The Paint Mines Interpretive Park

The Paint Mines Interpretive Park is one of my go-to places for an adventure in Colorado. I have been back to the mines several time and each time I fall in love with it even more.

The Paint Mines are incredible, colorful clay formations that people have been visiting for hundreds of years. They are called the “paint mines” because the different colors were used by Native Americans to paint and dye for decades before this place became a preserved park.

March 2019

My first visit to The Paint Mines was with a group of girlfriends after a weekend at Great Sand Dunes National Park. We met early in the morning, and it was a good thing we did. When we left the parking lot, it was full and muddy. In fact, the entire trail and hike was very muddy, but it didn’t stop us from exploring. ​

The trail starts with a quick, half-mile walk to the first formations. These first formations were just a tease of what was to come and we knew it. We still stopped to take pictures but tried not to get held up at what we knew was a lesser stop.

We continued down the muddy and snowy trail a little further to finally find the the epic valley of red and orange striped spires poking out of the ground. When we came over the ridge and saw the entire layout from above, we were in awe, giddy, and stunned all at the same time.  ​

Once we saw other people down in the canyon, we knew we had to go in and see what was hiding below.

​Behind every formation was something even more spectacular to see. We spent several hours (probably four or five) exploring the entire 750 acre park - yet I feel like there was so much more to see.

We hiked back out and sat in the parking lot to share our pictures with one another and talk about how much fun the day had been together.  We all agreed that the park was much more magical than any of the pictures or reviews had made it out to be!

April 2020

We respected him, the warning sign, and the formations themselves and kept off of them this time. We still spent hours exploring around the formations and hiking the surrounding trails.

I returned back to The Paint Mines in early spring of 2020 with John and another group of friends. It was just as muddy and windy as the first time, but again that didn’t hold us back in the slightest bit.

What did hold us back a little though was the security guard this time asking people to keep off the formations. We were able to talk to the guard and he talked to us about how the formations were fragile and crumbling under the heavy traffic.

February 2021 - Our Engagement Photos

My favorite trip to The Paint Mines thus far (and probably will be ever) was when John and I went down here to take our engagement photographs!

​After the other trips I had taken here, I knew this was one of the main places I wanted to take pictures. We brought our photographer, Holley Grimes, and another group of friends down to get pictures done as well, and the pictures came out better than I could have ever imagined!

We had an absolute blast modeling, dancing, and cheering each other on as we rotated through photographers and poses, anywhere and everywhere we could squeeze into inside the paint mines. ​​

It was romantic, picturesque, and just absolutely perfect.

If you want to see more from our engagement photos inside The Paint Mines - and from our other photoshoot locations - please check out my “Top 5 Places to Photograph Engagements” guide, HERE!

See other spectacular Colorado locations in my blog posts here:

Great Sand Dunes National Park 
3-Ways to Visit Royal Gorge
​A Guide to Garden of The Gods Park