Heading into Garden of the Gods

Today we explored the Garden of the Gods, from high up! Garden of the gods is a city park in Colorado Springs full of enormous sandstone rock formations, most of them stories high! Grayson, Dad, and I went rock climbing all over the park. Our guide had all the equipment ready and suggested our first climb be a rock that was actually in the PAPA book! Grayson decided to harness in first, calling “first dibs” before I could open my mouth. So he started climbing the roughly 75 foot tall stone. Slowly made his way to the top, climbing inside crevices and over outcropping and ledges. meanwhile my mom was cringing below trying to take some pictures. Once he reached the top and celebrated a little, he repelled down. My turn to climb now. It started out pretty easy, with lots of hand hold and places to put my feet. Then there was a large hump I had to almost jump over with no feet.

Me climbing “potholes”

I nearly missed my grip, but I crawled up the wall. Next was a large crack that I decided into, instead of over or around. I cramped myself into the crack pushing up with my legs and arm on both sides, working my way up. After I got to the top I clambered out, and stood on a ledge. Then I realized too late I had to go to the bathroom. Bad. I repelled down and sprinted for the bathroom that was about a 1/4 mile away. My dad climbed up next. He climbed to the top with a few struggles. Our next climb was almost up a cliff. My brother went first again, and was able to made it look easy (even though he said it was hard). The beginning was probably the hardest part for me, Getting over a almost cave and scrambling over a large bump with no good places to put my hands or feet. Once I got there a climbed up to the “Party Ledge” because your really happy once you reach that ledge that you can stand on it or rest.

Me climbing a cliff face

After that it was easier the rest of the way up with lots of good handholds. After I reached the top I repelled down and took a snack break. Dad climbed up struggling at the same areas I did for the most part. Our next climb was our last of the day. The entire climb was a cliff with a crack going up the middle as the only way to get up. I went first, and followed the crack up with my hands and using my feet against the surface only using friction to push myself up. Once I finally reached the top, I repelled down and was sore all over from that climb, especially in my forearms.

Final climb of the day

I was really proud of myself! Grayson and Dad went, and then we packed up all the climbing gear, and headed to the park cafe for lunch. I was REALY hungry! After that we looked for the views from the PAPA book in Garden of the Gods. Our first view was easy to find thanks to our climbing guide, we just had to walk on a path for a little bit and it was in plain sight.

We found the spot!

Our next view was a bit harder to find though. We knew the general area where to look , but our angle wasn’t right when we went down a trail below a hill. We realized we had to get up on the hill behind us to get the angle that the artist had. We saw some mule deer, and decided to see if there was a trail that led up to the top of the hill. We had to go off trail a little, but we didn’t step on any vegetation or disturb the rocks. We realized that we were really close – I was super exited! We got closer and closer lining up the view in the book to the one we saw in front of us. We kept going and got to the point where we had to be within feet of where Thomas Moran sat and drew the art! It was chilling (in a good way) to think that over 140 years ago they stood right there.

FOUND IT!

We took some pictures and got down quickly because it was beginning to drizzle rain with thunder in the distance. A city park ranger suggested we explore Palmer Park, a city park nearby to find the “mushrooms”, these large rocks that looked like mushroom caps on the top. In the original PAPA book there was a field full of these “mushrooms” that were all around 15-20 ft tall.

Original “Mushrooms”

We took a trail and found some short stones that looked somewhat like the mushrooms, but not truly what they were. Finally we saw one that was similar, but not at all as tall as the structures from the book.

The one “Mushroom” we found.

We thought that they may have eroded away and collapsed due to natural things, not destroyed or torn down to build something. At least we were able to find a mushroom though! A very productive day to me, we watched the sun go behind the mountains and drove back to the condo to sleep like rocks after all the climbing.

Watching the Sunset