Most big Colorado ski areas have found ways to make you pay for a parking space. Eldora works differently. It has no reservations and no paid premium spots. It has one fee, and only cars with a driver and no passengers pay it. Opening day is scheduled for Friday, November 13, 21 miles up Boulder Canyon from downtown, and the rules work the same way they have for several seasons. Your arrival time and the price of your pass don't change what you pay to park. The number of people in your car does.
The deal behind the lot
This system came out of a negotiation. On February 11, 2020, Boulder County commissioners voted unanimously to let Eldora add 805 parking spaces, a project the Daily Camera reported would cost more than $6 million. The plan was a new 568-space lot above the north lot and 237 more spaces next to the Nordic center.
The approval came with conditions. Commissioners had tabled the vote two weeks earlier, on January 28, so carpooling, transit and parking-fee requirements could be added. The Daily Camera noted that parking at Eldora had always been free, and that a paid-parking idea the resort raised two years before had been dropped after public outcry. The deal that passed brought it back in a narrower form.
The main terms, as the Daily Camera reported them:
- A $10 fee for single-occupancy vehicles on peak days, meaning weekends, holidays, and days with 10 or more inches of snow in the previous 24 hours.
- On those same days, solo drivers park in the upper lot.
- 200 spaces at the west end of the lower lot permanently set aside for cars carrying three or more people.
- A goal of 2.0 people per car on average by 2023. If Eldora fell short, it would meet with the county to discuss more measures.
That 2.0 figure explains the rest of the system. The county's goal was more people in each car, so the fee falls on cars carrying only a driver and the closest spaces go to full cars.
COVID pushed the start date back. A Boulder County staff memo dated November 11, 2020 said the conditions couldn't practically be met in 2020–21, approved a reservation plan for that season only, and said the original conditions would take effect in 2021–22. SKI Magazine later described the fee as in effect since the 2021–22 season.
How the rule reads at the gate this winter
Heading into the fee's sixth season, Eldora's own pages show the same structure. A notice on its 26/27 lesson page says a $10 fee for single-occupancy vehicles "will be charged on certain days this winter." The transportation page lists fee days as Saturdays, Sundays, certain holiday periods and weekdays with 10 or more inches of new snow. It also says Eldora can charge the fee on other days without advance notice when it needs to manage traffic or save parking.
Here is what each kind of car gets on a fee day:
Who's in the car | Fee on a peak day | Where you park |
|---|---|---|
Driver only | $10 | Wherever solo cars are directed |
Two people | Free | General lots |
Three or more | Free | Elk Lot HOV zone near Alpenglow, first-come, first-served, then any open space |
The Elk Lot is the westernmost section of the lot, and it's reserved for cars with three or more people seven days a week, not just on fee days. That makes the 200-space condition from 2020 the best parking at the resort. It sits closest to the Alpenglow chairlift and the lodges. Once it fills, cars with three or more people park anywhere else that's open.
The fee also has a nickname. In its 2025 parking report, SKI Magazine heard some solo skiers calling the single-occupancy area the "Lot of Shame" on a December day.
Whether pricing seats worked
The best measure of success is whether people get turned away. In the same SKI report, Eldora marketing director Sam Bass estimated that before the new spaces opened, the resort turned skiers around five or six days a season and sent them to wait in Nederland until a spot opened. During the 2024–25 season, he said, people had to wait for a spot on only two days, and not for long.
The bus numbers point the same way. A ridership compilation published by Greater Denver Transit puts annual boardings on RTD's NB route at 59,000 in 2021, 91,000 in 2022, 97,000 in 2023 and 108,000 in 2024. Those are route-wide calendar-year totals, not a count of skiers, and the route's labels changed over that period. Over the same years the fee took hold, ridership on the only transit line to the mountain grew steadily.
The bus is the third seat
The system works best for Boulder skiers because the bus is cheap and easy to catch. Eldora is the only ski resort RTD serves. The NB starts at Downtown Boulder Station at 1800 14th Street, makes a few stops before the Nederland Park-n-Ride, and drops riders in front of the Alpenglow high-speed chairlift. On the way home, you catch it at the same spot.
RTD's Ski-n-Ride page says the NB runs hourly and daily through the season. The first drop-off at Eldora is 6:58 a.m. and the last pickup is 5:13 p.m. A $5.50 day pass covers the round trip and any other RTD bus or rail that day. Riders 19 and under ride free through RTD's Zero Fare for Youth program. Skis and boards go in the luggage bays, but RTD asks that they be in a ski bag before you board.
Put those prices next to the gate fee. On a peak day, a solo driver pays $10 to park, and a solo bus rider pays $5.50. A parent riding the bus with two teenagers pays $5.50 for all three. Two adults in one car pay nothing, and three or more get the Elk Lot. The only trip that costs more than bus fare is the one with empty seats.
The bus also ended a workaround. Eldora used to run a free hourly Justice Center shuttle from Boulder on weekends. Now that RTD's NB runs hourly on weekends, the resort says the shuttle is no longer needed. Lift hours give you a target to aim for: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. That makes the last 5:13 p.m. pickup a comfortable end to the day.
Where Boulder carpools start
If you'd rather fill your car than ride the bus, Eldora lists four places with free weekend parking, and the NB stops at all of them:
- The City of Boulder parking garage next to Downtown Boulder Station, 1800 14th Street
- The Boulder County Justice Center, 6th and Canyon, where carpool parking is allowed only on the dates Eldora lists on its transportation page
- The People's Crossing, Pearl and Canyon
- The Nederland Park-n-Ride
Eldora also runs a Facebook carpool forum for skiers from Boulder and greater Denver looking to share a ride. Picking a lot on that list means a ride that falls through still has a backup, since the NB stops at the same corner.
The other way around the fee is to change the day. Eldora says weekends are its busiest days, especially in December, January and February, and it recommends non-holiday weekdays for the easiest access and parking. Outside powder days and holidays, weekdays aren't fee days.
What the pass costs
For 26/27, Eldora lists its Unlimited pass at $789 for adults, $579 for young adults and $299 for children. The Weekday Plus is $509 for adults. The Ikon Pass, listed from $1,529 for adults 23 and up, and the Ikon Base Pass, listed from $1,099, both include unlimited Eldora access with no Eldora blackout dates. Every one of those passes gets the same treatment in the parking lot, where your pass doesn't change what you pay. The people in your car do.
How close you live to Downtown Boulder Station, or how easy it is to drive west on Canyon Boulevard, can shape your winter weekends as much as any feature of the house. If you're weighing that kind of everyday access as part of a move within Boulder County, The Bernardi Group can walk you through how different parts of the city line up with the NB route and the canyon. Start Your Strategy Session with our team before the season gets busy.
