Last winter, Josh Catron needed a place to put 42 swan boats. Catron owns the local Wheel Fun Rentals franchise, which ran the bike and paddleboat rentals at Washington Park for years. Denverite reported in February 2026 that Catron lost the contract when the city decided not to renew it. He said the city told him it wanted to take over what it saw as a successful venture. Parks officials said reviewing and evaluating contracts is standard practice.
That makes 2026 the first season Denver Parks & Recreation has run the Smith Lake rentals itself. It also means the city's schedule now sets the end of Wash Park's outdoor season. The last rental day is Sunday, Nov. 1. Two neighborhood events fall in the same three days, so the Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 weekend has become the turning point of fall. After it, the activity moves off the lake and onto the two retail streets that added the most new restaurants this year.
Who sets the closing date now
The city calls its operation Adventure Hub. It runs out of both City Park and Washington Park, and its outdoor recreation team manages the equipment. The Denver Gazette reported in January that the takeover was an initiative led by John Martinez, Deputy Executive Director of Recreation. A parks spokesperson said other projects would be announced once funding and logistics were worked out.
One of the first changes is already on the water. The city added purple dragon and yellow duck pedal boats to the white swan fleet. The fall season started Aug. 24. Washington Park hours are now 3:30 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. Those hours are much shorter than summer, when the Washington Park booth opened at 7 a.m. every day.
City rates for a fall afternoon on Smith Lake, billed hourly for up to three hours:
- Swan, duck or dragon pedal boat, four people: $35
- Flamingo pedal boat, two people: $25
- Canoe or tandem kayak: $25
- Single kayak or stand-up paddleboard: $15
- Six-person surrey: $45
- Three-speed beach cruiser: $15
Life jackets come with every boat rental. The booth takes cash, credit cards and Apple Pay, and there are no reservations. Two rules matter on a short fall weekday. The last rental goes out one hour before closing, and the booth closes 45 minutes early if nobody has rented in the final hour. Under the posted schedule, a weekday rental has to start by 7 p.m. The booth then closes for winter.
Three last calls in three days
The boat season's end lines up with two dates the neighborhood's merchant groups already had on their calendars. Here is how the final weekend of October falls:
- Friday, Oct. 30. South Pearl's Final Friday art walk runs from 5 p.m. until dark across the 1400 to 1600 blocks.
- Saturday, Oct. 31. Trick or Treat Street on Historic South Gaylord runs from 3 to 6 p.m., with candy stops at shops, a costume contest, red-carpet photos and a photographer on the 1000 block. Smith Lake rentals are open on weekend hours that day, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 1. This is the last day of the city's 2026 rental season. The South Pearl Street Farmers Market also runs that morning, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so the Trick or Treat Street hours and the final full Saturday of boat rentals happen on the same day. A family could take a pedal boat out in the morning and still reach the 1000 block of South Gaylord before candy stops start at 3.
November moves to Pearl and Gaylord
Once the booth closes, the neighborhood's dated events are all on its two retail streets.
The South Pearl Street Farmers Market has run Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the 1400 and 1500 blocks since May 3. Its listed season finale is Nov. 8, one week after the boats come off the lake.
South Gaylord has the last date on the calendar. Firefly Handmade's free Holiday Market runs Nov. 21 and 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., outdoors on the 1000 block between Tennessee and Mississippi. Organizers promise more than 80 artisans plus live music, food and drinks, and say South Gaylord will close to traffic during the event. Visit Denver lists those dates as the 2026 edition.
The same block is where South Gaylord held its Labor Day Weekend Block Party, Sept. 5 to 7, with live music, food trucks and a kids zone. On South Pearl, the 2026 Oktoberfest already took place on Sept. 12. Between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, nearly every scheduled outdoor event in the neighborhood happens within a few blocks of these two streets.
The storefronts that will carry the cold months
The streets that host November also gained the most new restaurants over the past year. Almost all of them moved into spaces that had changed hands before.
| Address | Previous tenant | Now | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 375 S. Pearl St. | Finley's Pub | Florence Supper Club | December 2025 |
| 81 S. Pennsylvania St. | Several recent tenants | Johnny Bechamel's | Dec. 12, 2025 |
| 1096 S. Gaylord St. | Wash Park Grill | Wash Park Social | April 2026 |
| 1101 S. Pearl St. | Pub on Pearl | Dry Dock Pub | Spring 2026 |
| 712½ S. Pearl St. | Colfax and Cream | Milly's Bagels | June 2026 |
| 2160 S. Broadway | Bacon Social House | King Dumpling II | June 29, 2026 |
Florence Supper Club took over the old Finley's Pub address. Westword reported that Finley's closed in October 2024 after more than a decade there. Florence is an East Coast-style red-sauce restaurant named after the founder's grandmother. Johnny Bechamel's comes from the team behind Dio Mio and Redeemer and sits next door to Uncle's Wash Park location. According to Westword, that space has turned over several times since 2020.
On South Pearl, Dry Dock Pub moved into the former Pub on Pearl space with a full pub menu, games and plans for live music. Westword listed its hours as 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Those hours cover the Final Friday art walk, which ends at dark. A few blocks north, Milly's Bagels held its grand opening in June at 712½ S. Pearl. Axios reported hours of Tuesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until it sells out. Those hours line up with the market's Sunday morning window. The space Milly's took over had been Colfax and Cream, an ice cream shop that BusinessDen reported closed in early 2026 after about a year.
Wash Park Social at 1096 S. Gaylord is on the same block as Trick or Treat Street and the Firefly market. It replaced the long-running Wash Park Grill in April. To the west, King Dumpling II opened June 29 at 2160 S. Broadway. It is the Denver outpost of a Boulder County dumpling shop.
Another South Broadway storefront could be next. Denverite reported in May that a new owner bought the former Mutiny Information Cafe building at 2 S. Broadway, started renovations and hoped to lease it to a local business. That report did not name a tenant.
Alameda is narrower this fall
Anyone driving to South Pearl's northern blocks or the Pennsylvania Street restaurants may be using an Alameda Avenue that has changed since summer. The city installed a temporary road-diet pilot between Franklin and Lincoln streets. It has one travel lane in each direction, turn pockets, a 25-mph speed limit and pedestrian improvements. Denverite reported in August that the pilot is expected to stay until early 2027.
The city's Washington Park project page also lists planned work on tennis courts, worn paths, picnic areas and the pipe between Smith Lake and the lily pond. It gives a 2026 timeline but no current progress report or closure notice, so check conditions at the park before planning around any specific court or path.
If you're thinking about what the city's new role at Smith Lake, or the turnover on South Pearl and South Gaylord, means for your own block, The Real Estate Experts of Denver follow these changes closely and are glad to talk them through with you. Schedule a free consultation, and we'll walk you through what's changing around Washington Park and what it could mean for your home.
