144 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES 



to the picturesque scenery incline eighty to eiglity-five degrees, and then 

 immediately west are several low ridges dipjiing fifteen to twenty degrees. 



There is a somewhat extensive cave in the north x)ortion of the sand- 

 stone ridge that forms the entrance to the " Garden of the Gods." It is 

 caused by the washing away of a soft layer, about three feet thick, by a 

 little stream of water that trickles down from the summit of the ridge. 

 These vertical ridges of red sandstone rise above the surface about two 

 hundred and fifty feet. Just east of the entrance or gate, about fifty yards, 

 is a wall of white sandstone, with seams of impure, gritl^^ gypsum run- 

 ning through it in every direction, forming a kind of net- work. The 

 strike of these ridges is nearly north and south. 



At Crater's Falls, above the soda springs on Fountain Creek, there 

 is a remarkable caiion, in which the unchanged sedimentary rocks are 

 seen to rest directly on the red porphyritic granites. At no point along 

 the eastern base of the mountains, from Laramie Peak southward, have 

 1 seen the two classes of rocks so fairly in apposition. The metamorphic 

 Tocks beneath are quite massive — a deep rusty red; an aggregate of crys- 

 tals of feldspar and quartz, with some black mica. The cleavage lines 

 are shown with great distinctness, but the lines of stratification in the 

 two kinds of rocks do not precisely correspond. I think that the strata 

 of both groups incline in the same direction, but the granites seem to be 

 more steeply inclined. As I have before remarked, there seems to be a 

 conformity in very many localities, and sometimes extending over large 

 districts, between the unchanged and changed rocks, but I am inclined 

 to regard this conformity as more apparent than real. 



The rock which rests directly upon the granites at this locality is a 

 sandstone, totally unchanged, as if it had been deposited on them in cool 

 and rather quiet waters. It is composed of minute crystals of quartz, 

 considerably rounded by attrition, and cemented with silicate of iron. 

 This sandstone is quite massive, with streaks or seams of small pebbles. 

 We have them resting upon the granites, then alternate layers of light 

 gray, and rusty reddish sandstone — forty feet ; then a very deep dull 

 purplish sandstone with dark spots — two hundred feet. Above this a 

 thinly laminated yellowish- white limestone, of various degrees of fineness, 

 with vast quantities of crinoidal remains, some corals, smaU univalves 

 -t&c. This limestone must be from three hundred to four hundred feet 

 thick. The dip of the rocks is distinct, as the little streams have cut 

 the most perfect sections. Sometimes masses of these rocks are lifted 

 high on the summits of the mountains, in an almost horizontal position, 

 then again they dip ten, twenty, or thirty degrees in different directions. 



A few hundred yards to the northeast of the Crater Falls, on Foun- 

 tain Creek, there is a little branch which flows down from the mountains, 

 and has cut out of the rocks a most remarkable caSon. The limestones 

 and sandstones are here shown most perfectly in the vertical walls, for a 

 mile or more resting on the g^^anites below, and inclining not more than 

 50 to 10°. 



About four miles northwest of Colorado City is what is called the 

 second "Garden of the Gods," through which flows Camp Creek. Tlie 

 area is much smaller than that of the first Garden of the Gods, but the 

 scenery is even more remarkable. The entrance is through a kind of 

 gateway, cut by the creek at right angles to the ridge of lower creta- 

 ceous sandstone No. 1. This ridge forms high walls, with a dip to 

 the east of 55° to 60°. Then comes, inside of this wall, a narrow belt 

 of what must be Jurassic limestone, some portions being of a bluish color 

 and brittle, filled with indistinct animal remains. Then comes the gyp- 

 siferous sandstone, with a bed of snowy gypsum, gradually passing into 



