Garden of the Gods – Visitor Center

A quick stop at the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center revealed the necessary information to complete this trip. Here you can pick-up lunch, maps and general information pertaining to your visit to the park. Turns out, Garden of the Gods has been home to many different development periods, part of what make it what it is today. Garden of the Gods was once home to a tropical haven, inland sea, sand dunes and swampy floodplains. As we have already learned, Pikes Peak was created out of the molten rock cooled to create the granite about 310-270 million years ago. The 300 foot sandstone pictured behind me in the photo below were once sand dunes. It was 65 million years ago that the rock formations were formed. This period formation is attributed to the slamming of the Pacific and North American Plate.

Source: Friends of Garden of the Gods. (n.d.). Geology. Retrieved October 24, 2010 from http://www.friendsofgardenofthegods.org/GeologyandEcology.aspx.