Garden of the Gods (12)

We were fortunate that the Garden of the Gods entrance “happened” upon us in our desperate search for diesel – the Chev’s fuel guage was no longer showing “miles to travel” before it ran out of diesel, just “very low”. The service station turned out to be opposite the Garden’s sign-posted entry.

 We had no booklets or brochures of the Gardens so decided we should try to find the inevitable “gift shop” - and Lo, there it was, built in the Pueblo style which reminded us so much of what we saw in Santa Fe, located at the beginning of a road trail through the Garden. All sorts of expensive trinkets and stuff were for sale including a free brochure about the local area, so I shall plagiarise below.

“The Garden of the Gods was dedicated in 1909 as a free city park. An abundance of plant and animal life can be found throughout its 1,350 acres, as well as the magnificent red sandstone rock formations that have made it world-famous.

Many of these formations are over 300 million years old and were sculpted through time by the forces of nature. The Garden offers the best hiking, picnicking and horseback riding in the region. No trip to Pikes Peak Country is complete without a stop in the Garden of the Gods, a registered national landmark.”

Our late arrival turned out to be another stroke of good fortune because the sun was lower in the west, enhancing the beautiful red sandstone colours.

We first came across Balancing Rock teetering on a small piece of itself and sitting right beside the road. There was a narrow space to take the Chev through and certainly worth a stop and photograph. We drove on further through a one way, very windy but interesting road and came across many wonderful looking sandstone rock formations.

Towards the end of where we decided to find the exit due to the lateness of the afternoon and our journey back to Denver, we stopped at a little “pull out” beside the road to take a last photo. A track wound in from this place and I thought it would be a better shot from in a little further – turned out to be another lucky break as the path led Grace and me to a bounty of sandstone shapes. Disappointingly the girls didn’t see these features as they decided to stay in the Chev because they were already tired from this long day.

Time to leave Colorado Springs, head for a shop somewhere to buy Rochelle a birthday cake and get back to the Sierra to celebrate her 8th birthday.

Next direction, north to South Dakota, Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore but an overnight stay along the way in Glendo, Wyoming due to the distance to be travelled.