Garden of the Gods

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Quick Trip to Colorado Springs, CO

I had never personally added Colorado Springs to any destination bucket list, but am so glad I got to see it! I’ll tell you why…

My mom and I were invited to a family friend’s wedding in the Denver area. As usual, I booked a hotel and car rental through Expedia, and got a discount using my Expedia rewards! We got in midday Friday, had a rehearsal dinner that night, wedding the next night, and then leaving on Sunday. We only had a few hours to really do anything tourist-y so I did a little research to find some of the neatest things to go see. I was also looking for things that were either free or, at least, cheap. Being frugal really is a lifestyle and it’s hard to turn it off. 🙂

I found that there was this area in Colorado Springs known as the Garden of the Gods. It looked neat in pictures so I thought we’d give it a shot. We had some time to waste on Saturday before the wedding so we decided to go there. It was almost 1.5 hours away from Denver, but I knew my mom and I would enjoy the drive.

It actually is a really pretty drive through Colorado, and that was the first time I’d even been there. As a skier, it made me wish I could’ve been there in the winter to try out the ski areas, but maybe some other time.

Oh wow… The Garden of the Gods is even cooler than it looks in pictures! It’s supposed be one of the top parks in the U.S., and I was shocked that I hadn’t heard of it before!

First of all, we went to the visitor center, which is free. These are always fun to explore and learn about the history of the area and this incredible, geological wonder. The legend is that the name came from early discoverers who said this was a place “for gods to assemble”, and thus the name! Pick up a map here if you plan to drive through the park. You basically drive across the street and enter the park.

This is loosely called the Central Garden, and were the first formations that we saw. These are just incredible ad that’s why you see this picture angle a lot. You start to see why it got the name Garden of the Gods. You can see the Cathedral Spires in the center of the picture.

We stopped to look at the Balancing Rock. Its crazy how these things were formed!

We parked and hiked to the “Siamese Twins”. When you see it you think, “Oh yeah, it is twins!” This was a fairly short hike/walk. It was not difficult and I would say nearly anyone could do it.

Here is the Cathedral Rock, standing out among all the red rock background.

There are so many trails in this area, I wish I’d had more time to explore everything. There are handicap and stroller accessible trails, as well, which is so nice for all types of families! Go to the “Visit Colorado Springs” website to look at the site map.

Even though our time was short, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Garden of the Gods. Pictures just don’t do this justice! I hope this has inspired you to check it out if you get to be in the area!

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See our local family vacation spot!