COLORADO SPRINGS'S SPECTACULAR GARDEN OF THE GODS

Three years ago when we made our last trip to Grand Teton National Park, we stopped in the Colorado Springs area. We spent a little time at Garden of the Gods Park but vowed we would come back to explore this natural wonder in more depth.

On a warm day, we started out early to beat the heat and took a short drive down I-25 to Garden of the Gods Park. The photo below was taken at the visitors center with Pikes Peak on the left. You can barely see a few patches of snow on America's Mountain.

In 1971, Garden of the Gods was designated a National Natural Landmark.  It is easy to see why this is one of the "must see" places in Colorado Springs.

We took a short drive to the parking lot where we would enter the park's most popular hiking trail  We strolled along the trail, viewing all the different rock formations, paying attention to their different colors. 

This particular tower of stone is called White Rock. The rock is Niobrara and is much lighter in color than most of the other rock formations in the area.

This larger rock formation is called North Gateway Rock. The rock type is Dakota Sandstone and is a dark red in color. The rock looked shiny in the bright sunlight.  This is the color of must of the rocks in Garden of the Gods.

 

This rock formation is called Signature Rock, possibly because of the towers pointing towards the sky.

Sentinel Rock is a rock formation comprised of both Niobrara rock in the left spire and Dakota Sandstone on the right. Paul at 6'1" is standing at the base which gives you an idea that Sentinel Rock is nearly a 100 feet tall. The various layers in this rock were deposited 275 million years ago. This was once a stream bed and is now in a vertical position after the sediments were turned into solid stone. These rocks have continued to change shapes as water freezes in cracks and wind erodes the soft sandstone.

The Kissing Camels (see the top center) tower above a field of Brown Eyed Susan wildflowers. The small patch of sky is between the two camels kissing.

We hiked up a trail and had this view looking back towards the various rock formations. Notice how green all the shrubs and trees are. Colorado has had a wet summer compared to what is considered "normal".

Three Graces is framed by green trees and a cobalt blue sky with a few white puffy clouds in the distance.

The Tower of Babel.

Sleeping Giant.

The plaque commemorates the donation of this land to the City of Colorado Springs by the children of Charles Perkins.

The beauty, grandeur and challenge of Pikes Peak has lured people to its summit for hundreds of years. Below, Pikes Peak is seen in the distance, framed by green trees along the trail .

Balance Rock, the most famous formation in the park. Notice how many tourists are here on this summer day.

Climbers are permitted in Garden of the Gods as long as they obtain a permit and have the proper climbing gear. We found this climber coming down the slope.  There are companies in this area that would be happy to give us this experience - for money - but we are a little too old for this type of activity.

The only new wildflowers we saw today were these brightly colored Elephant flowers.

We had a good time playing tourist while visiting the Garden of the Gods. We definitely took our time to explore this natural beauty. The rock formations were more awe inspiring in person than our camera could capture.