We had packed everything up the night before, and I still had some room (amazing!) so I ran out to pick up a couple of extra goodies from Target that morning. It felt weird to be able to shop on a national holiday. I looked online expecting at least limited hours--but, nope, it was bussiness as usual. Even the small, local, used book store was open regular hours (which meant Marika could fill in extra space with more books, much to her excitement).
After that last flurry of commercialism, we headed out to the first of two very unique local venues on the agenda for the day: Red Rocks.
Red Rocks is a natural ampitheater formed by red rocks (weren't they creative when it was named?). It became famous for its acoustic properties as far back as the early 1900s, when famed opera singers would trek there by donkey just to try it out. A temproary platform stage was eventually erected and a number of concerts (some orchstral and some opera singers, etc) were held over the years. In 1941, as part of a Civillian Cinservation Core project, it was turned into a true to form concert venue, benches and a stage were erected, etc.
We had a big group and had to take two cars from my sister in law's house. We met up at the parking area in front of the Red Rocks Trading Post.
These days, there is a lovely 1.4 mile hiking trail around the outskirts of the main amptheatre. I'd never been on it (nor did I know it was there before my sister in law suggested we hike it), but we sure enjoyed it. It is an easy hike with plenty of great scenery. (note, if you ever go for the hike, no matter which direction you go along the trail, it will be downhill from the parking area and then uphill again for the last half of the hike--there is just no way to get the hardest part out of the way first, sorry).
Once back up at the parking area, there is ramp to walk up to to get into the main venue, or you can drive to the upper lot (normally for actual concerts you walk up the ramp). I popped into the shop before heading up--in the hopes of buying a "shield" for Rio's walking stick that he takes hiking in Europe. Sheilds are small, thin, metal plaques representing an area, that you can nail onto your walking stick as a keepsake. I asked in the store--and prefaced by saying I knew it was a crazy question. The response was that it was that they do not carry such a thing but get asked about them at elast once a day--probably by all the foriegn tourists. Hmmmm, maybe they need to start carrying this much in demand item?
I highly recomend both the hike, and visiting the main concert area if you are in the neighborhood. Both can be done at a very realed pace in only a couple of hours, and they are both very interesting in their own ways. They are also free--always a nice perk.
We headed into the concert area, which looks like this:
There are large rock formations along the side as well, especially on stage right:
(please forgive our silly, super hero pose; I'm not sure what we were thinking!)
Ahh, Red Rocks. I saw my first conert here, John Denver, performing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
Even if you have never been to Denver, or think you have never heard of Red Rocks, you might be looking at these photos and thinking it looks awfully familiar. You may have seen it featured in any one of several of John Denver's specials that he filmed here, or (so I am told) as the start/finish line in The Amazing Race--but if you are my age, what you probably recognize it from is one of the greatest concert movies ever made:
My sisters in law actaully had tickets for that night. There were such heavy rains that U2 offered ticket holders the option to see them the next night at McNichols (indoor) arena, or that night at Red Rocks. The girls made the wrong choice, and missed one of the most celebrated shows in music history. Wow.
At the back of the ampitheater, there is a visitor's center. There is some memorbilia from various artists who have performed there, some interesting bits of information about many of them, and a fun wall which lists every conert held since the 1941 opening. It was great fun looking at that with three generations. My in laws were finding The Kingston Trio show they saw while still dating, Dave and I were finding things we saw growing up, including John Denver, David Byrn, The B-52s, etc and my nieces were finding The Avett Brothers conerts from the last couple of years.
We had had a late breakfast, and were planning an early dinner/late lunch at another totally unique Denver area location: Casa Bonita. Our stomaches were rumbling, and it was time to head towards the home of unlimited sopapillas. So, I will end with one more photos of the kids--just becuase I think it is a great one of the two of them--and be back with a seperate post about Casa Bonita sometime soon.
--Hadley
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