Paint Mines Interpretive Park

Seven Hundred And Fifty Acres Of Eroded Clay Badlands On The Eastern Colorado Prairie, Banded Orange, Yellow, Purple And White By Selenite And Oxidised Iron. Archaeological Evidence Shows People Have Been Here For Some Nine Thousand Years, Using The Clay For Pottery And Pigment. · Calhan, Colorado

An hour east of Colorado Springs the prairie suddenly drops into a set of eroded gullies full of clay spires and hoodoos banded in orange, yellow, purple and white - colours that come from selenite and oxidised iron in strata laid down long before the grass above them. It is a startling thing to find on open plains, and it is small: seven hundred and fifty acres of county park with about four miles of trail and no entrance fee. People have been coming here for nine thousand years. The clay was dug for pottery and for pigment, which is where the name comes from, and the archaeological record of that use is why the park exists and why the rules are strict - no dogs, no climbing on the formations, nothing collected and nothing left behind. Come at either end of the day: in flat midday light the bands wash out to beige, and at sunrise or sunset they are the reason anyone drives an hour east onto the plains.

29950 Paint Mine Road, Calhan, Colorado, 80808, United States

Open daily during daylight hours year-round, free of charge, as an El Paso County park. THERE IS NO SHADE AND NO WATER ANYWHERE, and the trails cross fully exposed prairie and gullies - summer afternoons are genuinely punishing and lightning on open ground is the serious hazard. NO DOGS ARE PERMITTED. Climbing on the formations, collecting clay or rock, and leaving the marked trails are all prohibited, and vandalism here has been a persistent problem.

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