Garden of the Gods

We moved to just north of Woodland Park, CO, and settled in an actual campground for a couple of nights.  As I think I've stated before, we are not campers.  We were just lucky that it was cool enough to keep the windows shut in the evenings, but still the smoke fumes leaked in.  Bah-humbug.  However I have to admit that I do love to see all the families out enjoying nature and therefore suffer in silence.  :-D

We ran over to admire Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  It's always an amazing sight to see these colorful monoliths rising out of the earth.

We parked in the main lot and spotted this guy peaking through the trees.

And there was more wildlife.  Looking up, we saw the Kissing Camels.

(This one we didn't name.  It was on the map.)

More pretty rocks.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this lovely place is that it was 'given to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909 by the children of Charles Elliott Perkins in fulfillment of his wish that it be kept forever free to the public.'  What an incredibly generous and thoughtful gift.

We couldn't hang around all day for the sun to get in the right position for this shot, so here's the best I could do with it.

Balanced Rock might be the most photographed spot in the park.  Ron pointed out that some cement seems to have been added to keep it in place since he was here.

Here's something just for the WINs who are reading this.  In Woodland Park, we saw this sign - it certainly made us pause and remember a great lady.