Widespread Panic At Red Rocks

And no, people were not running for their lives this past Friday afternoon at Red Rocks Park, located just north of Morrison, Colorado. People were actually driving into the park early to get a parking spot and have a tailgate party before going to see rock band Widespread Panic at world famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre. I knew this would not be my usual drive through the park when I wound up in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the road leading up to the Amphitheatre's main parking lot. As soon as I could, I turned off that hellish highway and skirted below the arena, where the traffic was much lighter, and headed toward the south entrance. You can just barely see the cars in the lower parking lots in the background of the photograph on the left, where people are willing to park and walk up all those stairs to the concert instead of dealing with long lines of traffic both in and out of the venue.

This is a really beautiful park, with amazing and very large red sandstone outcrops, such as the ones in the photograph on the right. Even though Red Rocks is located between Golden and Morrison, Colorado, it is actually owned and maintained by the city of Denver as part of the Denver Mountain Parks system. This place is filled with hiking trails and stunning vistas, and is a very popular, easy to get to spot for a hike year-round. These rock formations are part of what is called the Fountain Formation. Other examples of this type of geography include nearby Roxborough State Park, just southwest of Denver, the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, and the Flatirons near Boulder, each stunning in their own unique way.

I myself have never attended a concert at Red Rocks, although I have walked around the Amphitheatre itself a couple of times when nothing was going on. Both times, evidently to give the place a concert vibe, they had rock music blasting from the speakers, which I thought was pretty damn annoying. Widespread Panic was going to be at Red Rocks for three nights, and just for fun, I checked the price of tickets for Saturday's concert on the internet when I got home. A real steal at $176 each. Although I won't say who was doing the stealing. I suppose that is much cheaper than a Taylor Swift concert, but I decided to pass on the concert anyway. Maybe next year. And by the way, Red Rocks Amphitheatre was designed back in 1941 by Burnham Hoyt, no doubt a long lost relative of mine. I wonder if I could get in free if I mentioned that to management at the gate? Perhaps I could finally get to see Tex Beneke perform in person.