Colorado Trip 2015: Walking In The Gods' Garden

There won't be a lot of text in this blog post...just lots and lots of pictures. For another one of our Nash family reunion activities, we decided to go slightly out of the way (an hour-plus drive to Colorado Springs) and walk through Garden of the Gods.

In my opinion, the Garden actually lives up to its lofty name! It's not a very big place (about 1300 acres), but once you've been there, it's hard to forget. It's the site of an ancient geological upheaval, which left dozens of dramatic outcroppings of red sandstone scattered throughout an relatively flat mountain valley. Some of those outcroppings you can climb on without help; others would require professional equipment. Even if you aren't a big climber, there are more than 15 miles of trails that criss-cross throughout all the formations. More than a million people visit the Garden every year for hiking, walking, biking, and rock climbing.

 

And to top it all off, the Garden is a designated city park, which means admission is free to all visitors! I've always been grateful for the generous landowners who decided the park should be visited by everyone; it is nice to be able to see such amazing natural beauty whenever you want.

Well, when I say "whenever I want," I'm speaking hypothetically...I haven't been to Garden of the Gods in over ten years; Nathan and I went hiking there shortly after we were married. We were very excited to be returning there, and bringing our kids with us to enjoy it!

All the Nash cousins, plus Kent Perry!

Our extended family also reasoned it would be a good opportunity for our sister-in-law Adrienne. She is a born-and-raised East Coast gal, and we thought she would really enjoy some of the cool Western-states geology that a place like Garden of the Gods has to offer. So, off we all went!

Aurora & her cute cousin Laura Carlin at the visitor's center

We first met up and took our bearings at the Garden's state-of-the-art visitor's center. It was a little hard to find a parking spot in the park at first (there were a lot of drivers passing through the park that day!), but we finally found a small picnic area that would accommodate all our cars. Before going on our walk, everybody settled down for a picnic lunch...

 

Then we started our walk! Since our family has such a wide age range of grandchildren, we mostly stuck to the main trails, which are pretty level and easily walked. But even the main trails offered some great views.

 

This is my adorable niece Claire. This is one of the only times I was able to get a picture of her when she wasn't attached to her beloved mama...who is just out of frame. I thought Claire was so darn adorable, but she only warmed up to me later on.

We were also lucky to be joined by our friend Amber Perry and her son, Kent. As I mentioned before, their new home in Colorado Springs is within sight of the Garden. But they hadn't had a chance to visit yet, so we invited them to join us! It was wonderful to spend a little more vacation time with them!

Amber and Kent really seemed to enjoy the park; hopefully they will be able to visit and enjoy the park a lot in the coming weeks and months. Truthfully, I'm a little jealous they get a chance to come back to the Garden of the Gods whenever they like! I already miss it.

 

The kids all had fun following each other up and down the rock formations...

And the adults had fun climbing too!

My brother Ray and his cute little family; wife Adrienne, and girls Caroline, Charlotte and Claire

Nice view...and the Garden is pretty beautiful too!

The weather was just about perfect that day, too. It was a little hot at lunchtime, but an hour or two later we had some light rain that cooled everyone off nicely. It kept us energized to walk around the park a little longer.

Photobombing by Nathan

Aunt Ade Nash, Uncle Paul Carlin, and Grandpa Nash, with the Nash girls

Aurora loved spending time with some of her younger cousins, Charlotte and Caroline!

When everyone had finally had enough, we loaded everyone up in the car and headed back to Grandma's house for dinner. During the drive, the kid's fatigue finally overtook them...

That's always one of my favorite sights after a long outing...zonked-out kids in the back of the car! It's a sign they wore themselves out having fun. I know Nathan and I felt the same way that day.