Red Rocks Park
Near Idaho Springs, Colorado
The three-hundred-foot sandstone walls rising at Red Rocks were laid down as horizontal ocean sediment roughly three hundred million years ago, then tilted nearly forty degrees by the same tectonic forces that built the Rocky Mountains. The result is often called one of the finest natural settings for an outdoor amphitheater in the world. Denver recognized the setting early and acquired the land as part of its Mountain Parks system.
The Civilian Conservation Corps carved the amphitheater from the rock between nineteen thirty-five and nineteen forty-one, moving eight hundred tons of quarried stone. The venue officially opened on June fifteenth, nineteen forty-one. It has hosted everyone from the Beatles to U Two to classical orchestras, and in twenty fifteen the National Park Service designated Red Rocks a national historic landmark.
