I’ve lived in Colorado more years than I want to mention, and I hadn’t heard about the El Paso county owned Paint Mines Interpretive Park near Calhan, CO. A few years ago, a geologist friend sent a few tantalizing photos prompting our desire to see it for ourselves. We finally made the time in mid-November. There is no entrance fee to the 750 acre park with its 4 miles of trails through the canyon and out onto the prairie. The formation is smaller than I imagined, but down in the canyon, it seems grand. The low winter light and few visitors are a plus, but the flowers and reptiles are asleep. Some late afternoon shots follow.

According to my geologist friend, Roger Myers, “About 60 million years ago a warm tropical lake covered Colorado (and most of the mid section of the USA) when it was at a lower latitude and altitude just before the beginning of the uplift of the current Rocky Mountains. The colored clay was first deposited as fine sediments in the lake. The red, orange, and yellow colors come from the oxidation of iron containing minerals. The purples and mauves from the oxidation of manganese minerals. I suspect that volcanic ash was also incorporated in these sediments. The presence of selenite (gypsum), a soft evaporite, indicates that when the lake dried up it was under arid conditions. Inclusions of jasper, a variety of quartz similar to flint, was used by indigenous peoples to make arrowheads.” Signs of human habitation have been found in this area dating back 9,000 years.

The uplift of the Rocky Mountains sent tons of eroded Pikes Peak granite down streams and on the wind to cover the original lake bed with white quartz granules mixed in with layers of pebbles, sand and clay forming the cross-bedded caprock that protected the clay layers beneath. All were compressed and more recently (in the geologic time frame) exposed to weathering by rain, frost and wind into fantastic shapes. The free-standing ones are called hoodoos. The hard caprock layers still protect the softer clay layers below. The ocher, red, purple, orange and pink bands and especially the bright white columns are dazzling.

In the recent past, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, Arapaho, and Ute native Americans lived in the area and used the colorful clays to make pottery and paint. Bison roamed the short-grass and mid-grass prairies in huge herds.

They are gone now, but Pronghorn antelope, mule deer and coyotes are common, as well as smaller mammals like rabbits, skunks, ground squirrels and raccoons. In warmer weather, some frogs and lizards thrive in and around the occasional pools.

In the canyons, mountain mahogany bushes, chokecherry, three-leaf sumac and a few larger trees manage to survive the harsh climate.  

 

We arrived mid-afternoon on a Sunday…not the best time to have the place to ourselves. Even with signs prohibiting climbing on the formations, some people just had to take selfies on the tops. Grrrr. Most cleared out as dusk fell. The next morning, we were the only ones there to enjoy the sunrise. Winter hours mean catching the morning light takes less commitment to getting out of bed early.