Garden of the Gods Balanced Rock Front Range Ceramic Art Tile

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.

Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.

Balanced Rock sits at the southern end of Garden of the Gods, on Balanced Rock Road near the park's southwestern boundary. It is a short paved walk from a small parking area. The park itself is on the western edge of Colorado Springs, at the foot of Pikes Peak.

The boulder is a block of red Fountain Formation sandstone, around 300 million years old, resting on a thinner, harder base. Weather has eroded the softer rock around the base more quickly than the boulder above, leaving the upper rock perched. Geologists describe the arrangement as differential erosion.

The rock stands roughly 35 feet tall. It is one of the most photographed features in Garden of the Gods, alongside the Kissing Camels arch and the Cathedral Spires further north in the park, and it is visible from Balanced Rock Road at the park's southwestern edge.

No. Garden of the Gods is free to enter, a condition of the 1909 gift from the children of railroad executive Charles Elliott Perkins. The Visitor & Nature Center, parking, and trails are all open without charge. Some interpretive tours and the in-park cafe charge for their services.

The park was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971 by the National Park Service for its red sandstone formations, which record about 300 million years of geologic history. It covers 1,367 acres on the western edge of Colorado Springs, at the foot of the Front Range.

Late afternoon, when the western light reaches the rock at a low angle and the sandstone reads deep red. Sunrise also works, with the formation lit from the east and Pikes Peak behind it. Midday is the flattest light and most crowded.

Balanced Rock was owned privately for several decades by Paul Goerke, who charged admission to photograph the formation in the early 1900s. The City of Colorado Springs acquired the property in 1932 and added it to the park, ending the entry charge.

It has been a meaningful gift for many of our customers with ties to the city. Balanced Rock is a place locals walk past on weekend hikes, and the southern stretch of the park is the quieter end. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

The deep reds and stained-glass blues of the painting sit well in Mountain-modern, Southwestern, and Jewel-tone Maximalist rooms. The warm sandstone palette also reads against natural oak and dark walnut, and against off-white plaster walls in a quieter Minimalist setting.

Yes. Mountain-modern leans on rust, ochre, and red against natural wood and stone, and the Balanced Rock palette holds its own in that company. The piece reads as a centred warm tone in a room that is mostly neutrals and natural materials.

A single Large tile is the right scale for a console or a narrow shelf. Above a sofa, a 4-tile Mural fills the wall with breathing room around it, and a 9-tile Mural carries a longer wall or a stair landing in a high-ceilinged room.

Yes. In those rooms ask for the Dura Satin or Matte finish, which is scratch-resistant and made for vertical installation in wet rooms. The Glossy finish is reserved for framed wall pieces in dry rooms.

A soft microfibre cloth and water. The colour lives in the surface beneath a thin clear finish, so it does not lift or fade with cleaning. Avoid abrasive pads and ammonia-based glass cleaners on the Glossy finish.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to the studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Balanced Rock painting is one piece in our Colorado collection, painted in our stained-glass, alcohol-ink, and oil visual language and slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure.