What Is The Garden Of The Gods And Where Is It?
The Garden Of The Gods is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Like Hanging Lake a few miles east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado The Garden Of The Gods is a National Natural Landmark . The land for the park was provided to the city by the family of Charles Elliott Perkins. The park has a visitor center and the minimum amount of development in the park needed to maintain it.
There is no admission fee to get into the park or the visitor center. If you’re passing through Colorado Springs it is a must see and it is free. Whether you are a photographer, interested in photography or just want an awesome place to wander around to seem some spectacular natural sights, it should be on the list of tops if you are in the Colorado Springs area.
There is a main road through the park. There are some parking areas within the park that may fill on busy days. There are a total of about 336 parking spots in the park. The early bird gets the worm here. A number of hiking trails meander through the park and photo opportunities about throughout the park.
In addition to the Garden Of The Gods in this article, there is also a Valley Of The Gods In Southern Utah. Though the names are similar, the parks are located in different states. Both are well worth visiting.
What Is It Like To Travel To And Photograph The Garden Of The Gods?
Once you are in the Colorado Springs area, the Garden Of The Gods is easy to get to. Like The Valley Of Fire in Nevada, this smaller local park does have opening and closing hours and is not open 24-7. Year round it opens at 5am. It closes at either 9pm or 10pm depending on the season. Fortunately these hours make it possible to be in the park for both sunrise and sunset. Unlike The Valley Of Fire, there is no campground. There is no overnight parking or camping permitted in the park.
If you will be flying out to The Garden Of The Gods, chances are you’ll want to fly into the Denver, Colorado airport or the Colorado Springs airport. Denver is the larger of the two and has many more flights. Colorado Springs is much closer but the Denver Airport is only about a 70 mile drive from Colorado Springs. Either one is convenient for visiting the Colorado Springs area and the Garden Of The Gods.
If you’ll be driving from the east and coming across Kansas up the front range into Colorado on I-70, you can take it to Oakley, Kansas and then stay a bit south to route 40 to 287 to 94 right up into Colorado Springs. If you prefer to stay on I-70 you can take that to Limon and then head south to Colorado Springs on route 24.
Driving in this part of the country from western Kansas up the front range of Colorado is generally a smooth drive but can be subject to dangerously high winds anytime of year. When cold temperatures and the possibility of winter weather exists, the driving can get pretty dicey.
Now and then a bomb cyclone will hit this area of the country and bring everything to a halt. If you are traveling across Kansas into Colorado be sure to check the weather forecast a few days in advance so you can prepare for the conditions and pause your trip somewhere in Kansas if necessary. Salina, Kansas is one town with lots of cheap hotels far enough east to be out of the crazy storms where you can usually find some cheap hotel rooms.
Once you get to Colorado Springs, there are a variety of hotels, some campgrounds and RV parks in which to stay. Some of the campgrounds will cost as much as the cheaper hotels in the area so you may want to opt for hotels. Campsites at the Garden of the Gods RV Park located close to but not in the park can start at around $50.
During some times of year, hotels may be cheaper than that. If you are road tripping and just want a place to park and sleep for the night, the local Wal-Mart may be an option but you’ll need to double check as rules for overnight Wal-mart parking are always changing and generally getting more restrictive.
When you head over to The Garden Of The Gods you’ll want to get there early. As noted above there are about 336 parking spots. On busy days those can all be filled early. Find a good spot and be prepared to do a fair amount of hiking. Trails meander throughout the park. There are good to great photo opportunities all over the Garden of the Gods. Get there early for the best lighting and lightest crowds and plan to take a full day or more to really scope out the park, catch the best lighting and find some great photo opportunities in the park.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Garden Of The Gods?
Though the Garden Of The Gods is a pretty small park at least compared to most national parks in the US and Canada, there are tons of photo opportunities along the road and the trails that go through the park. Great photos can be taken there any time of year. I tent to like late spring when the surrounding mountain peaks still have nice snow caps and a light dusting of snow on the red rocks within the park is at least a possibility. Sunrise is a little later, the crowds can be smaller and the lighting a little softer.
Since there so many different perspectives, rock features, angles from which to shoot and potential variations in lighting, I’d suggest planning on at least two days there. This will give you one day to get the lay of the land, drive and hike around to the different viewpoints, overlooks and hiking trails in the park. You’ll get some nice shots on that first day and be able to scope out some good locations for your second day when the lighting may be better at a given time of day.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Garden Of The Gods?
Since you’ll want to be there at sunrise and potentially sunset too, definitely bring a tripod. This will help keep your photos sharp when photographing in low light conditions since the shutter will probably need to stay open longer than you can hold a camera perfectly still.
Grab a good DSLR or mirrorless camera. Whatever you have with a pretty large sensor will be best. A DSLR like the Canon 5DS or 5DS-R will give you massive files to work with. There are plenty of good mirrorless cameras with large sensors too.
At The Garden Of The Gods there are plenty of photo opportunities standing up close to the rock formation and back at a distance. If you want just one walk around lens for the day, a 24mm – 105mm lens is probably your best bet. A second lens might be something wide than that like a zoom that goes as wide as 16mm or close. On the other end of the spectrum, something that goes up to 200mm may come in handy for distant or closeup photos of some of the rock formations.
The Garden Of The Gods is definitely a spot for panoramic photos. If you’ve got the gear to shoot and stitch panoramic photos, the Garden of the Gods is a great place for it. Depending on where you park, you may end up hauling it around a fair amount. If it is heavy gear, it may be easier to skip the panoramic photo gear.
A cable release for the camera shutter on a tripod can come in handy in low light conditions. A circular polarizer can help bring out blue skies, tone down glare and improve the colors of the red rocks in your photos. This is one park where you can make use of most anything you have in your camera, lens and accessory collection.
What Is The Story Behind This Panoramic Photo Print Of The Garden Of The Gods?
As I was heading west across the US on the 8th year of what seemed like an endless national park road trip through the US and Canada, I decided to swing by The Garden Of The Gods once again. I’d been there back in 2013 on a previous trip across the country and decided to go for a second time.
In 2017 the road trip that began on the east part tended to start a bit later than more recent road trips. The big multi resort ski passes hadn’t yet come out or at least they didn’t seem good enough to buy them. Since I wasn’t skiing, the trips would start later so as to avoid the winter storms that could blanket the western US and Colorado Rocky Mountains at any time in the winter.
After a few stops in Pittsburgh and Indiana, I made my way across Kansas when the likelihood of any foul winter storms passed. Instead of routing up through Denver I decided to stay a little south and return to the Garden Of The Gods. On the last pass through Colorado Springs and the Garden Of The Gods in 2013, I’d slept in my car in the Wal-Mart parking lot and decided to do so again this time around.
The grips of winter were loosening by April but the cold and snow was not gone by any means. The temperatures dipped down below freezing while I was sleeping in the Wal-Mart lot during this trip to The Garden Of The Gods. Compared to sleeping in the car in Montana on nights when it was 10 below zero outside of West Yellowstone, this little cold snap wasn’t much of an obstacle. A zero bag was enough to get me through the night, though it was a little challenging to get the motivation to get out of it before the sun came up.
On this pass through Colorado Springs I spent a few days at The Garden Of The Gods and resided in the Wal-Mart parking lot each night. One night there was a fair amount of snow and a slushy drive over to the park. On this morning, however, it was just a dusting that covered the ground and added a little sugar to the big red rock formations and the sprawling grounds of the Garden Of The Gods.
On the morning this photo was taken there was almost nobody in the park at the time. I had it all to myself. The light overnight snow and associated clouds cleared by the time I got there. It was boring but still scenic clear light blue skies hovering over the red rock formations in the Garden of the Gods and the snow capped mountain peaks in the background.
When you get to The Garden Of The Gods early in the morning, you can park anywhere. If you decide to move your car and it is still early you can be confident that you’ll get a parking space most anywhere you want one. This gives you a lot more flexibility since you can move around easily, take just the camera gear you want or need for a shot and not have to carry every imaginable lens with you. This morning I parked fairly close to the entrance and hiked along the road until an nice panoramic scene unfolded in front of me.
I setup the Induro tripod with the Nodal Ninja panoramic head on top of it. Once it was setup and leveled, I started shooting the entire front view of the red rocks with the sage brush in the foreground and the snow capped Rocky Mountains in the background. As is often the case, I shot numerous panoramic shots from a few different angles and came away with some pretty cool ones that would facilitate making HUGE prints.
After the sunrise lighting passed, I drove up to what might be the main parking lot and had breakfast and relaxed for a bit. Once the air started to warm and the nourishment from the Pop-Tarts started to flow through my body I packed up a more full set of camera lenses and spent the rest of the day wandering around the rest of The Garden Of The Gods looking for more cool photo opportunities.
What Formats Is This Garden Of The Gods Panoramic Wall Art Print Available?
This Garden Of The Gods sunrise panoramic wall art print is available on canvas, metal, acrylic, wood and a variety of papers.If you plan to hang it in an area with diffused lighting, then any material with any finish will look great. Matte prints will have a bit more subtle or classic look while anything metallic or glossy will have a brighter more vibrant look. If you will hang it in an area with bright direct lighting, then matte finishes on canvas and paper will be best.
The size of the print depends on the material chosen. If you choose a metal print, the size tops out at 84×23 inches. A print on wood or acrylic tops out at 96×26 inches and a print on paper or canvas tops out at 108×29.5 inches. Those are the maximum sizes available. Smaller sizes are available for all types of prints.
If you’d like something for the bathroom, this or other Garden Of The Gods prints look great on shower curtains and can be ordered with matching bath towels. For the living room or bedroom, Sherpa fleece blankets make a great choice and may be paired with matching throw pillows.
If you need something to replace those plastic shopping bags being phased out, this image is available on high quality very durable canvas tote bags. If you’ve got a new Apple or Samsung phone, you can get this image prints on a nice phone case.
Finally, if you are into puzzles, this image is available on 500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. You can adjust the placement of the image to get the portion of the image you want on the puzzle.
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