Garden of The Gods By Day & Bonamassa At Red Rocks By Night |
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 8/23/2026 - Morrison, Colorado - The Colorado adventure continued today with a good breakfast at our hotel the Holiday Inn Express in Littleton. We hopped in the car and headed south again down I25 to Colorado Springs to explore the Garden of the Gods. It was a hot day and we drove thru and hiked some of the area including Balanced Rock, Siamese Twins, Central Garden and a stop at the Garden of the Gods Trading Post. A nice way to spend the day exploring the gorgeous area and afterwards Deb did some shopping at the Outlet Mall and that included an excellent lunch at In-N-Out Burger. We headed back to our hotel and then decided to go to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre early which was a smart move allowing us to park in the Upper North Parking Lot. Parking is included in the ticket price some how but parking in this lot allowed us the closest access to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and when the show ended we would get out in record time. We explored the Red Rocks area and hung out awaiting our first show ever at this spectacular venue. Tonights headliner would be our favorite Utica guitar player, Joe Bonamassa, who would entertain the sellout Red Rocks crowd. It rained while we waited for the show doors to open but cleared up when they did open giving us a nice rainbow. We entered as soon as the venue opened and climbed down to get to our seats which were about 15 rows back right stage. We walked up to the top to see the fantastic views of the amphitheater and the city of Denver in the distance. We also stopped at the Red Rocks Visitor Center which had all the history of this amazing venue. It included walls documenting every show performed at the venue over its many years, models of the venue and a history of it's creation and Wall of Fame of Artists honored for playing here. We grabbed beverages and awaited Joe Bonamassa and his band to hit the stage. Bonamassa came out with no opening act and played a great set of blues as only Bonamassa can. He opened the set with Breakthrough and played some excellent covers including Bobby 'Blue' Bland's Twenty-Four Hour Blues and Eric Clapton's Mainline Florida. Joe's band was pretty tight and had Lemar Carter on drums, Josh Smith on guitar, Lachy Doley on keys, Calvin Turner on bass and Danielle DeAndrea and Jade MacRae on backing vocals. The lighting on the rocks, the sound, the mood at Red Rocks was awesome. He jammed on a couple of Rory Gallagher tunes including I Fall Apart and a set closing A Million Miles Away. He came out for one encore of Mountain Time. The sellout crowd were definitely entertained and again Joe and band were pretty tight. Bonamassa continues to bring it over the top and the Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a great venue that is also over the top. A fantastic first show that again we left after the show ended and still bypassed traffic due to the excellent parking. So glad to finally check the box of seeing a show at this venue and tomorrow we get to do it again with Santana. My only regret here is that I did NOT come out here sooner.Slideshow | |
<<<- <- -> ->>> Joe Bonamassa performs I Fall Apart at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on Aug 23, 2026
Joe Bonamassa performs Twenty-Four Hour Blues at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on Aug 23, 2026
Joe Bonamassa performs Mainline Florida at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on Aug 23, 2026
Joe Bonamassa performs A Million Miles Away at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on Aug 23, 2026
Joe Bonamassa performs solo at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on Aug 23, 2026
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