Explore Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies
As Rockies team photographer Kyle Cooper prepares for games at Coors Field, there is one “player” he takes time to account for -- the Rocky Mountain sky from which, as John Denver so famously sang, fire rains.
“There were a couple of apps over the last nine seasons working at the Rockies that I’ve used to forecast whether there would be a pretty sunset or not,” Cooper said. “Maybe one website might still be working -- forecasting a sunset probably isn’t too lucrative, and it could be hard to do. But a lot of times, I’m keeping my eyes on the clouds overhead when it gets closer to actual sundown.”
That’s right. There is a lot of action on the field, and plenty to see, do and taste off the field. But you can’t separate the scenery from the plains from the Major League experience. Colorado caters to nature lovers and brags about its 300 days of sunshine a year. And a day or night at Coors Field -- with its famous Baseball Sky arriving at sunset -- brings baseball and Rocky Mountain beauty together.
The place also is wild. There are moments of explosion, when the fountains power water 40 feet into the air after each Rockies home run or victory. But look out there when the water calms. Careful, though. You could miss a pitch or even a play while gazing at the environment of plant life -- Pinon Pine, Bristlecone Pine, Con Color Fir, Limber Pine, Gamble Oak and Curl Leaf Mahogany, native foliage such as Columbine flowers, even rocks brought in from mining areas around the state. It’s so breathtaking that it’s easy to wonder about the ecosystem that’s going on in front of everyone.
Officially it’s called the Coors Field Water Feature.
But how about The Environment?
“That’s good – is something that we’re responsible for,” said longtime head groundskeeper Mark Razum.
Colorado Rockies
Established: 1993
National League West
Ballpark: Coors Field (opened 1995)
Yes, come to Coors Field for baseball. Come for the food. But come also for the art, the nature and the beauty -- all of which can’t be separated from the ballgame experience.
Before bringing this park to life, let’s give you the info:
Coors Field
Coors Field location (via Google Maps)
Rockies' schedule
Rockies' roster
2001 Blake St.
Denver, CO, 80205
Capacity: 46,891 (50,144 with standing room)
Dimensions: left field, 347 ft.; left-center, 390 ft.; center field, 415 ft.; right-center, 375 ft.; right field, 350 ft.
Park factors (2024)
100 = league average
Runs: 125 | Homers: 109 | Hits: 116
Unique Characteristics
Coors Field is simply different than any other MLB park. The batted ball tends to travel farther, but the bigger issue is the pitched ball simply doesn’t move or break the same. If it doesn’t travel as far, it can land for hits -- because the outfield was built spaciously, to trim the number of atmosphere-induced homers. The 2016 addition of higher fencing in left field and in front of the bullpens in right-center benefitted pitchers but vexed some hitters by keeping more fly balls in play.
There’s no denying that it all leads to excitement. The cycle -- a hitter accomplishing a single, double, triple and a home run in the same game -- is a rare feat, but a little less-so at Coors, which has hosted 18 of them, an equal number for the Rockies and their opponents. Boston’s Fenway Park has also had 18, but that place opened in 1912.
And there is glory at the place -- a World Series trip in 2007, and four other postseason trips; the retired numbers of the team’s two Hall of Famers (No. 33 Larry Walker and No. 17 Todd Helton) and two All-Star Games, in 1998 and 2021.
Cool food and drink hangouts
The Rooftop, with restaurants and cool views, is open to all ticketed customers. The SandLot Brewery, which opened in 1995 as the first brewery inside an MLB Park and is a perennial winner of Great American Beer Festival Awards, can be entered through the stadium. Another area for club dining with a view of the game from right field is the Mountain Ranch Club and the Mountain Ranch Club Bar and Grille, with buffet-style dining and table seating inside and out.
No discussion of activities at the park is complete without mention of Helton. In this case, it’s the Helton 17 Burger Shack, with the burger itself served as the signature item.
Each year brings new foods. The 2024 season saw two sweet tooth-satisfying items at Section 119 debut to rave reviews -- Strawberry Cheesecake Quesadilla (diced strawberries, cream cheese, sugar, cinnamon and butter in between two flower tortilla and topped with whip cream), and the Polar Pasta (vanilla ice cream topped with donut holes, strawberry syrup and mint).
See more at Coors
Striking displays are available for fans on club level, where the Rockies display game-used items, artwork and artifacts from their history. The PNC Press Club, a premium area behind home plate on the Lower Press Level, also has large-scale photos and items from the Rockies’ history.
The 2024 season saw the debut of the Toyota Clubhouse, a totally renovated home-plate club. While the dining and bar area were striking in their own right, the key feature was a series of drawings -- inside the club, along the corridor leading to the visiting team’s clubhouse and through the halfway leading to the field -- by Colorado artist Taylor Gallegos, who was commissioned by Toyota for the project.
Yes, this is available to those with seats in these club areas during games. However, they can be seen on tours of Coors Field that are available Mondays through Saturdays.
Coors Field is a striking experience for the eye and mind, regardless of the section or price of the ticket.
An iconic feature of Coors is the Rockpile -- bleachers in straightaway center field. The seats have such a clear view of the action that they somehow feel close. Tickets can be purchased in advance, but a number of tickets are available for most game days for a low price -- $4 and $1 in 2024.
The Rockies also lean into Coors’ status as (by far) the park with the highest elevation in baseball. While most of the seating is painted green, a row of seats in the third deck is painted purple, because they are exactly 5,280 feet above sea level. For those uninitiated, that’s a mile.
They tower above the action below. It’s also a great palace to look to the west, and above recent high-rise development beyond the park, at the Rocky Mountains and revel in the “purple mountain majesties” that Katharine Lee Bates so eloquently highlighted in “America, The Beautiful.”
A celebration of nature
Coloradans love nature. But who says you need to get away from it all to find it?
Coors Field is full of life that has absolutely nothing to do with balls and strikes.
Remember the food references? Well, the Rockies, ARAMARK (the club’s exclusive food and beverage partner) and Produce Denver join forces to administer The Ballpark Garden, outside the center field portion of the stadium. The 600-square-foot garden produces vegetables and herbs that are used in Coors by various chefs, in the Mountain Ranch Club and at build-your-own salad stations in the park.
And remember the environment that supports the fountains in center field? It gets the mind wandering and wondering if there is an entire ecosystem enjoying the game.
That just may be true.
A few years back, a family of red-tail hawks nested in the scoreboard above the park.
Sometimes members of the family would soar around the park during games. There is a new Rockies Vision scoreboard, and the hawks have not been seen since at least 2021, but they are fans like you who take a trip to 20th and Blake.
"Every now and then, we see them,” Razum said.
And foxes have been known to enjoy your seats during the offseason.
But one animal often watches the game with the fans. Coors Field cat “Smokey” became locally famous before being put up for adoption. But cats still love baseball and stick around for food and fun. And they tweet about their exploits.
What an ecosystem.
“Raccoons ... we’ve had a family of ducks hang out,” Razum said.
And the operation is eco-friendly. The water used for the grass is recycled through the pond and appears when the fountains activate. And in those natural areas are all real. There is no concrete base. It’s all a Colorado experience.
“We keep everything native to Colorado,” Razum said. “That’s how it should be.”
But the all-time moment was baseball-related. It occurred in 2017, when the Rockies clinched their first postseason berth in eight years.
“We were out there working on the field postgame, getting our lawn mowers going,” Razum said. “And Ian Desmond was like, ‘’Razz, we’re heading out to the waterfall.’ I was like, ‘What?’
“They were jumping over the fence and leaping into it.”
Yes, even human life can be a little wild.
Keep your eye to the sky
And if all this isn’t enough, look to the sky.
What’s the best time to point your cellphone camera for a shot? Cooper suggests 10-15 minutes after the sun sets just behind the mountains. Like a home run sailing beyond the fence, Baseball Sky at Coors doesn’t last long. But it packs memorable beauty.
“Some of the Midwest stadiums consistently give really good Baseball Sky, because they have sunsets and don’t have the mountains blocking it,” Cooper said. “But on a night-to-night basis, you’re going to get a better sunset at Coors Field than any other stadium.”
At Coors Field, come for the baseball.
Stay for Colorado.