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Red Rock Canyon Open Space

Parks in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Red Rock Canyon Open Space Cliffs
Red Rock Canyon Open Space Cliffs

Red Rock Canyon Open Space is a 1,474-acre (2.3 sq mi; 6.0 km2) city park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is situated on the west side of the city, adjacent to Manitou Springs and south of U.S. Route 24. The park consists of a series of parallel ridges (called "hogbacks") and eroded canyons. While these ridges, relatively low compared to other in the region, include a continuation of the same sandstone rocks of the Fountain and Lyons formations that make up the Garden of the Gods a few miles to the north, most of the other rock formations also associated with the geology of the Colorado Front Range can be accessed within a short walking distance. Rather than being pristine conservation land, the park contains a number of reclaimed former industrial sites, including quarries, gravel pits, a gold refining mill, and a 53-acre (2.3-million-square-foot; 214.5-thousand-square-metre) landfill. The land parcels were purchased piecemeal by John George Bock in the 1920s and 1930s, and acquired by the city of Colorado Springs in 2003 for use as a recreational site. Today the most visible scars from past exploitation of the land are the remains of the Kenmuir Quarry, which produced Lyons sandstone in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the Gypsum canyon landfill, which operated from 1970 to 1986 and remains off-limits to park visitors. The park contains many miles of trails of varying difficulty that wind through and around the rock formations, and is popular with hikers, joggers, and mountain bikers. The park trails connect to the Intemann trail to Manitou Springs and the Section 16 conservation area to the south. Technical rock climbing is allowed with a permit. In 2012, it was awarded the Stewardship Award by the Trails and Open Space Coalition

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Red Rock Canyon Open Space (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Red Rock Canyon Open Space
Mesa Trail, Colorado Springs

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 38.852777777778 ° E -104.87972222222 °
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Mesa Trail

Mesa Trail
80904 Colorado Springs
Colorado, United States
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Red Rock Canyon Open Space Cliffs
Red Rock Canyon Open Space Cliffs
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Briarhurst
Briarhurst

Briarhurst Manor, also known as William A. Bell House, is a finely grained pink Victorian sandstone manor house listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the city of Manitou Springs, Colorado. It is the second building on this site. Construction of the original Briarhurst began in 1872. Dr. William Bell, the home's owner, left for England to marry a woman named Cara, who agreed to live with Bell in Colorado as long as her children were born in England. The Tudor Revival style home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Fountain Creek passes through the estate and the home is in the shadow of Pikes Peak. Under Mrs. Cara Bell's direction, Briarhurst became "the social center" of the community, hosting the internationally famous of the day, President Grant, President Teddy Roosevelt and Oscar Wilde after his lecture in Colorado Springs in 1882. On occasion, a tribe of friendly Utes camped on the Briarhurst estate grounds while preparing to go into the Garden of the Gods, for them a holy place of worship. One winter night in 1886, while Dr. Bell was away on business, Mrs. Bell awoke to a bedroom filled with smoke. Burning embers escaped from a fireplace in Briarhurst. She woke the children and servants. Cara stayed in the burning house and with the help of gardener Schneider, they rescued a prized oil painting by Thomas Moran, the "Mount of the Holy Cross". The family escaped safely, but lost all of their belongings and returned to England. They returned in early 1887 to begin reconstruction of a second, more elaborate Briarhurst Manor, complete with schoolroom, conservatory, cloister and a library with a special alcove to display the "Mount of the Holy Cross." Today, 5 acres (20,000 m2) of the original Briarhurst estate is a restaurant and event venue. The restaurant seats over 400 guests and features Colorado cuisine. About 2 acres of the old estate is used for a large warehouse building and the Blue Skies Inn Bed and Breakfast utilizing the original 1873 carriage house and 4 other buildings. Hundreds of weddings and receptions are celebrated in the Briarhurst gardens created by Dr Bell's gardener Ferdinand Schneider over a hundred years ago.