While driving through the Garden of the Gods park in Manitou Springs, we decided to take a drive up the Rampart Range Road, a dirt road that we later discovered goes for about 13 miles. We drove up the hill until we reached some very luxurious homes that were in a gated community and were accessed via a paved road. We were locked out behind a fence. On the way back down the hill, we stopped at these balancing rocks which were above the more visited balancing rocks accessible via the paved park road.I don’t know how this one is still standing. Its only a matter of time before the base gets washed out. This is one of the more unusual balanced rocks found just down the hillside. Cathy and I took a drive into the park’s Visitor Center. The building contains a museum, a gift store, a food court and explanations of the geology of the area.We took these photos from the parking lot. Left to right, this is the Gray Rock (aka Kindergarten Rock), the South Gateway Rock (center) and the Kissing Camels formationAt the intersection of Gateway Road and the Juniper Loop, we saw these college students working. We drove about a mile up the road to find a parking space and walked back to talk with them. They had been on this project for about two weeks and were searching for the foundation of one of the original settlers, Edwin L. “Fatty” Rice. Edwin advertised that he had a genuine petrified Digger Indian, acquired from one Soapy Smith of Skagway, AK fame. Crooks gotta be crooks. The Petrified Indian turned out to be a fraud and Soapy actually had nothing to do with it. Edwin was an interesting fellow in the local history of the area. The students were using ground penetrating radar to assist in finding the foundations of Fatty’s Place. They had found lot of nails, both wire nails and the hand forged types but had not found the foundation of the wooden structure that contained his curio shop. It was their last full day so they were marking the areas on a grid of where they had dug, so the next class of students could continue their work. They were excited to talk about their project.While walking back to the truck, we spotted these climbers reaching the summit of this rock. While working with this photo, I saw another climber in the trees, near the left bottom of the photo. The local park ranger also had the guy in her sight and was was patiently waiting for him to return and probably get a fine for climbing without a permit.We had the trail to the excavation almost to ourselves as it was starting to get hot in the direct sunlight.This is the backside of the White Rock formation which stands in front of the North Gateway Rock. Heading back to camp, I stopped and took this photo of the Three Graces, Tower of Babel and Sentinel Spires formations.
The Garden of the Gods park is totally free and owned by the city of Colorado Springs. There were miles of hiking and biking trails and wildlife galore. We managed to hike several of the trails but did not have the time to make all of the hikes. Some day . . .
I really enjoyed those rock formations! Guess that one picture had Barb and Cathy in it. I didn’t recognize Barb because I haven’t seen her for a year and when I blew it up it was blurry. Looks like you are enjoying good weather there. Have fun.
I have to drop the resolution down considerably to put the pics in the blog. They are shot originally with a minimum of 24 MB all the way up to about 70MB.
Travelling with the Schinglers 
I really enjoyed those rock formations! Guess that one picture had Barb and Cathy in it. I didn’t recognize Barb because I haven’t seen her for a year and when I blew it up it was blurry. Looks like you are enjoying good weather there. Have fun.
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I have to drop the resolution down considerably to put the pics in the blog. They are shot originally with a minimum of 24 MB all the way up to about 70MB.
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