There’s a particular look a four-year-old gets when they realize the excavator is real, it’s parked right there, and yes, they’re allowed to sit in the seat. That’s the whole appeal of a Touch-a-Truck event, and Colorado communities put on a lot of them.
If you’ve never been to one, the premise is refreshingly simple. Local agencies and companies park their biggest, loudest, most interesting machines in a field or a fairgrounds lot, and families walk around and climb on them.
What actually happens at one of these
The Town of Johnstown describes the format about as plainly as anyone: kids and adults explore fire trucks, police cars and public works construction equipment up close, climb aboard, honk horns and meet the professionals who operate the machines, often alongside other community activities. That last part matters more than you’d think. The operators are there, and they’re happy to explain what the levers do.
Castle Rock’s version, run by the police department, makes a point of having vehicle operators on hand to answer questions and explain how the equipment works. So it’s not just a static display. A kid can ask why a fire engine has that many hoses, and get a real answer from someone who uses them.
Scale varies a lot by town. Steamboat Springs’ free Touch a Truck has featured a medical helicopter, fire engine, police patrol vehicle, transit buses, a sheriff’s K-9 vehicle and a trash truck that visitors can climb inside while meeting the operators. Colorado Springs, at the other end of the spectrum, has run an event at the Norris Penrose Event Center with expectations of up to 15,000 attendees and near-total access to about 120 local vehicles, including construction equipment, police, fire and military vehicles, and Pikes Peak Hill Climb racecars. Admission there is free, running 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The quiet hour is the best-kept secret
Here’s the detail that turns a Touch-a-Truck from “maybe” to “definitely” for a lot of families. Many Colorado events open with a sensory-friendly window before the horns start.
Castle Rock runs a “no horn” hour from 9 to 10 a.m. for kids who want a more relaxed experience. Steamboat offers a quiet hour from 10 to 11 a.m. with no horns, sirens or emergency lights, followed by a fully interactive hour. The Trails Park and Recreation District has built in a quiet half-hour from 9:30 to 10 a.m. for guests with sound sensitivities.
At Castle Rock’s event, the silent hour is specifically for children with sensory issues, and a police spokesman noted that one goal of the whole thing is making people more comfortable interacting with first responders. A calm introduction to a fire truck goes a long way toward a child not being terrified of one on a bad day.
Where and when they turn up
These events cluster in warmer months and early fall, and they’re spread across the state. Castle Rock’s police department started its annual event in 2016, drawing roughly 3,000 people that first year and growing to nearly 8,000 visitors with dozens of participating organizations by 2021, when it ran at the Douglas County Fairgrounds Event Center.
Smaller districts run their own. The Trails Park and Recreation District’s Touch-a-Truck at Spring Creek Park has featured construction and landscaping vehicles from local companies, on-site food trucks and an event map. Some are fundraisers too. Bal Swan Children’s Center hosted its 3rd Annual Touch A Truck at Anthem Community Park in Broomfield in October 2025.
Best way to catch the next one near you: check your city or town’s parks and recreation page, your police department’s community events calendar, and your local park and rec district. Most of these are announced a month or two out, and most are free.
Why the industry shows up
Parents come for the photos. Contractors and public works crews come partly because Colorado’s construction workforce needs the next generation to know these jobs exist.
AGC Colorado, which oversees hundreds of member contractors, reports that 88% of them currently say they have labor shortages, which stretches project timelines and squeezes margins. Nationally the picture is similar, with 92 percent of construction companies reporting difficulty hiring in a 2025 survey of nearly 1,400 firms.
That’s part of why hands-on outreach doesn’t stop at preschoolers. Southern Colorado Construction Career Days is a day-long event where high school students perform actual trade skills while talking with expert contractors from the region. Colorado Construction Career Days has historically brought students from Denver, Douglas County, Adams and Arapahoe districts to stations where they built brick and block walls and assembled concrete formwork, with support from Red Rocks Community College, AGC of Colorado, the Colorado Contractors Association and CDOT.
A few practical notes
Bring ear protection if your kid is horn-sensitive and you can’t make the quiet window. Go early if you want short lines at the excavator. Sunscreen, water, and a plan for lunch, since food trucks aren’t guaranteed everywhere.
And be ready for the question on the drive home: can we get one of those for the driveway?
Images are presented for illustration purposes only.We use real photographs when we need to show what was happening at a real event.
About the Author: Solid Earth
