Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak

Today, Terri and I drove down to the Colorado Springs area to visit the Garden of the Gods. The entrance to the park, with Pikes Peak in the background:


We parked and walked around a bit.



Some of the rocks had names, like Cathedral Spires:


This stop off point from a road provided a nice look at the gardens we had walked in:


We made our way over to another part of the park to see the Siamese Twins:


We saw most of the park after only a few hours, so we decided to drive to the top of Pikes Peak.


The view was a little hazy due to the fires in Southern Colorado, but it was still spectacular. Here is the Garden of the Gods from the summit:


After walking around and taking lots of pictures, we drove back down and stopped for coffee (and ate the fudge we bought at the summit) in Manitou Springs.


We walked around Manitou Springs and did some shopping. It's a nice little town.


Then we drove back through the Garden of the Gods, stopping again at Balanced Rock. Later in the day, the light was better (and the crowds smaller), so this picture of Balanced Rock made the cut:


Then it was over to the visitor's center for more shopping and dinner. This is the view we had while we ate:


If you look closely, you may be able to make out a feature on the large rock on the right that they call the Kissing Camels.

Our drive home had a nice sunset.



It was a fun trip!