Describe the characteristics of the Colorado Springs in A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie's To the Rocky Mountains.
Ludlow and Bierstadt's party rested in Denver for several days before deciding on a spontaneous 70-mile diversion to the south to visit the base of Pike's Peak and the Garden of the Gods near Old Colorado City (now a part of modern-day Colorado Springs). The journey would not have been possible because they lacked suitable vehicles, but Governor John Evans kindly lent the expedition his ambulance wagon and "a pair of stout serviceable" horses. Bierstadt rode with his color-box alongside the guide, following the ambulance in a buckboard pulled by a single horse. On 10 June, the six-person party set off after breakfast.Thirty miles into their journey, they arrived at Castle Rock, "a peculiar hill of the butte kind, a single cone, rising abrupt and solitary out of the level plain to the height of about four hundred feet". Ludlow and another man hiked to the top, describing it as "the quietest, sunniest, most satisfying mount of vision we had yet climbed." Bierstadt stopped long enough to sketch the butte before continuing his way south.The expedition spent three days at the base of Pike's Peak to explore the Fontaine qui Bouille (now called Fountain Creek), which allowed the men to bathe before beginning their work, making studies and collecting samples of the local geology. On reaching the actual springs, the men compared the tastes of each spring, created lemon-flavored soda, and bottled pure spring water to later compare with city water. The afternoon of their last day was spent in the Garden of the Gods. The men enjoyed squeezing into a narrow cavern and reaching "a vault about fifty feet long, ten feet high", which they examined by candlelight, and comparing the Garden's rock formations to recognizable shapes, including animals and "a statue of Liberty, standing by her escutcheon, with the usual Phrygian cap on her head." The men were so impressed by the landscape, that "[i]t was a great disappointment to some of our kind friends that our artist [Bierstadt] did not choose the Garden of the Gods for a 'big picture.' It was such an interesting place in nature that they could not understand its unavailability for art." Ludlow later surmised that, "however impressive it might be outdoors, [the scenery] was absolutely incommunicable by paint and canvas".
Garden of the Gods buckboard Old Colorado City Pike's Peak Castle Rock Fountain Creek Phrygian cap Governor John Evans Colorado Springs