you're thinking about listing in spring 2027 and want to know how those changes might matter for your street, Chriss Bond can walk you through it. Contact Me to set up a time, and I'll come prepared with what I'm seeing in Washington Park this season.
