Garden of the Gods

One of the many things I really like about the city of Colorado Springs is the commitment to park spaces.  One of the most popular national attractions is Garden of the Gods.  What most people don't know when they arrive here to see it, is they are going to a Colorado Springs city park.  Furthermore, it's free to see these rocks, and it always will be because that was one of terms of the deed in 1909.

Garden of the Gods entered human consciousness as a landmark.  It's an easily recognizable group of rocks which are bright red!  You can see them for quite a ways from the east since they are in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  They were like a beacon first to Plains Indians, then to the Spanish, the Mountain Men, and the wagon trains full of pioneers.

The core 409 acres was deeded to the city by the children of one of the founders of Colorado Springs.  While his will did not specifically  direct his children to give the land to the city, they honored his wishes and deeded the land to the city with only a few stipulations.  Over the years the city has bought more acreage, and one wealthy and influential Colorado Springs woman gave the money to build the visitor's center, and make access to the park more like a good national park.  It's needed because there are about two million people who visit each year.

One of the things we learned is the park was almost 'loved to death' - just too many people.  The CCC re-seeded the park with native plants which had almost been trampled to death and completely eliminated in some cases.  Gradually, access to the 'named' rocks got a controlled path through the rocks.

The park is also the trail head for more than a few trails up toward the higher mountains as well as easier hikes in the foothills.  The townspeople have named the 'rocks'.  See is you can find the 'kissing camel' or the three graces in the pictures.  This won't be our last visit.  There are parts of the park as well as the 'fundraiser' movie (you have to pay to see it) which we want to do.  

We can see the Garden of the Gods from our back deck.  I'm already starting to notice the differences in the rocks at different times of day.  Supposedly there's a few minutes at dawn (why, oh why does it always have to be at 'dawn'?) in which Pike's Peak catches the rising sun's light and within a few minutes the Garden of the Gods rock blaze with color.  The park opens at 5am, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to be seeing this phenomena.

Enjoy the pictures.

https://goo.gl/photos/CJ6vAWHDNtmGbdedA