Happy Trails: This hiking trail is a showstopper at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre
Hiking the Trading Post Trail around Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre. Photo by Seth Boster, The Gazette
Seth Boster, The Gazette
Trading Post Trail
In summer and fall, Red Rocks Amphitheatre is rollicking. Then the concert season ends, the audiences vanish, and winter has a way of transforming the park of ancient formations. We stopped by recently to find the soaring, slanting rocks draped with snow — a great way to see them without the vast company of showgoers.
OK, so we were far from alone on the Trading Post Trail. Apart from the stands, this loop is the premier way to see Red Rocks’ beauty. And people know it. Denverites and vacationers alike frequent the short, relatively flat trail, which never totally escapes the road. All the more reason to go in winter, when traffic is far less.
The trail starts from the namesake Trading Post, also home to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. The walk through natural history — the sandstone monoliths are part of the 300-million-years-old Fountain Formation — starts on either side of the building. We opted for the western side; the trailhead is obvious near the John Denver sculpture.
The trail briefly straddles the road beside the amphitheater-forming Ship Rock. It bends around a massive wall before dipping into serene woods, with views out to the foothills rising from the prairie.
An interpretive sign ahead provides an education on the curiously named rocks along the way: Frog Rock, Sphinx Rock, Sinking Titanic and Iceberg among them. Through a grassy flat, Nine Park Rock looms in view. That’s named for the rocks’ nine openings, or “parks,” where moisture collects and feeds resident plants and animals.
The well-marked trail crosses the road, visits a silo and rises up a slickrock spine. This leads back to the Trading Post.
Trip log: 1 1/2 miles, 318 feet elevation gain
Getting there: Trading Post at 17900 Trading Post Road, Morrison. Going west on Interstate 70 from Denver, take exit 259 for Morrison/County Road 93. Follow 93 to Entrance #2 for Red Rocks and follow signs to Trading Post.
FYI: Park opens one hour before sunrise, closes one hour after sunset. Hiking only. Dogs on leash. No rock climbing. Trails icy in winter; bring traction.
SETH BOSTER, THE GAZETTE
