Garden of the Gods is a scenic park near Colorado Springs, Colo. The park covers an area of over 700 acres (280 hectares) at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. It is a region of huge red and white sandstone rock masses that rise in strange shapes. Every year thousands of tourists visit the Garden. Its sunrise church services on Easter Sunday are famous. The heirs of Charles W. Perkins of Burlington, Iowa, gave the eastern half of the park to Colorado Springs. The city purchased the western half in 1932.
The best-known rocks in the Garden of the Gods include the Cathedral Spires, Balanced Rock, and Indian Head. These formations were created by an upheaval of the rock strata to an almost vertical position. Thousands of years of erosion by wind, rain, and frost followed this upheaval.
