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The Garden of the Gods is a 1,319 acre public park located in the northwest part of the city of Colorado Springs in Colorado. The park contains a vast array of beautiful towering steep sandstone and limestone rock formations set against the backdrop of majestic Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains.

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According to the park website the land containing the Garden of the Gods was purchased by the head of the Burlington Railroad, Charles Elliot Perkins, back in 1879. Perkins originally purchased the land with the idea of building a summer home on the property but he was so impressed with the Garden of the Gods he decided not to build a home on the site and instead he allowed the public access to the area.

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After Perkins passed away in 1907 his children donated the land to the city of Colorado Springs with the understanding that the Garden of the Gods “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.”

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The liquor part of the statement almost certainly refers to how the Garden of the Gods was named. In 1859 two surveyors M. S. Beach and Rufus Cable came upon the area. Beach commented that he thought the site would be a grand place for a beer garden as the area became settled. Cable did not like the idea and exclaimed, “Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the Gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.”

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The Garden of the Gods contains fire rings of stones created by humans and dating back over 3,000 years. Pottery pieces found in the area are similar to Mesa Verde pottery and date back almost 1,000 years. And long before man even dinosaurs lived in the area including Theophytalia kerri, a dinosaur species whose fossil has only been found in the Garden of the Gods.

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The park is popular not only with tourists but also rock climbers who love to scale the sandstone formations though a few of them have died this way over the years.

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The stunning rock formations found in the Garden of the Gods were originally formed horizontally but were forced upward vertically by the massive forces of the earth that built the Rocky Mountains.

The park has a new HD movie that explains how the rocks were formed and shaped in detail.

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Another cool thing about the Garden of the Gods is that it contains a number of different ecosystems grouped together which is known as an ecotone. Due to the extreme heights in the Pikes Peak area one can travel from “the ecological equivalent of 5,000 miles north while traversing only two miles up in altitude.”

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The Garden of the Gods park has numerous hiking trails that wind through and around the wondrous rock formations including the Perkins Trail which is paved as well as the Garden of the Gods Road for driving through the park.

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The park can be reached from I-25 by taking Exit #146 west and continuing along for 2.5 miles. Then turn left onto 30th Street and after a mile you will see the visitor center on the left and the park is on the right. Follow the signs and you cannot miss it and if you are in the area you will not want to miss the majestic beauty that is The Garden of the Gods.

Image Source (Park entrance sign at bottom left)