Garden of the Gods

Our campground at Cheyenne Mountain State Park was one mile from the army’s Fort Carson, and we discovered that we could hear their morning reveille just like we were soldiers. At 6:25 a.m. we were startled with the short version of the army’s wake-up call. In case we had dozed off, it starts again at 6:30 a.m. with the three-verse longer reveille version. There was no sleeping through that! We guess that's a good time to wake up after all. That also got us an early start to our day at Colorado Springs’ most popular tourist stop—Garden of the Gods.  We were there before 8:00, and stopped at the first pull-out—High Point Lookout.

From here we could see the high points around us. Pikes Peak is the tallest mountain in the area, and easy to spot with its brown rocky top. If you notice the thin line heading up that mountain, you have found the Manitou Incline. Also called “The Stairway to Heaven” it is a continuous set of 2,768 steps that takes the hardiest hikers up one mile and 2,000 foot elevation gain. At one time we would have taken that challenge. But we are not acclimatized or in our top physical shape. So we will only see that incline from a distance this time.

This high point is a good place to get our introduction to the red rocks that made this park famous. We also got oriented to the area and the larger red fins in the center of the park.

We wanted to stop by the visitor center to get the best advice on hikes to take today. But with our early start to the day, it wasn’t yet open. So we headed to the most popular trail—the Perkins Central Garden Trail.

This central trail is named after the family that donated this land filled with these unique rock structures. Mr. Perkins put a stipulation on the donation—this would become a park open to the public with no admission charge forever. We appreciated his generosity as we wandered on the Perkins Trail.

This trail includes the largest concentration of the biggest rock formations in the park.

We wandered between and around the massive red rocks. We have wandered into another of God’s wonders!

We took several spur trails and additional loops that came off the Central Garden Trail.

These other trails were less busy, and we started seeing birds in the less hectic part of the park. A mockingbird and a blue bird let us get close enough for pictures.

 

As the morning progressed, the crowds got bigger. We decided it was time to finish this hike when it became impossible to take a picture without the crowd in it. This was on a week-day morning. We were told that the crowds were much worse on a weekend.

But Mark can climb higher than most. So it was possible to still get uncluttered pictures with those beautiful red rocks and the clear blue skies here in Colorado Springs.

So far, we had hiked 2.2 miles in the Garden of the Gods, and we were headed back to the pickup for a little air-conditioning.

By this time the visitor center was open, and most of the parking lots around the park were full. We found a place to park near the visitor center and then looked at the displays at the small museum. We found out that dinosaurs once walked here in the Garden of the Gods.

The painting at the visitor center made it look like the dinosaurs were still walking around Denisa.

The ranger gave us advice for more good hikes and where to park—in the less busy section of the park. Her first recommendation was to visit the “Siamese Twins.”

Two red sandstone columns form the twins. The hole that separated the twins was a great place to sit for a picture.

But it’s even more fun that it perfectly frames Pikes Peak behind it.

Besides the Siamese Twins, there were other nice rock formations in this area.

This was Mark's idea of a playground, where he could climb like a kid (that's the term for a young mountain goat).

We moved to the next parking area, and the next ranger-suggested stop—Balanced Rock.

Even though this is a little off the beaten path, plenty of people find this section of the park. A lined formed to take a picture holding up the rock.

We are always amazed at people that perch themselves in beautiful places, oblivious that others might want to take a picture without this total stranger in it. We waited a good long time for a picture of Mark beside the balanced rock.

Garden of the Gods is truly Colorado Springs’s gem. Even though we had visited many years ago, it was definitely worth another stop. The traffic got heavier as it got later, and it got harder to drive the roads and find parking places. Because we had to loop back around on the one-way roads to go to the visitor center, we saw a lot more traffic than was necessary. So our recommendation for a summer visit would be to go very early or very late, and see the best sights in the same order we did without the stop at the visitor center.

Denisa is always looking for the local flowers, and the only thing blooming in July were the cacti.

The hikes were short this morning, so we tried a second location for another. We had read that Red Rock Canyon Open Spaces has some good trails. It was getting warm this afternoon, but we tried the Ridgeline Pass Via the Rim Trail for another two miles of exercise. We were almost finished when we decided to take a picture just to memorialize that we were there. It just wasn't as picturesque as the morning's hikes were.

With two long towing days behind us, we have found more bumps and bruises in the trailer. So we took advantage of being in an urban area to make a stop at Home Depot. Mark rigged a new latch for the dinette table that bounced off its post on one of the drives. He also secured a window blind that was wiggling off the wall. Denisa is glad that she gets to wander God’s wonders with such a handy travel companion!