Recreation

Winter After Hours returns for more fun in Boyd Park

Tyler Griggs |

Two streetlights gleaming, 40ish skaters skating, fiiiiive golden riiiiiings
Two streetlights gleaming, 40ish skaters skating, fiiiiive golden riiiiiings

Can you hear it? The sounds of skates scraping on ice, children playing, fire crackling, and neighbors meeting in-between sips of hot chocolate. The evenings get dark early this time of year, but Eau Claire’s Boyd Park lights up the night Thursdays in January and February with the best reason to get outside and enjoy the outdoors: Winter After Hours. Volume One has partnered up with Eau Claire’s Parks & Rec Department to host these entertaining evenings where families get together and enjoy ice skating (rent a pair for a small fee or bring your own), snow sculptures by two-time United States Snow Sculpting Champions The Starvin’ Carvists, a fire pit, winter kubb, hot drinks, and a warming house. Select nights will feature snowshoe rentals by the Boys & Girls Club of the Greater Chippewa Valley. So if you and yours are feeling stir-crazy in the dead of winter, dig out the snowpants and reimagine what a frosty winter evening means to you. Sure, take us up on the amenities listed above, but you could walk the park’s bridge over the Eau Claire River and enjoy its hushed wooded wonders or roll up some snow into a snowman. Any given week’s event could be cancelled if temperatures dip too low or rise too high, so refer to VolumeOne.org for updates.

Winter After Hours • Thursdays in January and February, 6-8pm • Boyd Park, 1202 Fairway St. (just off Main St. on the East Side Hill), Eau Claire • FREE admission • All ages • VolumeOne.org/winter