Picture Post: Garden of the Gods & Pikes Peak

Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak, in pictures. Brace yourself, because there is almost nothing of Pikes Peak--the visitors center and the cog railway were both under heavy construction, and all the views were obstructed at the top. 

Of course, SOME of us like the construction vehicles (ahem, JD).

Kind of sort of a view.

Don't let the lack of pictures scare you off BUT MAYBE this drive up the mountain should. I am kidding, it was spectacular. I love stopping at the pull outs and scrambling around. 

Although it turns out I am a very anxious passenger on this ride up Pikes Peak, I still love it. LOVE IT. It's such an adrenaline rush. Also there are brake check stops, where they take the temperature of your brakes and sometimes make you pull over if you brakes are overheating. That's how steep the incline is.

Like I said, I love stopping at the pull outs. We did a bunch of short, one mile hikes at a ton of stopping points. 

After Pikes Peak, we went on to our house in Garden of the Gods. This view was 50 yards from where we stayed. Seriously. 

We actually hiked this trail in the late evening our first night there, but the view were, uh, limited then.

There was something so magical about this section. It was like walking through a long hall, approaching a god's throne. 

We kept going but then the kids got goofy and there are many silly kid pictures.

The famous Kissing Camels, on the main track of sights to see.

If you zoom in on the wall, you will see a surprise.

This is just amazing and it really made me wish I could join those climbers on the top. Zoom in on the peak! What an adrenaline rush that must be. Yes, please.

Balanced Rock, which hangs over a main road in and out of the park. It's often quite busy there.

The tree is not dead-dead, it's only MOSTLY dead. Joke compliments of my niece.

The Siamese Twins rock, which was part of a really great hike. 

Real talk, that red dust is brutal. Look at JD's butt! Also, look at the awesome piggyback assist device we have.

At one point, we took a break and sat under an outcropping for snacks. It's hard to believe you are in a smaller park in the middle of a city with that view. Also, our butts were totally covered in red dust after this break. 

Finishing up our hike and our time at Garden of the Gods. We hiked the kids into exhaustion that day with 2 three mile hikes, then drove them home starting at 3 am the next morning. They slept hard in the car for a long time.

Garden of the Gods & Pikes Peak

Garden of the Gods was our multi-day stopping point on our way home from our October 2020 journey; it was also the first place we went on our honeymoon, and this was the first time we returned since then. Once, freshly married, well rested, and otherwise bright-eyed and bushy-tailed; the second time older, wiser, and with more children and much less sleep. 

I liked it better the second time.

The first time, we did what I think most people do--drive in, do the visitor's center, walk the paved paths and see the cool rocks. If that's all you do, it's still otherwordly and interesting. You see amazing things and learn cool history, and it's all very accessible--it's a great place no matter how you tackle it. 

The second time, though--this second time was something more for me. There's a decent amount of easy to moderate hiking all through Garden of the Gods, and since we just came off much higher elevations, it was all cinch. Our hiking was extremely facilitated by the fact we stayed at a VRBO that was literally on the park boundary, so we just hiked in all the days we were there. 

Both times we've been, we've also done Pikes Peak. We've only done the drive up, hang out, drive down thing, with some stops and tiny hikes at a few places. 

Stay

We loved our VRBO house this time around. We stayed in a house right by the Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, and we hiked in through there.

Hiking

There are 21 miles of hiking in Garden of the Gods, and we often combined trails at intersection points.

South Garden Parking Lot--we did the Ute Trail, Niobrara Trail, Ridge Loop, and Old Colorado City from this parking lot / trailhead. We rarely were around people, and it was easy hiking with fantastic views. Some times you are meandering through a grassy plain area, looking at the wild rock formations, and then suddenly you are IN the rock formations. It was the best of both words, and these were the trails we actually most often took from the backside, hiking in from our rental.

From the Trading Post area: We did a slightly shortened version of The Scotsman Trail, which gives you some big highlights of this side of the park (Balanced Rock, Siamese Twins, The Scotsman, and a bit beyond before looping back.

Accessible Trails: These are paved and real stunners. We treated them more like easy strolls and exploring, and we got to see a bunch of rock climbers, which really set the kids' imaginations on fire. Get here from the main parking lots. 

Hikes for the future at Garden of the Gods:

1. Buckskin Charlie Loop
2. Full Scotsman Loop
3. Full Cabin Canyon and Central Garden Trail Loop (about 4 miles total)
4. Complete Outer Loop of the Park
5. Bretag Trail combined with Palmer Trail

Eats

Basically all our meals on this trip were at home, with the notable exception of ice cream at the Colorado City Creamery and high elevation doughnuts at the top of Pike's Peak. The last time we were here, we stayed at a B&B and snagged take out, so I am afraid I am of no help on this point. Other than the ice cream. Ice cream is always a good choice. 

To Do List for the Future

I am absolutely, 10000% going to sign up for rock climbing lessons and sessions next time we are there. You'll find that's probably a theme for me--it's something I really want to try generally--but it's even more true here. There were people! Climbing up these gorgeous red rocks! Standing on the peaks of rock fins! It was so cool.

If it had been running, we would have done the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, but alas, the entire peak was under construction while we were there, and it was honestly all a mess. I was glad we had memories from our honeymoon of how outstanding it can be, because otherwise, it was disappointing. We would have loved to get our train-obsessed little one on the railway, so that's on the list for next time. 

Speaking of Pikes Peak, that's one I would like to do again, for the third time in my life, but I want o hike parts. I would love to take a shortened summit route, or even just point-to-point hike part of the trail with a vehicle pick up. I'd also like to spend more time hiking the trails at the lower elevations and points of interests.