OSMP parking permits and fees

Here's the whole thing in three sentences. The City of Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks department charges for parking at seven areas, and the fee applies only to vehicles that are not registered in Boulder County. If you're one of those visitors, you buy a $5 daily permit or a $25 annual permit, and the daily one works at every OSMP fee trailhead on the date you bought it. If your car has Boulder County registration, or you're parking anywhere on OSMP outside those seven areas, you don't need a permit at all.

That's genuinely it. The rest of this page is the detail: exactly which trailheads charge, how the ParkMobile zones work, what you're buying, and what happens if you skip it.

Who has to pay, precisely

This is the part visitors get wrong most often, so it's worth quoting the city directly. The OSMP fee page says: "All park visitors whose motor vehicles are not registered in Boulder County must possess either a daily or annual permit to park on Flagstaff Mountain, in Gregory Canyon, or at Doudy Draw, Flatirons Vista, Greenbelt Plateau, Marshall Mesa, South Boulder Creek West and South Mesa Trailheads." The OSMP rules page says the same thing more briefly: parking fees are required at certain trailheads for vehicles not registered in Boulder County.

So the test is your vehicle registration, not where you live, not where you're from, and not whether you're a Colorado resident. A Denver plate pays. A Fort Collins plate pays. A rental car from DIA pays. A car registered in Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Nederland, or Boulder itself does not, because those are all Boulder County. If you've just moved here and haven't re-registered your out-of-state car yet, you still need the permit.

One more thing that trips people up: there is nothing to hang on your mirror. The permit is attached to a single license plate number and registered in the city's permitting system, and it isn't transferable between vehicles. Rangers read plates. If you change plates within the year, OSMP asks you to call the administrative office and update the record.

The seven OSMP fee areas, and their ParkMobile zones

This is the complete list. A $5 daily or $25 annual permit covers all of them, for vehicles not registered in Boulder County.

The six Flagstaff Mountain self-service stations operate 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and share one zone number, so it doesn't matter which of them you pay at.

Which Boulder trailheads are free

Everything else on OSMP. The seven areas above are the only ones where the city charges for parking, which means the majority of Boulder's open space trailheads cost nothing to park at, for anyone, regardless of plate. That includes well-known ones like Mount Sanitas, the Sanitas Valley Trail, Wonderland Lake, Boulder Valley Ranch, and the Bobolink Trailhead on the South Boulder Creek Trail. Note that Bobolink is free even though South Boulder Creek West, farther south, is a fee lot. Same creek, different trailhead, different rule.

Two big exceptions worth knowing before you drive out:

• Chautauqua is not an OSMP fee trailhead, but it isn't free either in summer. It runs its own separate paid-parking program on summer weekends and holidays, with a free shuttle from downtown. An OSMP permit does not cover it. The Boulder trailhead parking guide covers the rates and the shuttle.
• Eldorado Canyon is a Colorado state park, not OSMP. It has its own entrance fee and its own timed-entry reservation system on busy days. Your OSMP permit does nothing there.

How to buy a permit

The $5 daily permit

You've got two ways to pay. Buy it at the trailhead, where there are cashless ParkMobile payment stations, or buy it in advance online through ParkMobile using the zone number for the lot you're headed to. Advance is usually smarter, because cell service isn't available at every OSMP trailhead and you don't want to discover that in the parking lot.

The generous part of the daily permit is that it isn't locked to one lot. The city is explicit: payment is valid at all OSMP trailheads for the date purchased. Buy for Doudy Draw, find it full, drive to South Mesa, and you're already covered. That's a real convenience on a busy Saturday, because it means a full lot costs you a drive but not another $5.

What it doesn't do is hold a space. Buying in advance guarantees you've paid, not that there's anywhere to park. If you're paying with cash at a station, bring exact change, since the machines don't make change and daily permits are non-refundable.

The $25 annual permit

If you'll visit the fee trailheads more than five times in a year, the annual permit pays for itself. It's purchased online, covers every OSMP fee location, and is valid until the last day of the month of issuance the following year. Buy it in March and it runs through March 31 of the next year. One permit covers one vehicle, tied to one plate. OSMP emails a renewal reminder a year after purchase.

Both permits carry a $1.50 service charge on online transactions, which the city notes is not a City of Boulder charge, and both are non-refundable.

How the ParkMobile zones work

ParkMobile organizes paid parking by numbered zones. Every OSMP fee area has one, listed in the table above, and it's posted on signs at the lot. Open the app, enter the zone, enter your license plate, pay. The whole Flagstaff Mountain corridor shares zone 24700, so the station at Gregory Canyon and the station at Lost Gulch Overlook are the same zone. Because a daily permit works across all OSMP fee trailheads that day, ParkMobile also lets you move between zones without repaying.

What happens if you don't pay

Rangers patrol OSMP land, and the city's rules page states plainly that violations may result in summons and/or fines. Boulder doesn't publish a set dollar amount for a parking-fee citation, so we're not going to invent one. What we can say is that the math is not in your favor: a daily permit is $5, an annual is $25, and any citation is going to be a multiple of both.

While you're checking rules, note the lot curfews, which catch out sunrise and stargazing plans. Most OSMP parking lots are closed to vehicles between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. All trailheads and parking areas along Flagstaff Mountain are closed 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Chapman Drive Trailhead is closed dusk to dawn.

Practical tips

• Check your registration, not your address. The exemption follows the vehicle. New arrivals with out-of-state plates and anyone in a rental car needs the permit.
• Install ParkMobile before you leave the house. Setting up an account with weak signal at the base of Flagstaff Road is miserable.
• Do the annual permit math. Five visits and you've broken even. If south Boulder or Flagstaff is part of your regular routine, buy the $25 permit and stop thinking about it.
• Remember the daily permit travels. A full lot is not a wasted $5. Pick another fee trailhead and go.
• Carry exact change as a backup. Stations don't give change, and checks made out to City of Boulder OSMP are accepted.
• Or just park somewhere free. Most OSMP trailheads don't charge anyone. If a permit feels like a hassle for one hike, pick a free trailhead instead.

Keep reading

• Boulder trailhead parking guide: the bigger picture, including Chautauqua paid parking and the free Park-to-Park and Hessie shuttles.
• Flatirons Vista: fee trailhead, ParkMobile zone 24200.
• Doudy Draw: fee trailhead, ParkMobile zone 24100.
• Marshall Mesa: fee trailhead, ParkMobile zone 24400.
• Gregory Canyon: the base of the Flagstaff fee corridor, zone 24700.
• Flagstaff Mountain: six pay stations along one road.
• Trailheads without a car: bus and bike routes that skip the parking question entirely.
• All hikes in Boulder: the full hiking hub, with parking notes on every trail.

OSMP parking permit FAQ

Sources

Every fee, zone number, location, and rule on this page comes from the City of Boulder. Prices and rules change, so check the city's page before you go.

• City of Boulder OSMP: Parking Permits and Fees (fee areas, ParkMobile zones, $5 daily, $25 annual, $1.50 online service charge, Boulder County wording)
• City of Boulder OSMP: Rules and Regulations (parking fees, lot curfews, summons and fines)
• City of Boulder OSMP: Access Points (Flagstaff Road access points are in the parking fee area)
• ParkMobile: buy a daily permit by zone number