It is one of the few amphitheaters anywhere in which the world’s top performers are in danger of being upstaged by the backstage.
This natural hall formed by two 300-foot monoliths makes Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, just 15 miles west of Denver, such an impressive concert venue that everyone from 1940s opera star Helen Jepson to Willie Nelson and Widespread Panic has gushed about its beauty and acoustics. It makes the Hollywood Bowl green with envy. Yet Red Rocks has more on its playlist than music.
As a Denver Mountain Park, Red Rocks is open and free to the public every day for all kinds of outings. Park hours are 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily — Visitor Center hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. May through September — except on concert dates, when the park generally closes after lunch. The concert schedule is available by visiting . Or check on park closures by calling the Visitor Center, 303-697-4939, or the amphitheater’s office, 720-865-2494. The park also hosts graduations, wedding and other private events.
Go play where the deer and the dinosaurs and rock stars have played.
Take a hike. Or a bike. Or a drive. Pick your favorite locomotion. This 868-acre sandstone wonderland is laced and crisscrossed with 7.4 miles of trails and 5 miles of scenic drive — and dotted with covered picnic sites and parking areas. You can download road and trail maps at redrocks . And, Rocks Park trails connect with adjacent parks and trails in Jefferson County.
Take the kids, but keep an eye on them in the steep places with drop-offs. Take the dog, but the rule is to keep it on a leash. And dogs can’t attend concerts.
As in any semi-wild area of Colorado, watch for wildlife for fun and self-preservation, because it includes rattlesnakes and mountain lions — however rarely encountered. Keep an eye out for poison ivy. The park has more safety tips you can check out.
At the amphitheater itself, fitness buffs can work up a lather running up and down countless stairs and zigzagging or hopping the tiered bench seats, 69 rows in all. Going through your paces here, at 6,400 feet, will get your heart pounding.
Beyond this, Red Rocks is also a perfect place for exercising the imagination.
Adopt a pet rock. You can’t officially claim your own landmark, but anybody can enjoy a geological field trip here where the biggest rock stars are sandstone and about 300 million years old. This group is called the Fountain Formation, a once-sandy beach along an inland sea that was thrust upward at its current dizzying angles 65 million years ago. From the sound-reverberating iconic monoliths — a tilting titanic aptly named Ship Rock and the park’s impressively massive Creation Rock — to the rest of the rust-colored swirls and spires, an amazing story of the Earth is literally written in stone. It is also nicely rendered by exhibits inside the Visitor Center, a $15 million gem unveiled in 2003. Colorado historian Thomas Noel’s book “Sacred Stones,” available at the nearby Trading Post, is a great guide.
Coloradans have been naming rocks here for centuries. Can you do better than the “Roasted Goose,” “Sleeping Lion,” “Laughing Pig,” or “Angel’s Bathtub?”
Discover unnatural history. The human history of Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre is fascinating. Red Rocks has been a great place to hang out since at least 5,000 B.C. Archaic tribes slept here. Ute Chief Colorow, who led American Indian resistance to the influx of miners in the 1858-59 gold rush, holed up at Red Rocks and in a nearby cavern now called Colorow’s Cave, according to historian Noel. A handsome journalist and entrepreneur named John Brisben Walker Sr. would become known as the “Father of Red Rocks.” He first visited in 1880 and declared that the acoustics made it a contender for the greatest natural amphitheater in the world, Noel writes. After Walker made his fortune selling his New York City-based “Cosmopolitan” magazine to William Randolph Hearst in 1905, Walker and his son, J.B. Walker Jr., purchased 4,000 acres around and including Red Rocks.
Our park. In 1928, the city and county of Denver bought 110 acres of Walker’s Red Rocks holdings and some surrounding acreage for a little more than $50,000 to create what it considered the crown jewel of a Denver Mountain Parks system. And, although the first band played Red Rocks in 1906, the Civilian Conservation Corps would break ground on what would become Red Rock Parks and Amphitheatre in 1935.
Visit the Performers Hall of Fame in the Visitor Center to learn juicy tidbits, such as: Red Rocks was the sixth stop of the Beatles first U.S tour in 1964 — and the only venue the group didn’t sell out.
Watch the 15-minute in- house documentary.
Bask like a lizard. This is a great place to be lazy. Perch on a ledge. Soak up some sun. Read a book. Ponder life’s mysteries. Do some people-watching.
Take the stage. Air guitar is a time-honored tradition here. Soak up the vibes left by Bruce Springsteen, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, U2, String Cheese Incident, Chris Isaak, Bare Naked Ladies, Moody Blues, John Mayer, Coldplay and the Gipsy Kings, among hundreds of others.
Work up an appetite. You can bring a picnic or dine at the Ship Rock Grille. Its outdoor cafe is attached to some really great outdoors. The grill is open for lunch daily 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and for preshow dinners. The menu is fairly extensive and includes things such as bison sliders, rattlesnake empanadas, elk tenderloin, Red Rocks pasta and Western Slope apple pie. The price of a single entree runs from $6 to $14. There is a kids menu.
If you want to shop for curios, the nearby Trading Post is chock-full. This two-story Mission and Pueblo Revival structure, built in 1931 as the park’s first visitor center, is worth the short side trip, whether or not you’re the souvenir-collecting type.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
Due to a reporting error, this article originally gave an incorrect phone number for Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The correct number is 720-865-2494.
