Friday, January 6, 2012

Paint Mines, and Painted skies!

So, seeing as my readers keep asking me to go out and Blog, I did. Left puppy at home, headed out to Calhan, CO.

My friend Brian and some others went to see this place in Calhan called the Paint Mines. I've heard of it before, but when I saw his photos......I had to see this for myself.

BTW..... It's cold out, and I spent New Years w/ 2 kitties in my presence, causing a severe asthma attack. I wasn't able to go explore these colorful rocks & crevices up close...yet.
Spring will be here soon, and then I can get up close. I didn't want to risk another attack due to the cold air  - as much as it killed me to hold back.


What I was able to see and photograph ---- Click each photo to enlarge them ---


Info on this beautiful natural wonder =
The Paint Mines are a collection of eroded gulches of sandstone-capped clay colored by leaching minerals, ghost-white hoodoos and elaborate labyrinths of eroded rock. They cut through the landscape southeast of Calhan, where they have formed over millions of years. Resembling the fantastical gullies and drainage's of the Badlands of South Dakota, the Paint Mines lie in the valley of the Big Sandy Creek drainage, a tributary of the Arkansas River. They are named for clays found there, thought by archaeologists to have been used by American Indians to make paint. The colors - butterscotch yellows, rusty oranges and faded greens that glow in the sunlight.

I also snagged a geocache out in my travels, some other cool photos, 
and finished a photo contest w/ a 3rd entry.
Enjoy!


More tomorrow, 
as I ran outta light, got lost, and was invited to a friends....just in time for Taco Night!