We drove up Rampart Range Road after taking the pictures that I've been featuring the last few days. This winding dirt road originates in the Garden of the Gods and takes you all the way to Rampart Range Reservoir outside Woodland Park. It's a very scenic drive. Lest you think all of our views are pristine and beautiful, though, let me bring your attention to our infamous scar. See how the top of this ridge is suspiciously flat? I don't mean level, I mean flattened instead of jagged and rocky, as it should be. That's because it was a large quarry for decades, and it left a giant scar just north of the Garden of the Gods that's highly visible from practically anywhere in the city. I just spent the last half hour going through every post on this blog that features the Garden of the Gods or our famous view from the overlook, and not a single one of them shows the scar, because I always reflexively shoot around it or crop it out in post. It's not exactly scenic, at least I don't think it is, and unfortunately it's hard to miss!
Since the quarry has closed, the site has grown over with a few stubby trees and undergrowth, but it's never going to look normal. As you drive on Rampart Range Road you'll eventually go past the back side of the scar, and you can clearly see where the natural shape of the foothill ends and the manmade destruction begins. I don't know whose idea it was to put a quarry in such a highly visible spot, but there's not a lot we can do about it now. The next time I go to take a picture of our view I'll purposely include the scar so you can see what it looks like from the front. But first, I'll be continuing my series on Rampart Range Road for the next several days.
1 comment:
It'll take decades to look really different.
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