What’s more, a few of these monolithic rocks are sized and combined and aligned in just the right way to produce a natural, almost perfect, acoustical theater.
Native Americans had long used this area for sacred ritual, and European and American opera singers, musicians, and audiences flocked to it in the late 1800s and early 1900s for its high-fidelity sound. But it took an enterprising entrepreneur, a talented architect, and the United States CCC (Civil Conservation Corps, pre World War II), to turn the space into a real money-making venture. Working within the constraints of rock and valley, they designed and built a 70-row amphitheater that exploits all the natural gifts of the area while retaining its true beauty.
Since its first Easter sunrise service in 1947, Red Rocks has hosted innumerable big-name performers. Johnny Cash. Sting. Ella Fitzgerald. The Beatles. Joan Baez. U2. The Go Gos. You name them, they’ve probably played here—or will very soon. (Tickets are still available for Flogging Molly in Sept 2009, if anyone’s interested.)
OK, for all its fame, I know virtually nothing about music concerts, so I had no idea this place existed until a local advised me to see it. I arrived about 10 a.m. on a Monday, not knowing what to expect except maybe some nice little hikes and a repeat of the beautiful rocks of Utah.
At 10 on a Monday morning, there are crazy people here. Dozens of them. Wearing shorts and tank tops and track shoes. Panting and pounding and sweating. They are charging up and down the hundreds of steps. They are running back and forth on the rows, working up from the stage to the highest seats, sprinting some rows, trotting others. Some are on stage heaving iron kettlebells. Others are high-stepping sideways with their trainers down the rows—one foot on the seat, right knee to left elbow, touch ground, bounce, step down one level. Trainers are bellowing “Another lap, Susan, keep it up!” and three people are working their way along the south set of steps by running down a flight sideways to the right, up them sideways to the left, and advancing down to the next flight to repeat. The temperature is above 80 degrees. Even the runners’ dogs are smart enough to stop in the shade.
I meander among all this energy, slowly, methodically, in full appreciation of this gorgeous place, plodding my way up the steps and trying not to get tired just watching these other people.
Memorial to the CCC crew of young men who built this place.
Environs.
The Ruby Falcon, for scale.
Visitors Center (circa 1990s) is the round building at the left. The CCC crews lived at a camp in the valley below when they built the amphitheater in the 1930s and 40s.
This scale model of the amphitheater was very helpful...the place is really too big to take in at once.
Red Rocks is very near Dinosaur Ridge, home and death place of many a stegosaurus and other thunder lizards.
The sealife came big in those days, too. I suspect this clam-like fellow would have fed a whole tribe, had it been around at the same time as humans.
The museum documents everyone who has played at Red Rocks.
Some of those crazy people.
Views from the top.
This puppy is 300 feet tall, and has a matching one at the other side of the seating.
Backstage buildings.
Imagine facing the audience from this vantage point. One performer said he loved playing here because he could see the faces of everyone in the crowd, even at the back row.
All the concrete for the seating platform was poured by hand; the engineers devised a unique system for making it flow evenly as they worked down the amphitheater. The rest is red rock and wood.
Even water runoff was handled with remarkable brickwork.
More info at http://www.redrocksonline.com/pages/visiting/hist_geo.html
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