Red Rock Reflection

Black Eyed Susan

We all have places that are sacred to us.  Our private sanctuaries.  I'm not talking about our homes though; while home can be a sanctuary and is very central to our psyche there are times when home is a place of pain and chaos.  The places I'm talking about are places of perfect serenity.  Perhaps the initial experience there was a life changing moment or an extremely peaceful one.  Perhaps we fought our inner selves, our fears and won.  I surely don't understand why those places exist but I'm just as surely glad that they do.  One of my sanctums is Red Rocks Canyon.  It's a large open space on the west side of town.  Red sandstone hogbacks run down the central valley of the park with large sandstone outcroppings throughout the entire park. 

Hipster Lens Flare Grass!

The stone itself is brittle and flaky in most places.  Dakota sandstone which is a lighter yelllowish red.  The Lykins sandstone is an orangey colour and is not as brittle as the Dakota.  The formations higher up on the big hogback, called The Whale, is a red and white Lyons sandstone.  This stone is not nearly as brittle or flaky as the others and is quite suitable for rock climbing.  I learned how to climb in the park, on The Whale.  There are five or six "walls" and moving from easiest to hardest they are The Quarry, The Whale, and The Whale's Tail.  The other side of the of the canyon, which is the south side, has The Chief and The Squaw, The Ripple Wall, and several routes on an unnamed wall.  The Quarry is so named because it was exactly that.  The steps at the capitol building were in fact hewn from the rock at the park as were other slabs used in Glen Eyrie and a few other places.  It's been left exactly as those stone cutters left it, rough, rectangular steps cut out of the sandstone with wooden bracing works, metal rods sunk into the ridge for security, and; my favorite feature, a narrow, steep staircase cut directly into the stone.

The Quarry Stairway

 I already mentioned that The Whale is the big ridge that runs down the middle of the park but to get there you must climb up and over The Solar Slab and Neverever wall which Lyons sandstone wedged between the friable Dakota.  The Whale features just about everything that sandstone can through at you, hard smears, small crimps and finger ridges, slab climbing, face climbing and multi-pitch.  The Whales Tail is an extension of The Whale which is marked by two vertical cuts in the rock, the initial place the stone cutters started their work.  The Chief and The Squaw are two tall prows that stand over the rest of the more greyish stone of the south of the canyon.

The Chief

The Ripple Wall is truly spectacular, it looks exactly as it's named, rippling.  The rock is smooth and round and juts and bows, bends and curves to form a beautiful texture the entire length of the wall.  But I'd be remiss if I only touched on the climbing.

Rethinking the Ethics, on The Ripple Wall

 Red Rocks is a great place to ride.  the trails are maintained but not groomed and the flow over the hillocks and ridges.  Cyclocross and hardtails are the bikes of choice here where fast and fun is the name of the game.  There are certainly places where technical riding is required, Greenlee and Roundup come to mind with their rock crossings, tight, bermed switchbacks and long rock gardens.  But pedal power is the name of the game here, not gravity.  That being said there's a freeride park and a jump course.  The jumps are called the C-line and they are maintained very well.  There are five or six kickers, I really don't remember, it's been a long time since I rode them but they require a few mid-air rotations to clean the course.  The last kicker is the longest and it's very easy to get enough air to pull a whip or turn down.  I also learned how to ride, really ride, in this park. 

Garden of the gods from Red Rocks Canyon

Most years the park is incredibly dry, a reminder of the fact that we live in a semi-arid desert and a glimpse into the future of Colorado Springs.  This year, with all the rain, the park has formed two ponds.  I've never seen as many birds or mammals there as I have this year.  All of the birds that you can see in neighboring Bear Creek could be seen here this year.  Flickers darting among the scrub oak, towhees scrabbling in the bushes, scrub jays in their sentry perches.  I've also seen a red fox and a skunk.  A number of berried shrubs will inevitably seduce a flock of cedar waxwings in the winter.   The rain is bad for the rocks, and the encroaching ice will be even worse but for now it's brought even more colour to a fantastic front country retreat.