There are quite a few of these rocky outcrops along Colorado's front range, Garden of the Gods being the most famous (for example this and this). They're the last testament to long millennia of nature wearing down the sedimentary rock uplifted with the Rockies - and how much harder the granite of the Front Range is!
I've wanted to take this landscape photograph as long as we've lived here, but didn't think I'd be able to pull off. The big problem is light pollution: to get the Milky Way I'd have to point to the south towards Colorado Springs and its 500,000 inhabitants. Happily, I finally got smart!
First, this composition is pointed Southwest, thereby putting the worst light pollution to the left side. I had to sacrifice some of the Milky Way core, but some is better than none! Second, I waited for a particularly clear night, thereby further reducing the scattered city light. Even so I had to use several gradients to minimize the city's glow ... and combine nearly 100 photos to get low enough noise to support a large 30-40 inch print.
I particularly like this composition: there's a real sense of depth from the foreground with the yucca and mullein pointing up to the rock, to the rock itself followed by the distant Milky Way.
Thanks for reading!