Day 14: (1of3) Saturday May 16th: Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs Colorado

Saturday May 16^th: Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs Colorado

Today is the 20^th anniversary of the Garden of The Gods 

and they celebrated with the opening of a new attraction inside the visitor center called the 

Parks Geo-Trekker Theater, with its four giant video screens in "better than HD" quality, and surround-sound audio system and lighting effects.  Visitors can watch screenings of the new 14-minute film, "How Did Those Red Rocks Get There?" 

This is going to be a paid event, but it was free today. Everyone files inside a circular seating area with everyone facing outward towards four

screens, each wall is showing the same thing.

Then the simulation starts and you have a pilot who takes you through time visiting the earth at various points in it's history to see how all the layers of the mountains are formed. Very good CGI effects showing molten lava, dinosaurs, including one that comes up to the “window” of the space ship and licks the window then sneezes booger goo all over the glass.  Heh

And of course all the rocks of Pikes Peak going through it's various stages of being out of water, underwater, covered with glaciers, in a desert, mountains, erosion, bigger mountains and finally Pikes peak today.

The park is Free to the public everyday and it is really beautiful with lots of pull outs to enjoy the views, parking, picnic areas and hiking trails. It only takes about 20 minutes to drive through, maybe ½ hour with photo stops. 

But you can park and hike around on the various trails too.

We were pulling the trailer and there weren't many unoccupied trailer spaces to park in, so we drove through with only two parking stops. Then we drove through again so that Daryl would be able to see the sights. Then after the visitor center we drove through again because we missed the exit, then we drove through one more time because we took the visitor center exit instead of the main entrance exit which meant we would have missed Balancing Rock.

 One of the most photographed and impressive natural anomalies. 

A Beautiful day for a beautiful place.