About Parks & Recreation

Welcome to Fruita Parks and Recreation!  We understand how fortunate we are as a community to have abundant park and recreation resources available to us.  Fruita is uniquely positioned within the Grand Valley and sits at the base of the Colorado National Monument and McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.  With the Colorado River running through our boundaries, as well as many other landscapes that beg to be hiked, biked, and rafted; Fruita is an active and vibrant community.

With the bar set high, the Parks and Recreation Department continually strives to exceed expectations and engage our community in physical, social and mental activities by providing a variety of facilities, programs and community events.  As a department we:

• Operate the Fruita Community Center – a 55,000 sq. ft. facility complete with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, gymnasium, fitness area, senior center, meeting rooms and the Fruita Branch of Mesa County Public Library
• ​Coordinate a multitude of youth to senior programs to actively engage our participants
• Host and permit over 40 community events and festivals, including Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, Thursday Night Concerts, Sweetheart Run and Health Expo, and many more
• And, maintain 11 neighborhood and community parks, 273 acres of open space, and approximately 10 miles of hard surface trails.

While we have a good variety of facilities and program offerings, we continue to improve what we do and what we can offer our community.  Recently, Parks and Recreation has actively worked to develop the trail systems in and around the Fruita area.  In 2014 and with Mesa County’s partnership, the 8.5 mile Monument View section of the Riverfront Trail was complete.  Fall of 2015, the Lower Little Salt Wash Trail will be under construction and will connect south and north Fruita via a hard surface trail that goes under I-70, the railroad and Highway 6 and 50.  And, we are working hard to develop the 4.5 mile Kokopelli section of the Riverfront Trail that will extend west to some of the best mountain biking terrain in the world, located at the Kokopelli Trail system.

We encourage you to look through our program offerings and make use of our facilities.  Mostly, we encourage each and every one of you to stay active!