to the Red Rock Canyon
to the red cliffs around the Manitou Cliff dwellings,
we kept looking in awe at the amazing red rocks.
Where did they come from?
A little geology lesson for those
that are interested:
The red rocks of Colorado are
sediment left from the ancestral Rocky Mountains. (Did you know there were
Rocky Mountains about 320 million years ago, before the current Rocky Mountains?)
This first set of Rockies eroded and
left red sand which was then covered by an shallow ocean for millions of
years. Slowly, the red sand turned to
stone because of the pressure of the ocean and ocean sediments. Due to plate
tectonics the second set of Rocky Mountains arose out of the ocean about 35
million years ago, and when this happened the red rocks were lifted from their
horizontal position and tilted at strange angles. Erosion of the modern Rockies helps to
exaggerate the angles of the rocks and expose other sedimentary rocks that are
various colors. More on this in future
blogs.
We don't have enough words to
describe the beauty of nature that we've been seeing since we arrived in the
southwestern Colorado Springs area.
Impressive, amazing, overwhelming, rugged, colorful … hopefully our
pictures will help, although even great photos don't do it justice.
To
see more of the red rocks in the Colorado Springs area, click Garden of the Gods and Red Rock Canyon and Manitou Cliff Dwellings
