world-renowned, but singularly named, Garden of the Gods. The most
direct road to reach it from the village is by way of Manitou Avenue and
Buena Vista Drive, the latter being a well-traveled road, which enters
the avenue on the left, about a mile from the town, as one advances
towards Colorado City. The entrance to the Garden is past Balanced Rock,
an immense boulder which stands directly to the left of the road, poised
on such a slender base that it suggests an irregular pyramid standing on
its apex. To the right, as one passes this curious formation, is a steep
wall of stratified stone, draped with clinging vines, and overgrown with
evergreens. Pausing a moment on the brow of the elevation which is
reached here, one can look down into the valley below in which the
Garden lies. To the west are the mountains; to the east the plains. The
road which winds through the valley is a pleasant way. One's eyes and
mind are kept busy beholding and recording the interesting views which
here abound.

No one knows why this valley was named "The Garden of the Gods." There
is nothing especially garden-like in its appearance; but, doubtless
through "apt alliteration's artful aid," the name has become greatly
popular, and it would be foolish to quarrel with it, or make any attempt
to change it. There are, however, ample suggestions that Titanic forces
have been at work here, and it requires but little imagination to
ascribe these innumerable quaint sculpturings, these magnificent
architectural rock works, these grand and imposing temples, not made
with hands, to the agencies of the gods. Here are to be found carved in
the stone by those cunning instruments of the hands of Nature--the wind,
the rain, the sunbeam and the frost--curious, often grotesque, figures
irresistibly suggestive of forms of life. Here stands a statue of
Liberty, leaning on her shield, with the conventional Phrygian cap on
her head; there is a gigantic frog carved in sandstone; yonder is a