Kid friendly Summer Activities
Summer vacation is days away and Nevada City offers so many great activities for things to do for kids. So regardless of what your family likes to do, here’s a list of all sorts of ideas of things to do. And scroll down to the bottom for our great kid-centric giveaway!
Things to do with Kids:
- Visit 49er Fun Park and play mini golf, go karts, batting cages or the arcades.
- Summer Movies at the Del Oro for kids or the family friendly outdoor screening of Outdoor Family Films : Princess Bride (June 20), Ghostbusters (July 11 ) and UP (August 22) at Pioneer Park, organized by the Nevada City Film Festival, City of Nevada City and the Union Newspaper.
- Take a tour of the mine at Empire Mine State Historic Park
- Visit the Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum
- Check out the Points of Historical Interest walking tour map of Nevada City or the tree tour
- Grab an ice cream cone at Treats or take one of their new insulated containers and go on a picnic
- Food Love Project U Picks veggies (6/23-10/27 from 4:30-6:30)
- Go geo-caching
- Check out the local library reading programs and activities
Water Activities:
- Paddle Boarding on Scotts Flat Lake
- A few great South Yuba River swimming holes: Mountain Dog Swimming Hole, Edwards Crossing, Purdons Crossing, Hoyt’s Crossing, Mothers Beach, 49 Crossing. The most accessible for small children is definitely Bridgeport.
- Kayaking on Lower Scotts Flat Lake
- Pioneer Park Pool or Memorial Park Pool
- Go for a swim in one of the local lakes
Great kid friendly hikes include: Independence Trail, Buttermilk Bend and Deer Creek Tribute Trail. Or Take the kids for a mountain bike ride at Hirschman Pond.
Jason Auld, owner of Mountain Recreation, loves taking his 3 kids outdoors during the summer season. “There are great flat water kayaking and SUP as a fun family friendly activity. Short distance backpacking is a great way to get kids outside and blow their minds with nature. Just need to focus on keeping it achievable, fun and interesting. Often you don’t need to hike in more than a mile or two to really feel like your way out there. The less taxing and grueling it is the more the kids will enjoy it.” Click here for information about their rental programs if you want to rent a SUP or kayak.
Perhaps you’re looking for a summer camp, there are still lots of great programs happening, click here for a post from earlier this spring on the Summer Camp Fair, still time to check out the Food Love Project day camps, Mud Hut Art classes, Fox Walkers or The Center for Arts programs. Perhaps you want to be creative, try stopping by The Artist Workshop, either for a class or their drop in open session and leave with a new art project.
Maybe you want to learn a specific new skill, like a kid’s cooking class at Briar Patch Co-op or check out their Co+op Explorers Fruit and Veggie Passports where kids can win prizes.
There are a lot of great kid friendly events during the summer season, whether its The Children’s Festival (Friday, July 17th), The Sierra Storytelling Festival (July 17-19) or the Nevada County Fair (August 12-16). Or the Miners Picnic at Empire Mine (August 29th), a family picnic, gold mining demonstrations, live music and games.
Otherwise take your kids to one of the many local farmers markets, First Friday Art Walks (June 5th, July 3rd, August 7th) or Nevada City Summer Nights (July 15th, 22nd and 29th). Perhaps you want to get tickets for the PAG performance of Jungle Book. Don’t forget the free Nevada County Concert Band concerts at Pioneer Park, it’s a great free family friendly outing (June 28th, July 26th and August 23rd).
And if you’ve made it this far, I’ve got a special treat for one lucky kid. Post a comment on your favorite summer activity and one family will get a prize package including: 2 free movie passes to the Del Oro Children’s movie screenings, a giveaway to 49er Fun Park (2 free go-kart and 2 mini golf rounds), a Treats Treatsicle, 2 general admission Nevada County Fair tickets, a $10 gift certificate to The Artist Workshop and free 2 hour kayak or SUP rental from Mountain Rec. Winner will be announced on Wednesday, June 10th. *Edited to say the winner is Joyce.
The Pete’s Pizza giveaway winner is Pete K and the winner of the SYRCL Wild for the Yuba giveaway is Katrina, congrats!
© 2015 InnSide Nevada City, Photos © by Erin Thiem
We love the fair, camping at local lakes and day trips to the yuba.
What’s your favorite local lake? Day trips to the Yuba are great and did you see that Camp Augusta made the special Sunset Summer Day Trips magazine?
My favorite summer activity is anything having to do with keeping cool!! Being at the river, outside in the shade, or enjoying ice cream! I also enjoy taking photographs–the summer has so many beautiful happenings to capture!
Eating ice cream seems to make our to do list on a regular basis in the summer.
I love Summer Nights and the First Friday Art Walks especially if there is Treats ice cream. But I never miss the County Fair either. So many great things to do – with or without kids.
Have you entered the fair this year?
We love hiking at Bridgeport and malakof diggings
I forgot to include the Malkoff Diggings event for this Saturday, there’s another great kid-friendly to do.
There is so much to do here in the summer. I’m looking forward to watching Ghostbusters at Pioneer because we haven’t done that yet. And we’ll definitely check out the Children’s Festival. And of course we’ll be going to the fair and the river and maybe paddle boarding too.
Ghostbusters… will have to make sure we do that too- such a fun family friendly event. The Children’s Festival is great, but popular, so be prepared.
We love getting outside and cooling off in an alpine lake!
It is nice that we’re close to higher elevation options when we hit those heat waves.
The river! We go as often as possible, and we are always looking for new spots.
Chose your own adventure– that’s what we tell our guests at the motel, pick a spot and explore.
Our family has enjoyed the past 3 summers here and it seems like there are more things happening all the time. It’s such a treat! Last year’s favorite was the Children’s Festival. I’m certain our son thought the pirates were real. This year we look forward to checking out the Jungle Book play (thanks for the link!), summer art classes & the Del Oro movies.Thank you for compiling such a great list!
With pleasure! There is so much to do… good to start mapping it out now! And who doesn’t love a giveaway! We loved the fire breathing dragons and the crafts at The Children’s Festival.
Making a memorable Summer evenings with family and friends enjoying dinner, drinks, an outdoor concert, a little dancing and good company 🙂
There are so many great outdoor concert options– are you going to any of the Music in the Mountains SummerFest fun?
I love going to the fair every year with my nephew.
Such a great kid activity, my boys love the disgusting cake competition.
Our favorite summer activity is kayaking and fishing in the local lakes.
Fishing never seems to make our to do, what’s the best kid friendly spot?
I had no idea theat we had a mini golf/arcarde here in town….. :] guess where we’ll be going.
Have fun, you can go for 15 minutes or 3 hours, have fun.
We love just walking downtown and going to culture shock yogurt and the book seller. Always makes for a good afternoon.
The Book Seller has a great kids section, and who can resist a cold sweet treat?
Taking the kids to anything with activity and water play or hiking is at the top of my list. Add music and that’s a winning combination!
Water play is always a great option in the summer, trying to think of singing and swimming?
Wow, what a great collection of adventures! Lucky kids! And parents 🙂 my favorite is the Children’s Festival. Always magic!
Love the fire breathing dragon!
Summer concerts & movies at Pioneer Park are our favorite, what a great list, thanks so much for posting.
Summer concerts are great- and I love that we have so many options, many of them being free!
We love going swimming and eating dinner on the patio. 🙂
Eating dinner outside, check- great idea!
Great list! If we’re not just letting the kids run wild on our property, we’re either at the pool or river!
Thanks, it’s amazing when you stop and think of all the options… and this list is definitely missing things…
Swimming, Summer Nights, eating on the deck and WorldFest. Nice list!
Worldfest… one of these years we’ll join you.
Swimming! Looking forward to a new adventure.
So many great options for swimming!
hum what to do with my kid, I know, check Outside Inn Blog, GREAT IDEA.
Thanks Ruth, but you’ve got all sorts of great ideas, so feel free to continue to share.
We had so much fun last year!!!
Come back!!!!!
We love boating in the local lakes!
It’ll be interesting to see the lake levels this year.
Everything Nevada County! Summer Nights, swimming, running, biking, Empire Mine, good food, the Fair, and on and on it goes. Love where we live.
Good ideas to try. Will have to check out the fair.
We love the Children’s Festival. Our daughter has been talking about that troll all year!
We love the river, spending the day close to moving water always makes great fun.
So many activities and only so much summer. Best to just dive in and partake of one adventure at a time.
I wonder who the winner of this blog contest will be, so excited to see if I can take my nephew out for some fun in the sun!