Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

We’ve always been told how pretty Garden of the Gods is, so on another warm, sunny morning we decided to find out.   It’s lucky we chose that day, as the day afterwards the visitor centre was closed for renovation and wouldn’t open again until Thanksgiving.

 

Garden of the Gods got its name, when, in August 1859, two surveyors planning the new town of Colorado Springs came upon the sandstone formations.   One suggested that it was a great place for a ‘beer garden’; the other that truly ‘it was a place fit for the gods’, Garden of the Gods it became. 

General William Jackson Palmer, who founded Colorado City, persuaded his good friend Charles Elliott Perkins to buy land in the area known as Garden of the Gods.   General Palmer donated more than 1,000 acres to the town as public city parklands.

On his death Charles Perkins left the land for the use of the city of Colorado Springs.   In 1909 his children deeded the 480 acres of Garden of the Gods to the city of Colorado Springs stipulating that it should be “free to the entire world”.   Today Garden of the Gods covers over 1,367 acres, it is still and always will be “free to the world”.

This rock formation reminded us either of a mountain lion in profile, or a gargoyle on a church, we couldn't decide which. 

Garden of the Gods is a National Natural Landmark and has been recognized by the Department of the Interior as a nationally significant natural area.  There are hiking, biking and horse riding trails in the park, not to mention rock climbing.

This rock reminded us of a foot. 

Pikes Peak from Garden of the Gods.

Balanced Rock.

 

After coffee, we watched the informational film and then armed with a map, drove to a parking area and followed a paved hiking trail as it meandered through the red rocks.

 

Have fun, we are!