I was glancing at the map of SSR, and noticed this “entrance”:
Is this a “valid” entrance for guests to use? It isn’t the main entrance…but it certainly would be more convenient. But perhaps it is just for cast member usage.
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I think it is just a service entrance.
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Agree
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Yeah, that’s what I was kind of thinking.
I did an experiment using Google Maps. When I plotted a route from SSR to DS, it took me OUT that way. But when I reversed it, it took me into the Main Entrance. (There is no crossover, though, so that makes sense, regardless.)
So, perhaps in the very least, we could leave that way. Not really a big deal either way. Just never noticed it there before until today!
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So I’m looking at this again and I can’t figure out what I’m looking at. Where is the main entrance? And what is the yellow road?
FWIW I will say there is another entrance that we drove past that enters by the Carousel section and seemed fully accessible to everyone.
The main entrance is past the springs section out of the frame.
Ah.
I opened it in GoogleMaps and now I see where this is.
I don’t think there’s a guest-accessible roadway there.
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I feel like I’m crazy cause that looks like a main entrance, if not the main entrance, to me. When I navigate from Epcot, that’s where it drops me (red mark on the right edge). There is even a security shed there. There is another entrance on the far left (also marked in red). But both seem accessible to all traffic.
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Sorry for the confusion. I cut off the part of the map that shows the main entrance just to highlight this “alternate” entrance.
Looking at the map that @Jeff_AZ highlighted, the red mark on the LEFT side is the main entrance. The other red mark on the ride shows an entrance, but wasn’t sure if it is for guest usage or not. I’m fairly sure they let you leave that way…just not sure if they let you IN that way! 
Anyhow, if we end up in Congress Park, it looked like potentially a convenient way to go.
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We were at SSR June 3-11 and we definitely went out the entrance you are asking about. You are correct that there is a gate there. There is also a big sign that makes coming from Union Ave hard to see. I can’t remember if we ever went into the resort that way. We just followed Waze most of the time.
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So, I’m just a cat, and 37 years of living in Floriduh have addled my personal wits, but: I’ve stayed at Saratoga Springs probably 25 times, all of which I’ve been driving my, or someone else’s, personal vehicle.
The gate in the northwest quadrant of the resort, off of DVC Way, is the one and only publicly-accessible entry. This is the one and only point at which you as a guest will be allowed to enter in a non-Disney vehicle.
The gate in the southeast quadrant, off Buena Vista Drive, is not manned. It has a gate and security camera only. If you try to enter via this gate in a non-Disney vehicle, you’ll be told via a speaker on the gate to use the DVC Way entrance. You are free to use this gate as an exit with your personal vehicle.
Remember that the various mapping services can be particularly dim about the internal WDW roads. For example: 100% of the time, if going to Wilderness Lodge via one of the ride share services, and the route approaches from the north, it will try to send the driver into a service entrance and not via the main driveway at the Seven Seas Drive intersection.
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It has been a few years but is that the entrance by the end of Paddock? If it is, my Ubers arrived to pick me up through that gate and at night I used my MB to open the gate for the driver. I thought it was a manned booth during daytime hours at that time?
I just looked at the circled part. That was the only gate we used after day one. This was 5 years ago I think.
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That is correct.
So, your MB let you in even though it wasn’t manned?
This is in conflict with:
Most likely, I’d not actually use this gate for entry, but I could see it being quite useful as an exit.
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Yes, since Uber is location based it was the gate the drivers always went through based on my pick up/ drop off.
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I think we’ve used it as an exit also. Always entered thru the official entrance.
If it’s by Congress park than yes guests can & we used it in May.
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