Maroon Bells Welcome Station — Attraction in Four Corners States

Save yourself the frustration and just book a bicycle to ride up to the bells rather than parking here and taking the shuttle. Booked the shuttle for 2 days in a row, with the only time that was left. Both days I showed up either 5 minutes or 30 minutes late because of traffic etc. They will try to embarrass you and yell in front of everyone “you missed your scheduled time, get to the back of the standby line” which were an hour wait each time. I politely asked if I had a reservation time that had just passed, why I couldn’t get on the next bus. They will look you up and down like you’re stupid and tell you “should’ve been here on time.” The people that work here are incredibly rude and condescending.

Parking is also a rip off- after having to pay for the shuttle they make you pay $40/day for parking. The first day I came back to a $100 violation because I was 30 mins past my paid parking time, because the bus I took back sat at the pick up for 30 minutes waiting for other passengers. So I’m at $80 for parking, $100 violation, $34 for shuttles. And I only had a combined 5 1/2 hours in the park both days after all was said and done. Waste of money.

You’re better off parking in Aspen...

I recently parked at the Maroon Bells parking lot and got a ticket because of a confusing sign that says “MUST PAY FOR PARKING UPON ARRIVAL.” Like many visitors, I parked and immediately boarded the bus to Maroon Bells, assuming I’d pay when I arrived back from the bus ride. Instead, I got a ticket for not paying immediately after parking — which the sign does not clearly say.

When I tried to explain this honest mistake to the parking staff, they were not only unhelpful but also unnecessarily rude, saying “This is how people like you game the parking.” That’s an unprofessional way to talk to visitors who simply misunderstood unclear instructions.

I eventually got the ticket reduced to the day rate, but the whole experience left a bad taste.

This could easily be fixed with clearer signage like: • “PAY IMMEDIATELY AFTER PARKING” • “PAY BEFORE BOARDING SHUTTLE”

Aspen is beautiful, but visitors shouldn’t have to deal with unclear rules and rude comments. I hope the management updates the sign and trains staff to handle misunderstandings more politely.

✅ Tip for visitors: Pay as soon as you park, not...

The park is beautiful and everything we expected it to be from the online photos and reviews. My beef is with the reservation system. I set an alarm to make the parking reservations at the exact time they were to be released, made sure that we got them. Received a confirmation email, where it said that we MUST arrive before 8 am for the reservation to be valid. We woke up by alarm, rushed through the breakfast to make sure we make it on time. So…. We get to the gate at 8 am and there is nobody there. A car in front of us successfully bought a ticket through an automated machine (apparently reservations weren’t needed for them). Good for them, no problem. We drive through and get to the parking lot to find it half empty. This is at 8am. We had a great time and left around 10:30. As we were leaving, there were about 10 empty parking spots. It was a bummer to know we didn’t have to stress about the reservations and getting up early and rushing through breakfast, so I was compelled to leave this review for the future...