Eldorado Canyon State Park is renowned as one of Colorado’s top rock-climbing destinations. It boasts over 1,200 climbing routes, many of which are multi pitch, offering climbers a lengthy and rewarding ascent.
The park is a diverse outdoor haven with stunning rock formations and rich landscape that also offers a prime opportunity for serene hikes.
Park Ranger Tony Scigliano is especially proud of working in a place that can bring nature to anyone. The park has over 17 miles of trails of varying difficulties, and the first half mile of the Fowler Trail is even ADA accessible.
“While it is flat and pretty gentle, you still get some spectacular views,” Scigliano said. “The outdoors is truly for everybody. It’s absolutely imperative that we offer outdoor opportunities that are accessible for everybody. That’s why trails like this are phenomenol and so important. It’s at the core of what we do.”
The park is only about 20 minutes from downtown Boulder, and 40 minutes from downtown Denver, but visitors navigating the thin, dirt road into the park will completely escape into nature.
“It’s wonderful. It’s like you’re in a whole other world,” hiker Jane Els said. “You can watch the rock climbers. There's a bunch of different varieties of trail difficulties, and so it’s just a great place. Then there's a nice little picnic area over by the visitor center, where there's some water running, and it just has a little bit of everything.”
Eldorado Canyon State Park is the only one of Colorado’s 43 state parks to have a timed-entry reservation system, due to it seeing over 500,000 visitors annually and having only about 200 parking spots. On weekends and holidays from May 1 through October 1, visitors will need to reserve a 2-hour time slot to enter the park, which is done online.
Boulder County offers the free Eldo Shuttle on weekends and holidays from May 24 to September 14. The service takes visitors from nearby Boulder County into the park, and guests do not require a timed-entry reservation if they use the shuttle. It does, however, require a valid state parks pass to ride the shuttle into the state park. Shuttle riders can bring an annual pass, purchase a pass online or bring $4 cash per adult in exact change.
