Colorado What To Do›Free Things To Do
One of America's great outdoor states is also one of its cheapest, if you know which four places to skip. Fifteen things that cost nothing — including one that is free by deed, forever.
What is free to do in Colorado?
Garden of the Gods, Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside show hours, the NCAR Mesa Lab exhibit floor, Dinosaur Ridge's public road, Bishop Castle, Bent's Old Fort, Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Denver Union Station, the elk rut in Estes Park, stargazing in the San Luis Valley, and hiking on any of Colorado's eleven national forests.
Here is the structural fact that makes Colorado cheap, and almost nobody explains it.
Eleven national forests cover an enormous share of Colorado's mountains, and hiking on national forest land does not cost anything. No gate, no pass, no reservation. Meanwhile, the fees you keep reading about are concentrated in a handful of famous places with parking problems.
Skip those four or five bottlenecks and most of this state has no admission at all.
Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs deserves its own paragraph. The land was donated to the city in 1909 on the explicit condition that it remain free to the public forever. No entrance fee, no parking fee, no reservation, permanently — because the deed says so.
Vertical red sandstone fins pushed upright by the same uplift that raised Pikes Peak, with paved accessible trails through the middle of them. It would be worth paying for. You do not have to.
The free finder
No entrance fee, no permit, no reservation at time of writing. Filter by region or by what kind of day you want.
Showing all 14
Colorado Springs
Vertical red sandstone fins pushed upright by the same uplift that raised Pikes Peak. Paved trails, and free forever by deed.
Donated to Colorado Springs in 1909 on the condition it stay free to the public.
Morrison
A concert venue wedged between two 300-foot sandstone monoliths. Free to walk any day nothing is scheduled, and people run the stairs at sunrise.
Morrison
Jurassic bones on one side of the ridge and hundreds of Cretaceous footprints on the other. Walking the public road is free; the bus tour is not.
The Morrison Formation is literally named after this town.
Boulder
I.M. Pei designed it after studying the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. Free exhibit floor on atmospheric science, free parking, and trails leaving from the lot.
Durango, Silverton, Ouray
A 236-mile loop across four mountain passes, including the Million Dollar Highway. One of only two All-American Roads in Colorado.
Crested Butte
Thirty miles of dirt road through what may be the largest contiguous aspen forest in North America. Passable in a regular car when dry.
Estes Park
September and October, at dawn and dusk. Hundreds of elk bugling in the meadows. Watch from the car and keep your distance.
Rye
A full stone castle with towers, iron catwalks and a fire-breathing dragon, built almost single-handedly by Jim Bishop starting in 1969. No admission charge.
San Luis Valley and statewide
Colorado has 13 International Dark Sky Parks and eight Dark Sky Communities — more places in the certification process than anywhere on Earth.
Go near a new moon and give your eyes 30 minutes to adjust.
La Junta
The largest dinosaur tracksite in North America — hundreds of prints across a remote canyon floor.
No shade and no water on a long approach. Not a summer trip.
La Junta
A full reconstruction of an 1830s adobe trading post on the Santa Fe Trail, staffed in period. The best history stop on the plains.
Calhan
Banded clay hoodoos and spires that look like southern Utah dropped onto the Colorado prairie. Free, and almost nobody is there.
Statewide
Colorado has 58 peaks above 14,000 feet. Mount Elbert at 14,440 is the highest and one of the most walkable.
Summit by noon and be below treeline by two — afternoon lightning is near-daily in summer.
Denver
A restored 1914 station that is now a public great hall with bars, restaurants and shops. Free to sit in, and the train from the airport arrives here in about 37 minutes.
Nothing matches those filters. Try clearing one.
Some of these charge for optional extras — Dinosaur Ridge's bus tour is paid while walking the public road is free, and Bent's Old Fort is a National Historic Site with free admission. Fees can appear; tell us if one has.
The big one
Colorado's national forests are the single largest free recreation resource in the state, and the least understood by visitors.
Hiking is free. Dispersed camping is free and legal on most Forest Service roads, generally capped at 14 days within a 28-day period. Scenic driving is free. There are no entrance stations on most of it.
What you give up is facilities. Dispersed sites have no toilets, no water and no bins, so you pack out everything — including waste. That is the trade, and it is a fair one.
Our sister guide covers the ethics in full in Pack It In, Pack It Out, including the five-step method for killing a campfire so it stays dead.
Be honest about it
Four bottlenecks account for most of the fees people complain about in Colorado. Knowing them lets you decide rather than be surprised.
State parks also charge, either a daily vehicle pass or the annual Keep Colorado Wild Pass, which residents can add to a vehicle registration at a discount. That is worth understanding: state parks charge, national forests generally do not. It is the most useful distinction in Colorado recreation and the one visitors most often get wrong.
Everything else on this page remains free. So if the budget is tight, the honest advice is to build the trip around the national forests and the free landmarks, and treat the four bottlenecks as optional splurges rather than obligations.
Common questions
Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside show hours, the NCAR Mesa Lab exhibit floor in Boulder, Dinosaur Ridge's public road in Morrison, Bishop Castle near Rye, Bent's Old Fort in La Junta, Paint Mines Interpretive Park in Calhan, Denver Union Station, the elk rut in Estes Park, stargazing anywhere in the San Luis Valley, and hiking on any of Colorado's eleven national forests.
Yes, permanently. The land was donated to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909 on the explicit condition that it remain free to the public forever. There is no entrance fee, no parking fee and no reservation requirement. It is one of the few major American attractions with free access written into its deed.
Yes. Red Rocks Amphitheatre is free to walk on any day nothing is scheduled, along with the surrounding trail system and the visitor centre. Locals run the amphitheatre stairs at sunrise. You only pay when there is a ticketed event, and the geology alone justifies the visit.
On national forest land, yes. Colorado has eleven national forests covering a large share of the mountains, and hiking there costs nothing. Fees are concentrated in a handful of famous places with parking problems — Rocky Mountain National Park, the Maroon Bells, Hanging Lake and Mount Blue Sky. Skip those four bottlenecks and most of Colorado has no gate at all.
Walk Red Rocks in Morrison, see the Cretaceous dinosaur footprints along the public road at Dinosaur Ridge, sit in the great hall at Union Station, walk the RiNo mural district, and visit the free exhibit floor at the NCAR Mesa Lab in Boulder — an I.M. Pei building with free parking and trails leaving from the lot.
No. Colorado state parks charge a daily vehicle pass or require an annual Keep Colorado Wild Pass, which residents can add to a vehicle registration at a discount. National forest land, by contrast, is generally free to hike and to camp on in dispersed sites. That distinction is the single most useful thing to understand about free recreation here.
Dispersed camping on national forest land is free and legal on most Forest Service roads, generally capped at 14 days within a 28-day period. There are no facilities, so you pack out everything including waste. Developed campgrounds with toilets and water charge a fee and book through Recreation.gov, often months in advance.
Garden of the Gods is the strongest single answer — vertical red sandstone fins, paved accessible trails, and free forever by deed since 1909. For something stranger, Bishop Castle near Rye is a hand-built stone castle with a fire-breathing metal dragon and no admission charge. For scale, stargazing in the San Luis Valley under some of the darkest skies in the lower 48 costs nothing at all.
Get in touch
The best free places in Colorado are the ones nobody writes about. If you know one, send it — and if a fee has appeared somewhere on this list, tell us.