Garden of the Gods

Giant rock formations in the setting sun

Garden of the Gods is a giant rock formation outside of Colorado Springs. These formed millions of years ago on the ground and were pushed up to this standing position when Pikes Peak moved them up and out of the way as it grew. They are made of sedimentary rock and sandstone. Sandstone can be 2 different colors; the red you see in these images at the top and a gray color we have in photos below. The red color comes from iron mixed into the sandstone while the gray stone does not have iron in the rock to alter its color.

The original founder of the formation decided it should always be free to the public so when he died his children donated the land to create a park. This is one of the only places we went that didn’t charge an entrance fee in Colorado.

They have a visitor’s center that was closed when we got there because we didn’t go until after lunch one day. I loved walking around at sunset because of how the red rocks looked in the light. We did miss out on some of their features inside but they have an app for the park we could download so that was all we needed.

In the main park you can walk right up to the formations. The park has wide sidewalks and wooden fences directing traffic but nothing is fenced off so you can touch the rocks and pose with them, no one minds. This is the main part of the park where everyone congregates but there is also a vehicle loop around the park with other lookout points and trails with smaller formations.

At one of our stops in the loop we saw a wedding party taking photos with this backdrop while the sun was setting.

We found this trail no one seemed to care about and took a walk. There were smaller formations that were gnarled looking I thought were cool. This spot was about as far away from the main lot and large formations you could go on the loop and it was worth the walk. We saw some evidence of horses so it seems you could take a horseback ride through this area.