Doing a bit of free-styling now with my destinations. Left my stealth camp in Wyoming and decided to drive south on I-25 until something strikes my attention. Sadly the wildfire smoke or hazy clouds are blocking my views of the Rocky Mountains. Also sadly I am deciding to pass on by what I can only assume are some of the greatest hikes and views I could ever see just beyond that fog. One of those situations where I don’t want to dip my toes into something amazing and not be able to fully immerse myself. Alas, most of this area will be passed over for adventure at another time.
I had a good early start on the day and drove through Denver rush hour which isn’t super fun, but living near Chicago it’s nothing I couldn’t handle. Decided to take a break in Colorado Springs and stopped to check out Garden of the Gods. Many people have suggested this to me over the years so I was excited to see what all the hype was about. First off it’s time to check out the Visitor & Nature Center.
As is with most visitor centers there are several exhibits covering geology, archaeology, Native American history, flora & fauna, and more than I could cover in a blog post. All very interesting though I won’t deep-dive on it here. The problem today was that I didn’t realize it is the weekend and hordes of visitors were flooding in. I had to wait like 10 minutes to get the two photos below and just to even see the displays myself.
Turns out tomorrow is fossil celebration day. Not sure if the crowd sizes are due to that or just because of the weekend (or maybe it’s always like this?), but 20 minutes here with all the screaming kids is enough for me.
The larger point of interest is the “garden” itself, full of fantastic red rock formations and hiking trails. Great views from the balcony at the visitor center.
Entrance to the “garden” is just outside the visitor center. A narrow two-way access road then splits and turns into a one-way loop drive.
Scenery was fantastic…at least the limited amount of it that I saw. Several trailheads along this corridor with parking or pull-outs but they were all completely full.
Only about 3 minutes into this adventure and I was in a traffic jam. Not my kind of scene so I exited at the first chance and headed to the main gravel parking area. Should have known better but gave it a try anyways. The rest will have to wait, again. I’m not particularly sad about it though today as more exciting things are on the horizon and this freed up time for those activities.
