Paint Mines Park, Colorado

This weekend has been full of adventures and today was the end of my travels for the week. I joined the Art Institute group for a trip to the Paint Mines Park in El Paso County, Colorado. We started out in Elbert, Colorado venturing in the small town atmosphere looking at the historical buildings. Then we continued on our trip to the Paint Mines Park. The weather was cold, windy and at times it was sleeting. Although the weather was not at its best today, the park was amazing. If you've never been, the park is a small canyon with walls of brightly colored layers of clay. We started at the top where we could see the rocks from above, but than we made our way into the canyon. As explorers with camera's and sketch pads we felt the need to look at every corner of the park and we all found that the park was one big maze leading to new areas of the park and dead ends. We weren't the only artists in the park as we also ran into a couple other photographers. A small portion of us were rock hounds that found several gypsum crystals to share with everyone. We ended our day with a big meal from one of the local restaurants and spending time sharing our experience with one another.