Red Rocks is one of the most beautiful venues in the country to see a show, and also one of the most confusing to drive to for the first time. Parking is free, which sounds great until you realize that also means it is first come, first served, spread across five separate lots, with a real hike between some of them and the actual seats. Here is what you need to know before you go, and why a growing number of concertgoers are skipping the driving part entirely.
The Basics
Red Rocks Park has four entrances, two off Highway 93 and two off Highway 74. Parking lots open two hours before the event door time and fill up fast. On a sold out night, the closest lots can be full more than ninety minutes before showtime.
There is no reserved parking tied to your ticket. Whoever arrives first gets the closest spot, regardless of what row you are sitting in.
The Lots, Ranked by Convenience
Upper North Lot is the closest lot to the venue and the fastest to fill. You enter through a rock tunnel near Creation Rock, close to the top of the seating bowl (row 70). The tradeoff is exit time. Because it is first in, last out, leaving after the show can take a while.
Upper South Lot is widely considered the best all-around lot. It sits at the base of an ADA-accessible ramp that wraps around Ship Rock and puts you close to row 24, and it also has one of the fastest exits after the show, since it is closest to Entrance 3.
Lower North Lot is a backup option once the upper lots fill. It is the first lot you will see coming from Entrance 1, but the walk in involves a real set of stairs.
Lower South Lots (1 and 2) are the farthest from the venue, about a half mile hike on the Trading Post Trail. Lower South 2 is designated for oversized vehicles like RVs and party buses.
Where Drop-off and Pickup Actually Happen
If someone else is driving you, Red Rocks has designated drop-off points that are different from where you would park. According to the venue, drop-off is available at the Top Circle Lot (via Entrance 1) or at the Red Rocks Park Road and Trading Post Road intersection (via Entrance 2).
For pickup after the show, private vehicles, taxis, and rideshares are directed to the Jurassic Lot, just inside Entrance 2 off Highway 93. If you are being picked up, you will need to walk downhill to that lot, following staff directions, rather than waiting at your original drop-off spot.
This is one of the most common points of confusion at Red Rocks. Drop-off and pickup are not the same location, and if your driver does not know this, you can end up waiting in the wrong place while traffic backs up around you.
What the “Red Rocks Workout” Actually Means
Even in the best-case scenario, getting from a parking lot to your seat at Red Rocks typically means climbing stairs, sometimes several hundred of them depending on your row and which lot you land in. It is a well-known enough experience that locals just call it the Red Rocks Workout. If you are wearing dress shoes, carrying kids, or just not up for a steep uphill climb in the dark after a few drinks, this is worth planning around.
Why the Exit Is the Real Problem
Parking at Red Rocks is annoying. Leaving Red Rocks is the part that actually ruins people’s nights. The venue sits at the end of a single access road through Mount Vernon Canyon, and when nine thousand people try to leave at once, that road backs up fast. Thirty to forty-five minutes of stop-and-go traffic after a show is common, longer on a sold-out night.
Rideshare pricing tends to spike hard right after a show ends too, since demand jumps the second the last song plays and drivers are stuck in the same traffic everyone else is.
A Simpler Way to Do It
This is exactly the kind of night a black car service is built for. Instead of hunting for a parking spot, hiking up thirty flights of stairs, and then fighting canyon traffic on the way out, you get dropped close to the entrance before the show and picked up at a coordinated time after it ends, without needing to walk to a separate lot or guess when your rideshare will actually show up.
We track the show schedule directly, so your return pickup is timed to the encore, not a flat clock time that might have you waiting around or missing your ride. If you are bringing a group, a GMC Yukon SLT keeps everyone together instead of splitting into two or three separate cars.
Read more about how it works on our Red Rocks Events page, or book your ride directly. For questions or a same-day request, call us at (303) 668-8819.