Garden of the Gods: Mainly a Picture Show

(Still) Day 4 - Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

After our morning of tempting gravity to pull our 2-ton vans down 5000' of Pike's Peak Granite, we venture on to western Colorado Springs to unwind with cold nalgenes and soft rock. Colorado BASIN soft rock (ohhh geology joke....) Anyways, we arrive at Garden of the Gods around 1PM, after eating lunch in the scalding visitor's center parking lot, and after visiting the welcoming center. (Beware: this is not the first time we'll stop by a visitor's center before actually visiting the attraction.)

The Garen of the Gods stop is a series of tremendous, near vertical or completely vertical tipping bedrock monoliths protruding upwards. Aside from one bright white limestone piece, many orange and deep pinkish-tan sandstone outcrops (with outrageous sedimentary structures) surround you as you enter the park. I believe the rocks are Paleozoic, but my rite-in-the-rain notebook is currently drying in the dining room right now. Anyways, on to more pitcures.

Les Hasbargen in Super-Geologist-Photo Mode

Vertical Bedrock=Drool
Sedimentary Structures worth Killing For
Something happened riiiiiight here...
Don't tell my geo-colleagues I took pictures of a dicot...I mean plant..
And this.

Watauga Falls

In the Fall of 2007, we went out to this outcrop, or waterfall in Delaware County, rather proximal to the town of Delhi. I don't remember the exact stratigraphic location of the falls themselves, but I do recall an abundance of excellent sedimentary structures, including ripple marks, as well as cross stratification in multiple directions.

The bad news: after about 1 hour we realized there was a Delaware Co. police vehicle parked behind our van. Needless to say, we were out of there way too soon, but there long enough to get some nice shots of the falls.

On a side note, this was the top terrace of a two-fall system. The second terrace was much larger, at least 4x as wide, and over 100' vertical drop. However, the lower falls were not accessible from out position.