Rainbow cotton candy cliffs, candy cane spires, Neapolitan ice cream hills, and marshmallow mushrooms await the person who ventures out into the “waves of grain” fields in the shadow of Pike’s Peak near Colorado Springs. There are only a handful of places in Colorado that look like the Paint Mines near Calhan, Colorado and few people know of this little hidden gem stuck out in the middle of nowhere on the plains. A cross between the South Dakota badlands and Bryce Canyon hoodoos, the Paint Mines hide in the hills outside of Calhan, not visible from the road unless you park and walk up to the vast eroded canyon.
Built from thousands of years of erosion of the sandstone and clay layers covering what once was a tropical forest millions of years ago, this was a sacred place for indigenous peoples to gather clay for bricks and pottery, collect stones for tools, and marvel at its uniqueness. This is one of those blogs where the pictures tell the story more than the words. Enjoy the captions as I must have been hungry when writing these!
White hoodoos greet you at the front of the canyon. Do you do hoodoo? I do!
There are some miniature short slot canyons you can walk up in the hoodoos. Hoodoo walk in the slot bottoms, hoodon’t walk on top of the rocks!
I think this feature looks like a woman with her hair up sitting in a bathtub, so I call this one Bathing Beauty!
Suzie in a slot canyon
The hoodoos get more colorful as you head up the canyon.
Chilling at the front of what we dubbed Pink Canyon
These giant mushrooms in Pink Canyon were begging for Wile E. Coyote to give them a push. I see the Road Runner in green!
In the Pink Canyon sat this giant broken heart, okay there is a broken spleen next to it, not so romantic.
Stylin’ it in Pink Canyon
This hidden cave was at the very end of the pink canyon, replete with skylights!
You get a sense for the cave’s size with Suzie in the entrance.
Here I am looking studly in the cave, Indiana Jones eat your heart out
As you head further up the canyon, you spot these squat marshmallow mushrooms that were the perfect size for kids to play under
Like mounds of ice cream, these colorful rocks just screamed out for a picture of them
These hillsides remind me of candy canes all lined up, ready to eat, divinity coats the bottom of the hillside.
It’s a new drink, Ethan on the Rocks!
Here we have a picture of a local Martian on the surface of Mars. please do not touch the Martian.
Remember rainbow cotton candy as a kid? Here is a whole cotton candy cliff. Eat it up, yum!
Near the back of the canyon were more mushroom caps and another colorful slot canyon.
This looks like Neapolitan Ice Cream hillsides to me.
More ice cream please!
This looks like seven layer dip…
Okay maybe not seven layers.
Now doesn’t this look a bit like the Parthenon in Greece? Okay squint a little.
Hiking up to the Parthenon
The Parthenon pillars are all hoodoos.
Suzie hiking back from the Parthenon
A rusty-colored canyon
Glorious, isn’t it?
Suzie up one of the side canyons, her green shirt really sets off the pink of the canyon walls, doesn’t it?
Just another spectacular pink canyon, ho hum! This place is definitely worth a visit if you haven’t been here yet. Enjoy!
