Garden of the Gods

Tuesday, I drove down to Colorado Springs (about ninety minutes away) to visit the Garden of the Gods, the city's showcase mountain park.  The park's main attraction is a dense collection of fascinating rock formations, with names like Pulpit, Sentinel and Gateway Rocks. Some are massive.  Most are deep red.  The the ones I really appreciated were tall and skinny ones, especially the Cathedral Spires upon which a couple rock climbers were working their way up to the top.

The central section is pretty compact and it looked like I wasn't going to spend much time in the park, but then I obtained a map showing the outlaying trails. Using it, I worked my way southwest—passing the best-named feature, the Scotsman—along a series of trails through a landscape that if it wasn't as imposing as the central section, was just as scenic.  Siamese Twins was the most prominent feature I saw along the trail as I worked my way back to the parking lot.

I didn't leave the park right away, but drove to the trailhead for the short Ridge Trail, which granted a different perspective of the large rocks in the central garden.  Before exiting the park, I stopped for a quick picture of Balanced Rock and ended up spending almost an hour scrambling through the rocky landscape around it.  There was no set trail.  I had a lot of fun finding my own way over the broken, wooded landscape of dusty gullies, sandstone ridges and contorted rocks.


Full Screen Version



Main Hike Statistics
Length: 4.1 miles
Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Lowest Elevation: 6,290 ft.
Maximum Elevation: 6,565 feet
Net Elevation Change: 275 feet


Main Hike Elevation Profile

Entering Garden of the Gods

Cathedral Spires

Jeremy before Central Garden

The Scotsman
(Pikes Peak in background)

Lone Tree on Sandstone Ridge

Garden Drive by Balanced and Steamboat Rocks