City: Colorado Springs, CO

Category: Parks & Recreation

Telephone: (719) 634-6666

Address: 1805 N. 30th St.

Insider Pick:

Description: This towering, bright, truly amazing park of rock formations, vegetation, and wildlife is one of our city’s best-known attractions. The city-owned, 1,400-acre park has a visitor and nature center and has been recognized by the Department of the Interior as “a nationally-significant natural area.” It offers towering sandstone formations, a wonderful view of Pikes Peak, paved and unpaved hiking paths, the Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, and a living history museum, among other amenities. Placed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1971, Garden of the Gods is one of the jewels of our community and NOT to be missed, even if you only have time to drive the loop through the park. A short note for those adventurous types: Every year a good number of tourists are tempted to climb the rocks. They are deceiving and can be extremely hard to climb up and get down. Climbers must first register at the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center, and technical climbing is permitted only on established routes in groups of two or more. All other climbing or rock scrambling past 10 feet high is illegal and will get you a big fine or even jail time. Sadly, there’s almost always a death or two every summer as tourists ignore these rules, get too far up, and fall. We like our visitors to leave happy and alive—please respect this park and its rules.