Paint Mines Interpretive Park is a beautiful small canyon about 45 minutes from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Called Paint Mines due to the natural colors in the soil that was used for colorful clay pots in early human history.
Driving to Colorado from Illinois you spend most of your time on level farmland. Then you hit a point late in Nebraska where you start to see the mountains on the horizon. The land grows before your eyes. Visiting Paint Mines from Colorado Springs you get the opposite feeling. You’ve spent most of your day at Garden of the Gods, or looking off to Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains. Then you start heading north east and out in front of you is an ocean of grasses. As far as you can fathom is nothing. Nothing but farmland. But as you approach Paint Mines it’s a colorful gash in the land. Rocky outcroppings with beautiful yellows, reds, purples, and pinks.
From the parking lot it’s a short walk and then your immersed in this beautiful rocky world, hiking through beautiful flowers mirroring the colors you see in the rock. Night photography isn’t allowed without a permit, but we captured a beautiful sunset before heading back to Colorado Springs.
