The story goes that back in the early days of Hollywood, a movie producer seeking a rocky filming location made a comment to the effect of, "Who needs to go all the way to Colorado—we have our own 'Garden of the Gods' here!"

The Iverson family took the comment to heart and began calling their own collection of rock formations the "Garden of the Gods," and the name stuck.

The garden's red rock formations were created millions of years ago during a geological upheaval event called the Laramide Orogeny.

At 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.

[3] In 1879 AD, Charles Elliott Perkins, a friend of William Jackson Palmer, purchased 480 acres (190 ha) of land that included a portion of the present Garden of the Gods.

[citation needed] Upon Perkins' death, his family gave the land to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909, with the provision that it would be a free public park.

[7] Helen Hunt Jackson wrote of the park, "You wind among rocks of every conceivable and inconceivable shape and size... all bright red, all motionless and silent, with a strange look of having been just stopped and held back in the very climax of some supernatural catastrophe.

[7] The outstanding geologic features of the park, including Steamboat Rock, the Three Graces, and Balanced Rock, are the ancient sedimentary beds of deep-red, pink and white sandstones, conglomerates and limestone that were deposited horizontally, but have now been tilted vertically and faulted into "fins" by the immense mountain building forces caused by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains and the Pikes Peak massif.

Evidence of past ages can be read in the rocks: ancient seas, eroded remains of ancestral mountain ranges, alluvial fans, sandy beaches and great sand dune fields.

[11] Annual events including summer running races, recreational bike rides and Pro Cycling Challenge Prologue also take place in this park.

A portion of the proceeds from the center's privately owned store and cafe support the non-profit Garden of the Gods Foundation; the money is used for maintenance and improvements to the park.