On Walkabout Travelog: Christmas at the Garden of the Gods

Putting together my prior posting about my winter time visit to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs inspired me to go ahead and take my family for another visit to this great park on Christmas Day.  It had snowed again a couple of days before Christmas so I hoped there would be a little bit more snow on the ground compared to last week.  There  was actually a little more snow on the ground this time but the snow that remained on the rock walls was about the same as last week:

Once again I parked over in the northern parking lot and walked down to the Central Garden area of the park.  The parking lot was packed with cars coming and going so we had to be careful walking over to the trail.  The trail likewise was packed with walkers.  Going to the Garden of the Gods on Christmas Day must be a popular thing to do for people living in Colorado Springs.  Considering how beautiful this park is I can’t blame them.  “White Rock” looked quite beautiful as we walked down the path because the sun was shining directly on it:

“North Gateway Rock” on the other hand was left in the shadow of the sunshine:

“South Gateway Rock” was also in shadow:

It is surprising the temperature difference when walking in the shadows compared to walking in the sunshine.  My family was all glad we decided to wear our heavy jackets to stay warm and then when we walked through the gap in between the two major rock walls we hit direct sunshine and were actually a little hot from walking and wearing our jackets.  Anyway the below picture is from the gap in between the two major rock walls where the plaque in commemoration to Charles Elliot Perkins can be seen:

Perkins is the man who donated this land to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909 for the promise that it would be forever free to the public to visit.  Considering the amount of times I have been to this park I have taken great advantage of Mr. Perkins generosity over 100 years ago.  The below picture is from the west side of “South Gateway Rock”:

Here is a view of Pikes Peak as we walked on the west side of the park:

This next picture is of “Gray Rock” on the south side of the park:

Here is a view looking north from the west side of the park:

This next picture shows the gap in between North & South Gateway Rocks from the west side of the park:

Here is a picture of some more of the narrow rock walls on the south side of the park:

My family I spent about an hour and half walking around and checking out the Garden of the Gods before heading back home.  I think this is going to become our new family Christmas Day tradition whenever we are in Colorado Springs to walk around this beautiful park.