Another highlight of our visit to Colorado Springs was the Garden of the Gods, a free city park near Manitou Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak. Frustratingly, we arrived at the visitor’s center two minutes after they closed but a quick mime on my part prompted a volunteer to open the door and fetch me a park map. :)

We only had an hour or so before we needed to head back to the hotel and get ready for the formal dinner that evening, so we parked by the Perkins Central Garden trail and walked around the signature rock formations of the park. There were climbers on every rock and the sky was clear which made for some good photographic opportunities.

We decided to come back this way the following day on our way out of town to show Dad and Lynn the park and boy am I glad we did… look at this view from the visitor’s center!

That’s Pikes Peak in the distance with the Garden of the Gods park in the foreground. Stunningly beautiful.