Jul 21 – Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods is a park located on the northwest corner of Colorado Springs. It has a collection of red sandstone monoliths with some easy trails to explore them. It was gift to the city long ago by the landowner on the condition that no admission fee can ever be charged.

Once again we were kind of slow getting up and by the time we got there it was pretty busy. Since it is so close to town and the trails are easy there were a lot of families.

The entire park had about 2 square miles of land but the biggest and most interesting sights are clustered in a much smaller area in the north end.

By now the parking lot there and any near it were all full. We ended up parking at a picnic area and then followed a 1/2 mile trail back to the main section. Unfortunately this was also a recent horse trail and it smelled really bad.  When we were done I went back to get the car while Jennie waited at a pullout so she wouldn’t have to walk that trail again.

Rock climbing is allowed if you have the equipment and get a permit.  In the picture above you can barely see someone standing on the highest spire on the right.

There were a few places that anyone could scramble around.

I think this area was called the Sleeping Giant but I could not see why.

We moved on to the Three Graces and Cathedral Spires.

There were some very precariously balanced rocks up there.

It was busy everywhere.

 

We could see lots of weirdly shaped faces on this wall.

Moving on, we saw another climber.

Way up on top of this wall were the Kissing Camels.

The smaller Sentinel Spires had more climbers. Some were getting lessons.

Viewed from the other side,

South Gateway Rock.

White Rock. Lots of imagination there.

It was really hot with no wind at all. We found a bit of shade and had lunch by Signature Rock. A lot of people, in the past, had carved their names into the rock face.

We moved on to another section. After I had picked up Jennie we parked at the Siamese Twins Trailhead in the south west corner and did a short loop trail to them.

Just as we started the trail …

We had seen a much larger one with a huge set of antlers just outside of the visitor’s center but we did not have our cameras.

The trail was short but steep and seemed even worse in the heat.

Even here it was kind of busy. We sat a bit and waited for some people to leave. One guy insisted on standing in the middle of the formation while making a phone call.

I thought this looked like some sort of marine animal.

One photographer was very persistent at hanging around. I just photoshopped her out of the picture below.

The Siamese Twins.

Heading back to the car.

Once again this section of the trail is used by horses. With some very fresh deposits.

Almost there.

As we headed home we went by Balanced Rock. We have seen a lot of balanced rocks so we didn’t stop.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading outside the RV.

And tonight.