We parked at the golf course at about 5:30 a.m. then walked over to the Parade and back. We got out of the parking lot rather quickly, probably because we were towards the front of the exits. Then got on the freeway within about five more minutes. probably 10 minutes total.
Key might be getting there earlier for a better parking spot on the golf course.
For me the problem was getting across the bridge to the parade, we didn’t have tickets to the grandstands so they wouldn’t let us across to walk past the seating. We went to a co-worker’s house which is right at the beginning of the parade route and had to walk an extra 25 minutes down over and around. That was the biggest pain. When we were walking up the hill towards the parade route I thought my wife was going to kill me. Sure we’re from Colorado but that was a BIG hill.