Top 5 Reasons You Should Visit Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs Over Lanai.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

While visiting the Garden of Gods in Colorado Springs, a friend informed me there was also a Garden of the Gods on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Curious, I had to look into how it is that the two natural wonder parks would share the same name, while an ocean apart. They are both beautifully carved rock gardens, a result of centuries of erosion, but their differences could also not be more clear. So, for those of us landlocked slobs who aren’t able to fly to the beautiful Hawaiian islands often enough, and then figure out how to get to the tiny, mostly un-inhabited island from the mainland, here are in no particular order, the top 5 reasons why OUR Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, just 20 min from downtown and five minutes from picturesque Manitou Springs, ROCKS!

Garden of the Gods, Lanai

1. Our sign.

Inscribed like the very tablets of Moses himself, clearly the winner over the dirty, unmanicured thumb.

2. Our Trading Post

Established in the 1900′s, The Trading Post is Colorado’s largest art gallery and gift shop, offering everything from Native American Indian arts and crafts to that paperweight you’ve always wanted with the scorpion suspended inside. Lanai? There aren’t even any traffic lights. No shopping malls or public transportation either. Good luck finding that paperweight.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs. Photo by Chris Bird.

Garden of the Gods, Lanai

3. Our Vertical Rise

Try doing this over a pile of boulders.

4. Our Camping

There are no campgrounds on Lanai, only a Four Seasons. Well, two to be precise. But, if you really want to experience the four seasons, stay at the Garden of the Gods Campground!

5. Our Gods Like to Party

Lanai island legend has it that the rocks and boulders were dropped from the sky by the gods tending their gardens. In Colorado Springs, of the two 1859 surveyors who stumbled across the formations dotting the 1350 acre landscape, one thought it the perfect place for a beer garden. The other, thought it the perfect place for the gods to assemble, and incorporating the beer garden idea, it became known as the Garden of the Gods. We win!

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia where otherwise not attributed.