The South Park Denver Tour: Two Days, 12 Stops
By Gil Tabor, November 6, 2026
Two days of real Denver places South Park used, from the Cherry Creek tooth racket to Cartman's Casa Bonita, with the episode for every stop.
1. Why this tour exists
The boys live an hour up 285, but every few seasons the show needs a city, and the city it reaches for is ours. Cherry Creek gets the rich kids. Colfax gets the creeps. A Lakewood restaurant gets the most important birthday party in Colorado history. This is two days built only from places the show actually used, each with its episode, plus a few that only the people who taped it off Comedy Central in 1998 will catch. Day one is downtown and Cherry Creek. Day two runs west down Colfax and ends at the only stop you need to book.
2. Day 1, 9:30 AM: Four Mile Historic Park
In "Super Fun Time" (season 12), the fourth grade goes on a field trip to Pioneer Village, robbers take the place hostage, and the staff would rather be shot than admit it isn't 1864. Four Mile, at 715 S Forest St, is Denver's real version: a working homestead on Cherry Creek, with Denver's oldest standing house (1859) and interpreters in period dress. Nobody here has been shot. Ask what year it is anyway. Off-season hours are short, so check the day before.
3. 11:30 AM: Cherry Creek
In "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000" (season 4), the tooth racket outgrows South Park, so the boys take it to Cherry Creek, which is where the show sends you when it needs a rich kid. They find one already running the local tooth market like he has a lawyer on retainer. Walk the blocks north of 1st Avenue, around 3000 E 1st Ave, and eat lunch on a patio.
Markets4. 1:45 PM: The blue bear at the Convention Center
"The Big Fix" (season 25) opens at a cannabis industry convention in this building, 700 14th St. Take the photo with the 40-foot bear looking in the window, which is free and always there, and move on.
5. 2:15 PM: Denver Performing Arts Complex
When "Broadway Bro Down" (season 15) opens, Randy has seen the Denver run of Wicked 23 times, and he takes its move to Seattle personally. The touring shows land here at 14th and Curtis, in the Buell and the Ellie Caulkins, two blocks from the bear. The deep cut: in August 2012, Parker and Stone opened the first national tour of The Book of Mormon in this complex, at the Ellie Caulkins, and the three-week run sold out in about five hours. Check tonight's calendar while you're here. If a show is on, that is your evening, and the arena is the backup.
Arts6. 3:30 PM: Coors Field
The boys spend all of "The Losing Edge" (season 9) trying to lose a Little League season and keep accidentally winning, and the ballpark also turns up in "Professor Chaos" (season 6). The Rockies have run the same plan for several real seasons, with much better results. Outside baseball season the ballpark still runs tours most of the year, so take one at 2001 Blake St, then walk LoDo to Union Station.
7. 7:00 PM: Nuggets or Avalanche at Ball Arena
"Cartman Finds Love," "Taming Strange" and "#REHASH" all come back to this building at 1000 Chopper Cir, always as the Pepsi Center. Both teams play here through the winter. Whoever is home tonight, go. A weeknight upper-level seat usually runs well under a Saturday one, and the jumbotron is the same size.
Concerts8. Late: The "Medicinal Fried Chicken" nightcap
In "Medicinal Fried Chicken" (season 14), dispensaries take over the KFC buildings, the chicken goes underground, and Cartman becomes the Tony Montana of extra crispy. In real Denver you can buy both on the same block, legally, no cartel required, if you are 21 with ID and keep it out of public, cars and most hotels. For the chicken half, skip the bucket. Steuben's in Uptown, 523 E 17th Ave, won Westword's Best Fried Chicken in 2021 and sits a short ride from the arena, but the kitchen closes at 10 most nights and 11 on Fridays, so on a game night you eat before puck drop. The Post Chicken & Beer, 2200 S Broadway in Rosedale, is the Denver outpost of a Front Range chicken-and-house-beer operation that took Westword's fried chicken prize back in 2015. And Welton Street Cafe, 2883 Welton St, reopened in Five Points in 2024 after nearly three years without a home, a block from where it started. It is the warmest room on this page, it does not open every day, and it makes a fine Day 2 lunch if the night runs out.
9. Day 2, 9:00 AM: Five Points
In "Krazy Kripples" (season 7), Jimmy and Timmy come down to Five Points looking for the Crips and get a lot more than a club membership. The real neighborhood is the historic heart of Black Denver and its jazz history. Get a bagel at Rosenberg's, 725 E 26th Ave at Welton, and walk Welton Street.
10. 11:00 AM: Empower Field at Mile High
The longest-running mystery on the show starts with this team. In "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut," the season one finale, the 1989 Broncos come to the barn dance and Cartman hopes his father is one of them, ideally Elway. Thirteen seasons later, "201" answers it: a Broncos player named Jack Tenorman, the same man Cartman had killed and served to Scott Tenorman in a bowl of chili back in season five. The stadium tour at 1701 Bryant St, which also takes in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, does not cover this. The deep cut: in 2020, with fans barred, the Broncos filled the empty seats here with cardboard South Park residents. On a home Sunday, skip the tour and go to the game.
11. 2:00 PM: East Colfax and the Ogden
On the show, Colfax is the part of Denver your mom warned you about, including when Jimmy goes looking for love. Playboy once called it the longest, wickedest street in America. Today it is diners, dive bars and the Ogden at 935 E Colfax Ave, whose marquee is worth a look for a future trip. Get a coffee and drive west on the same street for about eight miles.
12. 6:00 PM: Casa Bonita
In "Casa Bonita" (season 7), Cartman wants into Kyle's birthday so badly that he convinces Butters the world has ended and hides him in a bomb shelter. Then he gets there, and it is everything he promised, which may be the most sincere thing the show has ever said: the cliff divers dropping into the lagoon, Black Bart's Cave, the arcade, and sopapillas you summon by raising the little flag on your table. Mecha-Streisand flattens the place in "201," and it turns up again in the 2021 "South ParQ Vaccination Special." In real life it closed in 2020, and in 2021 Parker and Stone bought it, then spent tens of millions putting it back together before reopening in 2023, so the restaurant in the episode now belongs to the people who wrote the episode. The Stub reviewed Casa Bonita about every eighteen months for twenty years, and every review said the same thing: the food is not the point. It still isn't. It rules. It is at 6715 W Colfax Ave in Lakewood, reservations only, through its own site, and they go fast. Book this first and build the weekend around your table. Ask for the seats by the cliff divers.
13. If you have a third day: lunch with a cannibal in Boulder
Parker and Stone met at CU Boulder, and before South Park there was Cannibal! The Musical (1993), about Alferd Packer, the prospector who came out of the San Juans in 1874 having eaten his traveling party. CU had named a campus grill after him more than a decade before the movie, which tells you everything about Boulder. The Alferd Packer Grill in the University Memorial Center, about 40 minutes from downtown, reopened in August 2026 after a renovation. Lunch there is the deepest cut on this page. Campus hours shift around breaks, so check the UMC dining page.
14. Fairplay, the real South Park, in summer only
About two hours southwest on 285, Fairplay is the town most people point to as the model. There is a real Stark's Pond a few blocks from downtown and a coffee shop, Java Moose, that looks enough like Tweek Bros. to make you nervous. But South Park City, the museum of real 1800s mining buildings, is closed in the cold months, and Kenosha Pass in winter is a commitment. Go between late spring and early fall. Any other time, do the Boulder lunch. Every place in this guide exists, and every episode is real. The jokes are the desk's. (Gil)
Quick answers
- What do I need to book for the South Park Denver tour?
- Only Casa Bonita, which is reservations only through its own site and fills up weeks ahead. Everything else is walk-in, so build the weekend around your table.
- Is this an official South Park tour?
- No. It is an unofficial guide to real Denver places the show has used, and it is not affiliated with South Park, Comedy Central, Paramount or Casa Bonita.
- Do I need a car?
- Day 1 works on foot, light rail and a couple of short rides. Day 2 crosses the whole city east to west and ends in Lakewood, so bring a car or budget for rideshare.
- Which episodes should I watch before going?
- "Casa Bonita" and "Super Fun Time" pay off the most in person. Add "201" if you want the stadium stop to land.
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