Ancient History of Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre

The Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre is world-famous for its idyllic scenery, unique rock formations and all-around breathtaking beauty. 

In 2021, in fact, the amphitheater saw its highest attendance yet at a whopping 996,570 attendees, giving it the highest attendance of any other concert venue in the world!

This little slice of perfection, nestled about 30 minutes from most of our luxury Denver apartments, is one of the top parks in the nation, and not just for its concerts! These bright red rocks are some of the oldest rocks around and have taught us so much about the world’s most ancient history, including that of the dinosaurs!

The story of Red Rocks Park in Colorado

You may remember that we’ve already spent a decent amount of time talking about the geology and history of the Rocky Mountains, whether in regards to the Great Sand Dunes, the dinosaurs, the gold mining or the many mountain peaks in the Front Range. And why wouldn’t we? The Rocky Mountains we have here in Colorado — and through the North American continent — show us glimpses of our planet’s ancient past etched into the mountains, hills and cliffs we see today. The mountains’ unique geology is why we have learned so much about dinosaurs and the world in which they lived so long ago, and it’s why we are still unearthing so much information about Earth’s younger years.

But before even these grand Rocky Mountains formed some 80-35 million years ago, there was an even older mountain range in its very place! It was smaller, for sure, and maybe not quite as impressive, but these Ancestral Rocky Mountains contributed greatly to the unique landscapes in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. 

Including, of course, the famous red rocks in Red Rocks Park.

How did the Red Rocks Park form?

To tell this tale of ancient stones and world-building events, we have to go much further back into the past than ever before. 

Before any periods of mountain-building ever happened in this part of the world, there were layers upon layers of many kinds of rock dating to Earth’s early history. These rocks included Precambrian metamorphic rocks — the kind that were around when the planet’s first supercontinent arranged itself— many kinds of sandstone, limestone deposits from ancient shallow seas and sedimentary rocks. 

The Ancestral Rockies were formed as a period of mountain building began around 300 million years ago during the Pennsylvanian period, named so for the amount of coal deposits from that era found in the state of Pennsylvania. Tectonic activity created an uplift under the North American plate and formed two island-like ranges called Frontrangia and Uncompahgre in the present day Front Range and San Juan Mountains.

The ancient mountain ranges slowly eroded as time went by. The already-brittle limestone washed away as shallow seas covered western North America once again, leaving behind mostly sedimentary rock, sandstone and metamorphic rock.

That’s what the world was like for a long time. Until, of course, the next series of mountain-building activity started happening on the North American continent during the Laramide Orogeny, which occurred roughly around 80-35 million years ago. During this time, tectonic plates traveled shallowly under the North American plate, causing wrinkles on the surface just as a foot slides a carpet into a bunch atop a hardwood floor. 

Those wrinkles became the Rocky Mountains as we know them today, and that wrinkled effect is exactly why there are so many jagged peaks and tilted formations scattered throughout the mountains. It’s why the famous red rocks in Red Rocks Park are so tilted, and it’s why we are able to see dinosaur fossils that would otherwise be buried far, far underground. 

We can see evidence of these large islands of sandstone poking up through the Earth’s crust at a few different locations around Colorado.

• Red Rocks Park, near Morrison
• The Flatirons, near Boulder
• Garden of the Gods, near Colorado Springs
• Red Rock Canyon Open Space, near Colorado Springs, and
• Roxborough State Park, near Denver

These all come from the same formation of rock that was uplifted first around 300 million years ago, then again in the Laramide Orogeny, and now they stand as reminders of the extreme activity that would have caused massive swaths of rocks to burst through the crust into the open air above. 

Pretty wild!

Modern-day Red Rocks Park

The amount of human contact with these amazing red rocks is relatively miniscule compared to the stones’ ancient existence, but it's memorable nonetheless. 

As far as archaeology and anthropology studies know, the present-day Red Rocks Park was frequently used by members of the Ute tribe as a campsite, thanks to the natural shelter and protection the rock formations provided. 

Later, a famous U.S. Army civil engineer by the name of Stephen Harriman Long came across the rocks in 1820 as he explored the Great Plains. A few decades later in 1860, the City of Denver was incorporated and traffic to the region increased. By the 1870s, the red rocks had been named Garden of the Angels by a Colorado judge, and just two years later the park was officially placed under the ownership of its first owner.

Ownership passed to civil engineer Leonard H. Eicholtz in 1878, and Eicholtz promptly began turning the land into a park with trails, benches, picnic areas and roads to accommodate eager visitors. The next owner, who bought the park in 1906, began hosting small concerts in a section of the park he called the Garden of the Titans, growing attendance and interest in the park even more. 

The City of Denver bought the park in 1927 and officially named the area Red Rocks Park, and a few years later began developing the site for an outdoor stage and natural amphitheater. This amphitheater, tucked between Ship Rock, Stage Rock and Creation Rock, has become one of the most popular outdoor music venues not just in the United States, but in the world!

Today, we can visit the Red Rocks Park and walk in the shadows of rocks more ancient than we can imagine. Music echoes off stone that last saw life during the Jurassic period, and the dinosaur fossils that undoubtedly hide within the red walls listen to us humans experience these ancient pieces of world history in ways more significant than we could have ever thought. The stone steps and sandstone backgrounds of our photographs have existed for such large portions of world history, and when us little humans are long gone, they will surely be there still. 

Pretty amazing, huh?

Now go enjoy them!

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Featured photo courtesy Unsplash/Benjamin Rascoe