Garden of the GodsFree admission, 300-foot red sandstone fins framing Pikes Peak, and the most-visited city park in Colorado at 4.5 million visitors a year

Garden of the Gods is the result of a single act of generosity. In 1879, railroad executive Charles Elliott Perkins bought 240 acres of the red-rock formations to keep them out of speculative development. Perkins died in 1907; in 1909, his six children deeded the land to the City of Colorado Springs with the condition that the park be 'kept forever free' to the public, with no fences or buildings. The city has held that line for 116 years — admission remains $0, parking remains free, and the park draws roughly 4.5 million visitors a year, more than any city park in Colorado.

The formations are upturned beds of 290-million-year-old Lyons Sandstone, tilted vertical when the modern Rocky Mountains thrust up beneath them about 65 million years ago. The signature view is Gateway Rocks — the twin Cathedral and North Gateway slabs framing 14,115-foot Pikes Peak, the third-most-visited mountain in North America. Other named formations are easy to spot from the inner loop: Balanced Rock (a 700-ton boulder pivoted on a one-foot base), Kissing Camels (a hoodoo at the top of South Gateway), the Siamese Twins, and the Three Graces. The park is also a National Natural Landmark, designated in 1971.

Plan around light. Sunrise (the park opens at 5 AM) lights the east-facing Gateway and is the cleanest window for crowd-free photography. Late afternoon swings the warm light over to Balanced Rock and the western formations. The Perkins Central Garden — the inner red-rock loop — has a paved 1.5-mile interpretive trail with named-formation signage. Free public parking is available at the Main Lot off 30th Street and at the Visitor & Nature Center on the east side; the latter has the only restrooms inside the park boundary and a free 14-minute geological film that's worth a stop on the way in.