May 25, 2012. Garden Of The Gods.

After Taos,

the Hawthornes traveled east through New Mexico

then headed up north to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

We wanted to check out Garden of the Gods

and Pike's Peak.

Garden of the Gods Colorado Springs Park

has been designated a 

National Natural Landmark.

The Garden is a unique biological melting pot

where the grasslands of the Great Plains meet

the pinon-juniper woodlands,
 characteristic of the American Southwest,

and merge with the mountain forest
of the 14,115-foot Pike's Peak.

The 300 million years of geological history of the

Garden of the Gods

reveal one of the most extensive pictures of 

earth history found anywhere in the United States.

The human history of the Garden of the Gods

commenced many centuries 

before our present time.

Stone hearths and fire rings found in the Garden

dating over 3000 years ago

indicate the presence of early inhabitants.

According to Ute traditions,

their people have always lived in this area,

not having any stories of migration from elsewhere.

The Utes were known to winter in the Garden of the Gods

prior to removal to reservations

 in southwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah.

Garden of the Gods is  a city park 

at the base of Pike's Peak.

American businessman and railroad magnate,

Charles Elliott Perkins,

purchased the parkland in 1879.

He was a personal friend 

of General William Jackson Palmer,

 the founder of Colorado Springs.

How did an area of such national significance

become a city park?

The answer to that is a story of friendship,

strong commitment to the common good,

and children fulfilling their father's dream

Perkins purchased 240 acres,

upon the urging of General William Jackson Palmer,

with plans of building a summer home on the site.

Perkins was head of the Burlington Railroad 

and had intentions of building a railroad line 

from his hometown in Chicago to Colorado Springs.

He was a nature lover,

and never built his summer home,

preferring to purchase more of the open space

and keep the wonderland in its natural state

for everyone to enjoy.

In 1899,

Perkins purchase another 240 acres,

and in letters to Palmer,

expressed his desire to donate the entire 480 acres

to the City of Colorado Springs.

Palmer himself had already donated more than 1000 acres 

of his own land to become public city park lands.

Perkins died in 1907,

before he had officially arranged

for the Garden of the Gods

to become a public park.

His six children,

 knowing their father's feelings and wishes

for the Garden of the Gods,

conveyed his 480 acre parcel to the City of Colorado Springs

on Christmas Day of 1909,

with the stipulation that it remain open

 and "free to the entire world."

Later acquisitions by the city

brought the total park size to 1367 acres.

Remember, this is a park.

One needs to walk/hike/whatever

through it.

The drive sucks.

"It would be known forever as the Garden of the Gods, 'where it shall remain free to the public, where no intoxicating liquors shall be manufactured, sold, or dispensed, where no building or structure shall be erected except those necessary to properly care for, protect, and maintain the area as a public park.' "

The park is known for its towering red sandstone formations.

Here's a traveler's tip:

If you're heading west for the first time,

and going through the areas we've been through,

go to Garden of the Gods first.

Then keep west.

The views keep getting better and better.

If you see Garden of the Gods last,

it's like,

"More red rocks.  Meh."

Plus, this is a Park.

A City Park.

Which really stretches the traditional definition

of a City Park.

It's to be hiked through.

Biked through.

Horsebacked through.

Run through.
Jogged through.
Picnicked through.
Cycled through.
Photographed through.

Segged-way through.

Yes.  We saw seggies.

It's not a park through which to drive.

Plus all the views are on the driver's side.
And there are two lanes
and there are no places to pull off
right then and there
to shoot a picture
and there are signs saying not to do that.
There are designated parking areas,
but as I said,
hiking is advised and even encouraged.
If Mr. Hawthorne can't see it from a car,
then screw it.

Plus, by the time we got here,
I was actually being petulant and bitchy
(Imagine that.
Quel horreur!),
and was all:
"We drove all this way out of the way
and crisscrossed somewhere we'd been before
just to see this stuff?"

The AAA book waxed poetic about this place.



I am so jaded.

How did Garden of the Gods

get its name?

I could come up with some
exquisite PR stuff
if Garden of the Gods
ever needed it.
But they don't.

The story is rather mundane.
And kind of a stretch.

It's not from Native Americans.
That would have made sense.

Back in 1859,

two surveyors, M.S. Beach and Rufus Cable,

came to this area to explore the townsite,

soon to be known as Colorado Springs.

Upon seeing the area,

Beach told Cable, he thought it would be

"a capital place for a beer garden,"

when the country grew up.

His companion Cable

a "young and poetic Man"

 replied, 

"Beer garden!

Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble.

We will call it the Garden of the Gods."

And so it has been called ever since.

Like I said,

that's a stretch to me.

I could've come up with much better.

Garden of the Gods has been many things:

inland sea, tropical haven, 

 vast swampy floodplain.

Those 300 foot orange sandstone rocks

were once part of a field of sand dunes,

Sea serpents swam here.

 Dinosaurs roamed the Garden of the Gods.

Mammoths braved the snow in May.

 

Molten rock cooled to create Pikes Peak granite and the Ancestral Rockies about a billion years ago. The Rockies were being worn down bit by bit from 270 - 310 million years ago.  250 million years ago, Garden of the Gods had sandy beaches and an inland sea.  Sand dunes developed here next.  Around 225 million years ago there was another inland sea.  During the Jurassic period, 155 million years ago, dinosaurs once grazed here on the tropical plants.

 

65 million years ago, give or take, mountains rose and tipped the rocks, in an intense period of mountain building caused by the old Pacific plate slamming into the North American plate.  As the mountains rose at the Front Range (eastern side of Rocky Mountains), overlying sedimentary rocks were turned upward.  Softer rocks eroded and valleys were created,

 leaving harder rocks standing as tall ridges in the park.

Garden of the Gods, located in the foothills 

of the Rocky Mountain's eastern Front Range,

offers a view of all five of Colorado's life zones,

with distinctive vegetation found at different elevations.

Drought-tolerant grasses  dominate the plains.

Shrubs and scrubby trees populate the foothills.

The montane, or middle elevation,

presents lush meadows and thick forests.

The subalpine and alpine,

the two highest life zones,

exhibit an alpine tundra and a stunted plant growth.

In fact, the changes are so dramatic,

"that a trip from the grasslands east of Colorado Springs

 to the top of Pikes Peak shows ecological changes 

comparable to a trip from the Great Plains 

through the Canadian woods

 to the Arctic tundra."

This is all 10 miles horizontally.

And then you go 14,110 feet vertically

to the summit of Pikes Peak.

Stay tuned for the drive to the summit.  

During which Mr. Hawthorne hyperventilates 3 times.

It was a slow ascent.

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Just kidding.

He's fine.

Here's a map of Garden of the Gods.

To take the best advantage of the scenery,

this place should be hiked,

slowly and over time.

Early mornings and late afternoons,

with the playing and changing warmer lights,

would only intensify this experience.

The Hawthornes are not hikers. 

We're sort of the "get in and get out"

type of people.

This is NOT a car-friendly park.

I've seen magpies all over the west.

Finally got their pictures.

Here's a wonderfully informative blogpost
about Garden of the Gods.

As I said,
this is a park to be enjoyed.

One doesn't drive through this
and get the true experience.

And as I've said,
I am jaded.

Colorado on Dwellable

Colorado on Dwellable