Garden Of The Gods, Pikes Peak Poster

This poster has been developed as part of my Colorado Vintage Travel Poster series. Created in Adobe Illustrator, I am able to enlarge and reduce the illustration without loss of quality. I call this the “travel poster” look which is a simplistic graphic illustration style but with more gradations than the old world travel posters from the 1930’s and 40’s. The process: I first create rough sketches. Then I tighten up each part as a pencil sketch and scan the drawing into the computer. I then use this scan as an underlay importing it into Adobe Illustrator. Each part of the image is created as a shape and eventually I fill the shapes in with color. After the color palette is established, I then create simple gradations to allow the image to have some depth.

Garden of the Gods is a public park located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971. The Garden of the Gods rock formations were created during a geological upheaval along a natural fault line millions of years ago. Archaeological evidence shows that prehistoric people visited Garden of the Gods about 1330 BC. About 250 BC Native American people camped in the park. They are believed to have been attracted to wildlife and plant life in the area and used overhangs created by the rocks for shelter. There are many native peoples who have reported a connection to Garden of the Gods, including Ute, Comanche, Apache, Kiowa, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Pawnee and Lakota people. The area was first called Red Rock Corral.[3] Then, in August 1859, two surveyors who helped to set up Colorado City explored the site. One of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a “capital place for a beer garden.” His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, “Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.” The Garden of the Gods Park is popular for hiking, technical rock climbing, road and mountain biking and horseback riding. It attracts more than two million visitors a year and becomes the city’s most visited park. There are more than 15 miles of trails with a 1.5 mile trail running through the heart of the park that is paved and wheelchair accessible. Annual events including two summer running races, recreational bike rides and Pro Cycling Challenge Prologue also take place in this park. Because of the unusual and steep rock formations in the park, it is an attractive goal for rock climbers. Rock climbing is permitted, with annual permit obtained at the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center. The requirements are following the “Technical Climbing Regulations and Guidelines,” using proper equipment, climbing with a “buddy”, and staying on established climbing routes. Precipitation makes rocks unstable and therefore climbing is not allowed when the rocks are wet or icy. There are fines for unregistered climbers, and possibly rescue costs. Several fatalities have occurred over the years, generally because the climber was not wearing safety equipment or the equipment failed.

Pikes Peak (originally Pike’s Peak) is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains within Pike National Forest, 10 miles west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America. Originally called “El Capitán” by Spanish settlers, the mountain was renamed Pike’s Peak after Zebulon Pike, Jr., an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806. The Arapaho name is heey-otoyoo’ (“long mountain”). At 14,115 feet, it is one of Colorado’s 54 fourteeners, mountains that rise more than 14,000 feet above mean sea level, and rises 8,400 feet above the city of Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark. There are several visitor centers on Pikes Peak, some with a gift shop and restaurant. These centers are located at 6 mile, 12-mile and the summit itself, and there are several ways to ascend the mountain. The Manitou and Pike’s Peak Railway is a cog railroad operating from Manitou Springs to the summit year-round, conditions permitting. Automobiles can be driven to the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway, a 19 mi road that starts a few miles up Ute Pass at Cascade. This road, which until October 2011 was unpaved after the halfway point, was made famous worldwide by the short film Climb Dance featuring Ari Vatanen racing his Peugeot automobile up the steep, twisty slopes as part of the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb race. The road has a series of switchbacks, treacherous at high speed, called “The W’s” for their shape on the side of the mountain. The road is maintained by the city of Colorado Springs as a toll road.