I first visited Colorado Springs in 1989 on a trip around the country, and like so many, was taken in by the beauty of the Pikes Peak region, and what I believe to be the crown jewel of the city parks system: the Garden of the Gods Park.
Back then, the city population was about half of what it is now, and the park had a much different layout. The entrance into the park was off of 30th Street as it is now, but instead of looping around the Kissing Camels, the road went between the two Gateway Rocks, and on the west side of the Kissing Camels was the Hidden Inn, an old, dilapidated (my wife uses the word “condemned”) building that served as a gift shop. The park’s visitors center was at what is now Parking Lot #10 and a “camera obscura” (you’ll want to google what that is; it’s pretty cool) was in a corner of the lot that is now the High Point parking lot.
Fast forward to 1995. I had moved here in 1991 and, like many others, visited the park often and also watched as a master plan for the Garden of the Gods was completed. According to Matt Mayberry, who manages the Cultural Services part of Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, it was during the master plan process that it was discovered that the deed that transferred the ownership of the Garden of the Gods from the heirs of Charles Elliot Perkins to the “citizens of Colorado Springs” upon his death in 1909 forbade any buildings in the park that were not “necessary.” Therefore, the Hidden Inn had to go, as did the visitors center and the camera obscura.
It was also during the master plan process that Lyda Hill, philanthropist and entrepreneur who spent much of her childhood in Colorado Springs, contacted then-City Parks Director Nancy Lewis with a proposal. As Hill put it during an event celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center on Aug. 10, she told Lewis that the park needed a nice place for people to get a bite to eat, to pick up a gift and to view the park. Recognizing the park deed didn’t allow for such a place within the park, and that her family owned property on 30th Street across from the park, Hill proposed that she build the visitors center at its current location. The visitors center saw 300-500,000 visitors each year in its first few years of operation and now sees about 1.5 million visitors. The park itself sees about 5 million visitors each year, more than any national park except Great Smoky Mountains National Park, according to park manager Anna Cordova.
Also in 1994, Hill and Lewis created the Garden of the Gods Foundation, a non-profit with a stated goal of providing monetary grants to the park in perpetuity. According to Christina Haywood, the foundation’s executive director, it has provided $7.6 million in grants to the park since its inception. Some of the foundation’s most recent grants to the park include $737,500 towards the renovation of the bathrooms at the park’s main parking lot at the Kissing Camels, and $955,917 towards the recently completed waterline project through the park. According to Park Manager Cordova, that project, done in conjunction with Colorado Springs Utilities, not only increased fire safety in the park by adding fire hydrants, it also added more Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant parking, and brought a better water supply to a neighborhood south of the park. It also set the stage for renovating the now seasonal bathroom facilities at the Scotsman Trailhead. For the Scotsman bathroom renovation project, Haywood says the foundation is providing “$125,000 for design, specifications, and utilities review and $275,000 for sanitation and electrical installation”, and that once a design is completed, the foundation will raise additional funds to go towards construction of a new facility.
While I, and many others who have been here long enough to remember them, miss the old Hidden Inn (even if it was likely to fall in on itself at some point), and the very unique camera obscura. But it’s also hard to not recognize that it would’ve been a hard task for the city to build a visitors center as nice as the current one, including its iconic views of the park, which are thankfully not obstructed by buildings. The philanthropy of Lydia Hill, and the forethought of her and Nancy Lewis to create a foundation to continue to support the park has enabled the park to become one of the most popular tourist attractions not only in Colorado, but in the country. According to Haywood, the “sky’s the limit” on how the foundation can continue to contribute to the park.
For more information about the foundation, including how you can support its mission, go to its website, GardenofGods.com.
Please consider making a donation to our nonprofit newsroom.
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter!
