The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-08-13
OUR VACATION TRIP.
The Reporter Man Had the Time of
His Life Seeing the Sights in
Great State of Colorado.

Last week we told our readers of
some of the delightful side trips which
we enjoyed at Colorado Springs and
Manitou, but space would not permit of
telling of all OF them in one issue, so we
will continue this week.
Nearly everyone has heard of the
famous Garden of the Gods which have
been described and photographed more
than any other place Of scenic interest
in Colorado, but words or pictures fail
to give even the faintest idea of it's
wealth Of gorgeous color, or the noble
view which its gateway frames. The
Garden Of the Gods is pleasant car
riage or burro ride, and we took the
carriage way at $1.00 per head for the
drive. There is no admission charged to
drive through the Garden, nothwith-
standing that it is private property,
being owned by the estate of the late
president Perkins of the Burlington
railroad who purchased it number Of
years ago, and although he has been
offered fabulous sums by syndicates
during the years previous to his death,
he refused all offers and time and time
again said it was his intentions in pur-
chasing the large tract of ground which
includes the Garden Of the Gods, to
provide for the free access of everyone
to this glorious garden made possible
by nature. A pleasant drive Of a couple
of miles from Manitou and we enter the
garden. Our driver told US we were in
great luck as until the week we we're
there they had had no rains for many
months and there was really no pleasure
in driving through the garden on ac-
count of the dust which was 8 to 10
inches deep, but thanks to the showers
while we we're there the roads were in
delightful condition, and there was no
discomfort. Many people think that the
Garden of the Gods is a tract of only a
few acres, but really they cover quite
an area, our drive through them cover
ing about six miles. We admit that to
see all the strange things one must have
a vivid Imagination, and often the Wis
itor will fail to see anything unusual in
a big pile Of rocks until the driver of
your carriage calls your attention to
the formation just as you reach point
OF view which gives your Imagination
full sway, but nearly everyone allows
themselves to be carried away and they
can see most anything. The gateway
to The Garden from the plains springs
from the level plain to height OF three
hundred and thirty feet and glow with
the most brilliant coloring Of red. There
is an outer parapet Of pure white and
there are inner columns Of varied hues,
the whole suggesting the ruins OF vast
temple, once the receptacle of the
sacred shrine Of the long-buried Gods.
The red rocks are sandstone and the
white ones gypsum, and along the drive
way we encountered a couple Of artists
who sold little trinkets, such as crosses,
bibles, etc., which they carved out of
the gypsum rock and we're unique as
we'll as artistic. Great massive columns
and piles Of rocks assume magic shapes
and the imagination of the visitor is
kept busy discovering resemblances to
figures Of beasts and birds, men and
women, and Of strange freaks in archi-
lecture, which have not heretofore been
noticed by the driver Of the carriage
who has visited the garden several
times each day for many, years. But
really, there is something strange and
weird about this magnificent garden,
which consists of nothing but rocks,
with not enough green grass growing
on Thousand acres to support one COW,
which cannot fail to impress the sight
seer with the fact that all this was
caused by some great invisible power,
which one cannot attempt to explain or
even justify, and is only thankful that
at some time in the dim ages of the
past this power was used and that the
present generation is wiser thereby. 1t
would take many columns of The Re-
porter to tell of the strange things, all
of massive rock which we saw in this
weird tract of ground, and only a few
will be touched upon. One of the great
est is the Balance Rock, massive rock,
weighing thousands of tons, nicely bal
anced on a second rock and the base Of
the top rock being about a foot in cir
conference and some of our Iowa people
would have bcen willing to have
wagered a good sized sum that they
could take small crowbar and tip the
big rock over. Really it looks as if a
stiff Iowa breeze would surely topple
the rock over. Then there is the steam
boat rock or shipwreck, which looked
all the world like the hull OF big
steamer which had been cast up out OF
the ocean. AS we drive through the
garden we see the frog, the old baggage
room which looks like a huge pile Of
Saratoga trunks, the Mushroom park,
where piles of rocks look just like a
vast field Of mushrooms springing out
of the ground in various stages, but
towering nifty and hundred or more
feet in the air, all solid rock, the toad
stool and toad on top, the blacksmith's
anvil, the pulpit rock, deer head, mon
key, porcupine, old mans wine cellar
where you can see in rock countless
numbers of barrels of rare old vintage,
the eagle, Siamese twins, old Scotch
man, devils head, Jonah's whale as
natural as life, the kissing camels, tho
Egyptian Sphinx, queen Of the garden,
Chicago girls foot, the lions head and
in fact anything you want to see, pro-
viding you have your Imagination with
you, for without it all these objects are
but rough piles Of rock. We spent most
of one afternoon in the garden and in
all our travels over nearly every part
of the United States, we never spent a
more pleasant day. ~.
After doing the Garden of the Gods
the next thing ON the program was to
make the ascent Of Pixies Peak. There
were three routes which we could take