Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, CO. It has potential, but Cyclone is still closed

June 14, 2025: One of 2 full amusement parks in Denver. I had visited Elitch Gardens in 2019, and had a great time there, so this time, I only needed to visit Lakeside Amusement Park. This is a very strange park for so many reasons. The front gate isn't really a gate at all. There are no signs even saying it's the way in, or any of the pricing options. There's a worker with a register and credit/debit card reader, but it almost looked like a kid's lemonade stand table, not feeling like a true amusement park entrance. It took several minutes to get the worker to tell me how anything works here, as she seemed to assume that every guest would automatically know all prices and options, even without any signs. She also didn't truly know how things worked, as she sold me the wrong number of tickets for what I wanted to do, which wasn't a big deal to me, but a lot of improvement is needed there.

The park has its charm, but there are so many rides that are not working, including their star attraction: the wood coaster, Cyclone, SBNO for over 2 years. That was why I only did ride tickets, which requires $5 admission. I did one ride on the Pinfari Zyklon, which has the strangest belt restraints I have ever seen. And I did 2 rides on the awesome Miler wild mouse, Wild Chipmunk, one of only 2 in the world, the other being at Wonderland in Amarillo TX.

This park has potential, if they can get rides operating again, improve presentation in most areas, as well as communication of pricing and options to the guests. As it is now, this is just a credit-grab stop, and nowhere near as good as Elitch Gardens. Even on what should be a very busy Saturday, Lakeside had almost no guests in the park, which felt so strange. But let's hope that things can improve for this park in the future.