Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-05-05
GARDEN OF THE GODS.
Description Of Valley Where Nature Seems
to Have Massed Her Wonders,
BY I.CE +. VERNON

BY LUE +. VERNON.
II ever there was a place on earth
where the gods of the Greeks and
Romans may be supposed to have
lived and had good time, that place
must have been in Colorado.
Near the foot of the famous noun.
tain known as Pixies Peak, lies the
Garden of the Gods" 1t is a valley,
just on the edge of the Rocky Noun
tains, and is completely surrounded
by high, perpendicular wall of white
sandstone. There are two entrances
through this wonderful wall, one of
them-the larger-is called "The
Beautiful Gate" 1t is narrow gap
in mass of rock more than one hun
dred feet high.
AS you enter you look over valley
fenced in ON all sides with white sand
stone, and, nearly opposite, at the top
OF hill, is another smaller gateway,
half concealed by a huge rock about
the size OF an ordinary cottage. This
mass of rock is 30 balanced on the
edge of the slope thst it looks as if it
might tumble off and go laundering
down the hill while you look at it.
The Garden of the Gods abounds
with beautiful trees and foliage, and,
towering amidst this loveliness, are
some of the most extraordinary, queer
and fantastic shapes ever made out OF
rock. Ages ago, when this part of the
world was in a state Of terrible com.
motion, vast layers of rock were forced
up out OF the earth in all sorts OF posi-
tions. Some were vertical, some
slanting, and some were crisscross and
mixed up generally.
Learned men say that was the way
these layers of sandstone which were
once fiat, got up edgewise and in all
other ways. We must take their word
for it, There was nobody there to see.
Trees and shrubs, after time, grew
up around, and the disturbed earth
had peace.
Then came the autumn winds and
the long autumn rains. The wind
blew the sand against the rocks,
which was so soft that you could dig
holes in them with a strong pack
knife. The wearing of the sand and
wind and water against these stony
surfaces carved them into all sorts Of
wild and funny shapes. Ages and
ages passed away, probably, before
these grotesque sculptures look as they
do now.
Here and there among the trees rice
up fantastic shapes like spires. towers
and steeples. Some Of the fanciful
names given these are "Montezu-
mas Cathedral" Cleopatra's Needle" !"
Washington Monument" The Ca
thedral Spires" and Needle Rock"
"But, of course, the half-human
looking objects that gave a name to
this curious garden are most likely to
attract attention. The names by
which they are known are as fantastic
as the shapes themselves. One, q
figure of a woman, draped and stand
ing mournfully alone, has many
names. 1t is called "The Mourning
Bride" "The Widow" "The Old
Maid," and by other titles, any one of
which may happen to stick to the
pathetic figure, that might be called
"Lot's Wife," only that i. is pillar
Of stone instead Of a pillar of salt.
Then there is q large water.worn
boulder, that looks for all the world
like a gigantic frog in the act Of get
ing ready to jump. He seems just
about to leap, but he never does. He
has been in that position for hundreds
OF years, and he has not jumped yet.
One part of the wall. where the
white sandstone is mixed with red, is
q gigantic head of buffalo. There
it rests-horns, ears, nostrils and all
looking down at you, just as if it were
a petrified mammoth buffalo's head
stuck up there as an ornament.
Another singular group is "The
Nun and the Seal" and, as the seal is
peering over the rock at the nun who
seems to have been at prayer, this
group is sometimes called Interrupt
ed Meditation"
Doubtful.
Msyme-"So you kissed Jack Hug.