The Garden of the Gods is a public park located in Colorado Springs. It contains red sandstone hogback formations, similar to the Red Rocks south of Denver. The name Colorado is said to come from the color of this sandstone.

The hogbacks are ridges of sandstone, whose layers are tilted. Instead of lying horizontally, some layers are even vertically oriented. Each hogback can range up to several hundred feet long, some as tall as 50 feet from ground level. Their shapes indeed resemble the backs and spines of a pig.

Entrance to the park is free, according to the wish of Charles Elliott Perkins, whose children donated the land to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909. It contains numerous trails for hiking, walking, mountain biking and horseback riding. Many of the most popular trails are paved, in an effort to combat the rampant erosion of the park's land caused by its numerous visitors.

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