Moving inward (Thursday Travels)

Finally, we’re going to walk the interior portion of the Paint Mines. (If you’re new here and want to catch up, you’ll find a list of previous Thursday Travels at the bottom of this post.  Or, if you don’t want to catch up, all you need to know is that we’re at the Calhan Paint Mines in El Paso County, Colorado.)

I do wish I had photos of someone other than myself (M took a few of me) or of M (who refuses to be on the blog in any recognizable fashion) to give you some perspective.  I suppose I could blur M’s face (or blur all of me), but I don’t like to do that (even though I’m not superstitious at all… nope, not a bit… which goes a long way towards explaining why I never delete photos of my loved ones).

The hoodoos and other rock formations are not exceptionally tall.  There were taller formations at Garden of the Gods.  Perhaps walking down into them made them seem less tall to me.  The formations are big (and much, much, taller than I am), but to me they didn’t seem like the type of skyscraping formations I’ve seen elsewhere.

The colors and textures are striking, and quite impressive.

Some of the shapes remind me of ocean waves frozen in time, or the ice dunes of Lake Erie when the waves are frozen in winter.

Another features that stands out in my memory is how quiet it was with just M and I clambering around the twists and turns of the trail in the mines.

Usually I start with the best photo, but in this case I wanted to lead you to the more colorful formations because that’s how I saw and experienced them.

Mother Nature’s palette.

I wonder if she dipped her brush into the Paint Mines to color some of her other creations.

I’ll have more next week.  In the meantime, thank you for visiting and meandering in the mines with me.  For those who want the usual walk around the pond, a collage of scenes from today:

It’s a gorgeous day, that’s for sure.  (The peony is not a repeat.  I’m keeping an eye on them, waiting for them to open.  It was the peonies, among other things, that helped me see things a little differently during last year’s Outdoor Challenge.)  I slipped in a look at the shed-building-in-progress, but mostly highlighted the beautiful blue sky.

Related articles

• Thursday Travels (bogsofohio.wordpress.com)
• Back to the mines (Thursday Travels) (bogsofohio.wordpress.com)
• The Eastern Plains (Thursday Travels) (bogsofohio.wordpress.com)

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