Place to see: Red Rock Canyon, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States

About this place:

Red Rock Canyon is a newly acquired part of the Colorado Springs Trails and Open Spaces system. It is the geological continuation of the Garden of the Gods, located a mere mile on the other side of the highway. The history of the land is vast and unusual. In the late 1800s, the land was used as a quarry. Thousands of years old red rock was cut and used to make the foundations of many of Colorado Springs' most historic buildings. While walking up through the canyon, these scars are evident on the west side. One can climb stairs carved out of the rock into the scars themselves.
During 1886, it was the site of the Colorado-Philadelphia Company Mill that refined the ore shipped from Cripple Creek.
In the 1930s, the land was purchased by a private party, whose son lived here until 2002 when he died and the city purchased it for open space. The last owner made many modifications to the land, digging ponds, ditches, building a house that is still there today at the edge of the red rocks, making a landfill, hoping to build luxury high rises and a golf course. However, because of the proximity of the landfill, these plans would never come to fruition. The landfill has since been reclaimed and is a vital part of the park where one can see coyotes and deer.