Frisco adventure park

The Frisco Adventure Park tubing hill has been very popular since it opened in December, day or night.
Summit Daily/Mark Fox
Since the Frisco Adventure Park opened just over a month ago, business has been booming. The park was packed over the holiday season and is still drawing hundreds of visitors a day.

“It’s going very, very well,” said Lynn Zwaagstra, director of recreation for the Town of Frisco. “There’s been a huge response.”

The adventure park opened Dec. 11 with several 600-foot tubing lanes, a day lodge and walking/biking trails. A terrain park will open to the public on Friday.

Zwaagstra said attendance has slowed down some since the holidays, but there are still plenty of participants. Currently, the park is drawing 100-200 people a day on weekdays, and 350-400 on weekends.

From Dec. 11-31, Frisco town manager Michael Penny said the adventure park grossed roughly $140,000. The town hasn’t made a profit on the facility due to start-up costs, but Penny anticipates it soon will.

Zwaagstra said she has been surveying park attendees in the day lodge or bottom of the hill to obtain feedback.

“Folks like it,” she said.

She said people enjoy the variety of lanes offered. So far, there are six different lanes; some longer and some bumpier than others. The sixth lane, deemed the “lazy river,” was just opened and includes more

“s-turns” than the other five.

Zwaagstra said the few complaints she heard from attendees were related to slow customer service. She attributed this to the opening of the park just before the busy holiday season, when employees were still “learning processes and software.” She said employees are now faster and better with customer service.

“We’ve worked through that,” Zwaagstra said.

During the busy holiday season, town staff helped out with operations at the adventure park. Town Councilman Gary Wilkinson complimented staff on its willingness to assist at the Jan. 11 council meeting.

Tom Kusleika of the Frisco Information Center, which handles overflow calls to the park, said the center was fielding 20 or more calls an hour during the holiday season. The adventure park can accommodate groups of up to 60 per session, and park employees are often too busy checking in visitors to answer every call. Kusleika said the center is still handling a “good number” of calls per day.

The hourly rate to go tubing at the park is $25. Frisco residents receive a 20 percent discount on all park activities. The hill is open Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 8 p.m., and Mondays from noon to 5 p.m. The hill is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Destination: Frisco
The park was built to help Frisco achieve its goal of becoming a destination town. Zwaagstra said the park has had some visitors to Frisco with the sole intention of visiting the park, but so far the majority of attendees are already visiting Summit County.

On Friday, the adventure park will expand when the terrain park opens to the public. It will be accessible from the same Magic Carpet lift that takes people to the top of the tubing hill, and will include rails, boxes and snow jumps. Zwaagstra said the terrain park will “cater towards beginner and intermediates.” She said prices — $29 for a day pass — will be lower than a ticket to the major resorts since the hill is smaller. Zwaagstra said the town hopes the new park will become a destination for local youths, and mentioned the proximity to public transportation.

More to come
Future phases of the adventure park will be discussed at the Feb. 8 town council meeting. The town hopes to have a bike park running — complete with dirt jumps, pump track and four-cross race track — by the end of the summer. The town also wants to make the 4,000 square-foot day lodge available for private rentals during the summer.

“We’ve already gotten wedding requests,” Zwaagstra said.

Summit Daily News.