Hey, everyone! Mouse here.
It's been hot these days here in Colorado. They weren't kidding about there being 300 days of sunshine; more sun than even the Sunshine State of Florida. It doesn't take long to be affected by the heat and to have a sunburn.
That didn't stop us from going to Colorado Springs during the weekend to see the Garden of the Gods. All three of us went, even though Clovis wasn't too thrilled about the hour long ride. He kept popping his head between our seats and staring at us; wondering when we were going to stop. It's a scenic ride which varied from prairieland to mountains to strange rock formations.
Once we got there, we were surprised to see how busy it was. We couldn't even get a parking spot for the visitor center. Going straight into the park, there was a long line to get in. Luckily, after almost looping around the park, we found a spot to park in and stretch our legs.
Here's a little history about the Garden of the Gods that I had looked up. And I'm not going to fill this up with too much of that because there's only so much you can read about it. Back in 1859, two surveyors came across the land when they were building Old Colorado City nearby. One of them exclaimed this could be a site for a "beer garden" and the other man said to him, "A beer garden? This is more like a garden for the Gods." I'm not kidding with this story, that's how the name stuck. This is also the name of a place in Chatsworth, California, part of Iverson Movie Ranch, a filming location that a movie producer had come across, claiming that he didn't need to go to Colorado to do his movie, that he had the Garden of the Gods there.
Now the more interesting part is that as far back as 1330 BCE, the Ancient Peoples of the region were visiting the Garden of the Gods, finding not only shelter; but a connection with the land. The Utes (yout-ss), the Native Americans of Colorado, tell their story of creation of their people happening in the Garden. There are petroglyphs that can be seen of the different traveling bands of Ancient Peoples.
Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the petroglyphs or even the dinosaur fossil that archaeologist had found not that long ago. We were only able to do one trail, Clovis started to overheat. He kept trying to hide under bushes. I don't blame him, it was like 90 degrees out and he has black fur. We hope to go back, maybe on a weekday so that we can avoid the crowds.
Below are some pictures. Enjoy!
P.S. the middle picture with the mountain is of Pike's Peak and on the lower right is a line. That's the Incline and if you recall from another post I wrote, I had climbed half of that.
P.S.S: Check out my clip of the nature sounds I recorded. https://youtu.be/XCWCdVP3s6I
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