The Garden of the Gods
Distance: Varies
The towering, burnt-ocher rock formations of the Garden of the Gods Park is a powerful draw, second only to Pikes Peak in alluring many a visitor to Colorado Springs to observe the region's natural splendor. The 1,319 acre city park is an ideal setting for many different forms of play, including but not limited to sight-seeing. The park's roads are as often used by runners, pedestrians, and bicyclists as they are by vehicles; while walkers and horseback riders enjoy the park's 15 miles of trails. Most of these trails are short, but can be combined to make for a longer walk. Bicycling on the trails is limited to the mountain biking trails beginning from the South Parking Lot. If this is your first visit to the Garden of the Gods, the can't-miss trail is the short, wheelchair-accessible Perkins Central Garden Trail, which journeys through the park's main rock garden, beneath monumental formations, including Signature Rock and South Gateway Rock. The short loop hike to the Siamese Twins formation beginning from the Spring Canyon Trailhead is also highly recommended,. The trails starting from the South Garden Parking Lot, like Ridge and Niobrara Trails have many unique perspectives of the Garden of the Gods. The park's color map which can be picked up for free from the visitor center mentions a three-mile hike incorporating Chambers, Bretag, and Palmer Trails. The hike begins from the South Garden Parking Lot and circles around a large portion of the the central garden area, mostly paralleling the course of the Juniper Way Loop road.. The map mentions the hike as moderate but the park's trails are for the most part easy. Just be aware, on hot summer days, or even moderately-hot days, the Garden of the Gods offers no reprieve for a relentless sun and for anyone unfamiliar with the region this can lead quickly to maladies like heat exhaustion and sunburn. Technical rock climbing is allowed in groups and under special permit. Climbers must register at the visitor center prior to climbing. Otherwise, rock climbing is illegal with a potentially steep fine. The Garden of the Gods is open daily from 0500 - 2300 from May - October and from o500 - 2100 from November - April. I definitely recommend checking out the visitor center and the Trading Post if you haven't previously. The recently renovated visitor center has many well-done exhibits on the park, including four beautiful murals of the park's distinctive landscapes during four past epochs. The Trading Post sells in the usual fare of postcards, t-shirts, shot glasses, coffee mugs, and a wide variety of other touristy-type souvenirs, in addition to selling traditional and modern Native American Art. The Garden of the Gods is a great public space and because of this the park is popular for both visitors from afar and the local population. This has been the case since city's founding in 1871 by railroad magnate General William Palmer. Palmer built his home, a Tudor-style castle named Glen Eyrie near Queen's Canyon and advised his friend and fellow railway owner, Charles Perkins to buy the nearby Garden of the Gods to build a home. Perkins purchased the land, but never built on it and kept it open to the public. Not long after his death in 1907, Charles Perkins' children donated the Garden of the Gods to the city under the condition it would be made into a park and continue to be free to the public. Long before a rough bunch of Europeans became the new Americans, other peoples had previously visited the Garden. Fire rings and other artifacts discovered within the park suggest human activity dates back to at least 3,000 years ago, with the Utes being the last Original Americans to consider the Garden a part of their territory before the intrusion of the United States. The rock formations themselves are products of the many past lives the Garden has lived for over the past billion years. Similar to present times, the area that would become the Garden of the Gods about a billion years ago rested at the foot of another mountain chain known as the Ancestral Rockies and for roughly 250 million years collected the sediment of the eroding mountains. Then over the next several 100 million years, the Garden became the site of a shallow sea, then a great sand dune, a sea again, and then a dinosaur-inhabited rain-forest. Approximately 65 million years ago, the collision of the North American and Pacific plates triggered the eruption of the Central Rockies, bending the different sandstone layers consisting of the Garden's many previous ecological past-lives upward at almost a 90 degree angle. Erosion has since refined the formations to the appearance they are for now. Further information on the park is linked below. Further Online Resources: ColoradoSprings.gov: Garden of the Gods Garden of the Gods Map pg 1 pdf Garden of the Gods Map pg 2 pdf Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center Friends of Garden of the Gods Examiner.com: Hiking and Biking Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs Colorado by Steven Krull |
Driving Directions:
From UCCS, turn right onto Austin Bluffs Pkwy and then stay on Austin Bluffs Pkwy as it turns into Garden of the Gods Rd. From Garden of the Gods Rd, turn left onto North 30th St. From 30th St, turn right into the Garden of Gods Park onto Gateway Rd. From Gateway Rd, turn right onto Juniper Way Loop. The Park's main parking area and trailhead for the Perkins Central Garden Trail will be on the right. The visitor center is located off of 30th St, on the left, just before reaching the right turn into the park. Driving directions to the Garden of the Gods using Google Maps is linked here. |