Garden of the Gods

About 65 million years ago during the end of the Cretaceous Period, just as the dinosaurs were meeting there untimely demise, Tectonic disturbances known as the Laramide Orogeny began to compress the earths crust, thickening it, and pushing up large sections. One of these sections became the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Between this time and about 40 million years ago, another portion of the crust depressed, forming the Galisteo Basin. This basin began to collect deposits of mud, sand and gravel as it washed down from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the north. The deposits are now known as the Galisteo Formation, which have now been dramatically sculpted from million years of exposure to the elements. You can see these wonderful rocks just north of Madrid and Cerrillos on the Turquoise Trail.