Garden of the Gods

We visited Garden of the Gods twice while we were in Colorado Springs.  The first time was on the Saturday of July 4th weekend and it was packed!  Despite the crowds we had a great time because we got to enjoy it with the Smith family that we met last year in California.

We love this family and would love to camp with them again.  Shortly after we met them last year they settled down in a mountain cabin in Colorado so they are no longer traveling.  But they still have their RV, so hopefully we will get to camp together again someday.

Since that Saturday was so crowded and the weather wasn’t that great, we decided to go back again on the morning of July 4th.  We got there at 8am to beat the crowds and the heat.  It worked!

This place is amazingly beautiful!

The history of the name comes from 2 surveyors who in 1859 came upon these beautiful sandstone formations while looking to start a new townsite called Colorado City. One of the men suggested it would be a “capital place for a beer garden” while his companion said “Beer garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it Garden of the Gods.”

Charles Elliott Perkins purchased the land in 1879.  After he died, his children knowing how he felt about this land donated it to the city of Colorado Springs specifying that it shall always remain free to the public and it is still free today.

Just after I took this last picture of the mountains and purple flowers my phone died.  My phone is also my camera.  Our 4th of July holiday was interrupted by a visit to the Verizon store.  Thankfully the pictures were salvaged, but the phone could not be fixed so I had to get a new one before we could continue on with our day of sightseeing.  On to Pikes Peak next.