GoG Visitor Center, Rock Ledge combine again for annual Earth Day event

       The Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center and Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site will coordinate their annual Earth Day event Saturday, April 16.
       Activities will start at 9 a.m. - not counting the volunteer park cleanup, starting at 8:30 from the Visitor Center - and continue until 3 p.m.
       Another hands-on, give-back-to-the-park type of activity will be the planting of six new trees at Rock Ledge Ranch, for which volunteer help is requested between about 9 and 10:30 a.m. Two will be toba hawthornes in the grove off Chambers Way, and four will be apple trees near the Rock Ledge House.
       Whether people plant trees or not, they will not have to pay to visit Rock Ledge, which normally has an admission charge.
       New at this year's Earth Day will be electronics recycling in the ranch parking lot (free except for TVs, computers and monitors).
       The event typically attracts well over 1,000 people. People can park in the Visitor Center lot, with overflow parking in the ranch's lot. A regularly running shuttle bus will take people between Rock Ledge and the Visitor Center.
       The center and ranch are across the street from each other at 30th Street and Gateway Road.
       Here is a schedule of activities (all of them at the Visitor Center unless otherwise stated):
  • 8:30 a.m., Garden of the Gods cleanup (volunteers welcome - meet at the center).
  • 9-10:30 a.m., tree-planting at Rock Ledge (volunteers welcome).
  • 9 a.m., first of the hourly nature walks (last is at 2 p.m.).
  • 9 a.m.-noon, youth activity - seed-planting with Science Matters.
  • 9 a.m.-3 p.m., equipment displays and demonstrations outside the center (probably by El Paso County Search and Rescue and Peterson Air Force Base).
  • 9 a.m.-3 p.m., wildlife touch table by Garden of the Gods volunteers.
  • 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Division of Wildlife (DOW) education table.
  • 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Colorado Springs Utilities energy information.
  • 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Rock Ledge Ranch open to the public, including historic houses and blacksmith shop.
  • 10 a.m., Mr. Science Chemical Magic Show in the center's theater.
  • 10 a.m.-noon, Air Force falcons in the center's Red Rocks room.
  • 10 a.m.-1 p.m., llamas in the center parking lot.
  • 10:30 a.m., Sweetwater Indian Dancers in the center parking lot.
  • 11 a.m., Mr. Science.
  • 11:30, Indian Dancers.
  • Noon-2 p.m., birds of prey from Pueblo Raptor Center, in the Red Rocks room.
  • Noon-3 p.m., youth activity - slime-making with Science Matters.
  • 12:30 p.m., Indian Dancers.
  • 1 p.m., live wolf presentation by the Wolf & Wildlife Center in the theater.
  • 1:30 p.m., Indian Dancers.
  • 1:30 p.m., live wolf presentation.

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