Get outside / Adventures
Garden of the Gods, at an easy pace
Red-rock towers, a picnic, and just enough scrambling to feel like an expedition.
Garden of the Gods looks fake in photos. In person it is louder, redder, and kinder than most “easy” mountain days. Stay on the Perkins Central Garden Trail if you want pavement. Peel onto a dirt spur if someone wants a little climb.
Effort, for real
- Parking: the lot fills. Go early or late.
- Walk: one to two miles is plenty
- Heat: the rock bounces it back at you
- Altitude: Colorado Springs is still a jump from sea level
What to pack
- Hats and sunscreen — there is almost no shade
- Extra water, then one more bottle
- A picnic that does not melt in the first ten minutes
- Closed-toe shoes. Sandals plus sandstone = sad toes
The move
Do the main garden, eat at a table with a view, then pick one formation to look at from a marked path. Leave before the gift shop becomes the plan. (There is a gift shop. You can decide later.)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs
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