Outdoor Heritage Day Coming Soon

There's a joint effort on April 30th all centered around enlightening our youth about outdoor heritage. KJCT News 8's Dixie Burmeister explains.

It is a call to parents and grandparents. Here is your chance to introduce your little ones to all the great opportunities our expansive and beautiful outdoor areas have to offer.

Outdoor Heritage Day is all free, even the lunch. You and the kids will love the activities, and you might even want to bring those kids of yours that gave you those precious grandchildren!

"This is the 4th annual event," explained Frank McGee, the DOW District Wildlife Manager for Palisaide. "It's going to be here at Riverbend Park in Palisade. It's April 30th from 9am to 4pm."

This is a huge collaborative effort that has really grown since it started a few years ago, all in hopes of getting those declining numbers of outdoor participants up again.

"The purpose of the event is just to try to get families to spend more time outdoors," explained McGee. "Here in western Colorado we have a lot of great opportunities that a lot of people just don't take advantage of."

Having spent many wonderful years as my dad's fishing buddy, this activity "caught" my eye.

"There's, you know, fishing obviously all day long. The ponds are stocked just before the event," stated McGee.

But there's so much more.

"We usually have a rock climbing wall. We're going to have a touch-a-truck area where kids will get to see and interact with the kinds of vehicles and things we use for doing our jobs," McGee explained.

With all there is to do, it is amazing that this is an all free event with free lunch!

"Nothing at this event costs any money at all," McGee said.

Although the greatest prize of all will be passing on the joy of outdoor activities to the younger generations, there are some terrific prizes to add to the fun.

"We're giving away a stay at a cabin on the Grand Mesa," McGee explained. "And for that particular program they have to go and do a couple of activities on the Grand Mesa and get their little form initialed by somebody at the forest service visitor center for example. And then they submit that with an essay and they can win a stay in the cabin."

So whether you catch a big one or not, you'll catch a great time at the Outdoor Heritage Day!

For more information about the Grand Valley Outdoor Heritage Day and Outdoor Heritage Day in Delta in June, click here.

You can also find Outdoor Heritage Day on Facebook.