Painted Mines Interpretive Park

The last weekend in June, our good friends Chris and Suzanna Gould and their kids, Anya and Steve came and hung out with us. To start off our weekend, we met the Goulds at the Painted Mines Interpretive Park in Calhan, Colorado, which is about an hour northeast of our house. Here is a blurb from the park's website:

Located in the northeast section of the County near Calhan with approximately 750 acres the paint mines have evidence of human life as far back as 9,000 years ago. The colorful clays were used by American Indians. The park features fantastic geological formations including spires and hoodoos that were formed through erosive action that created incised gullies and exposed layers of seienite clay and jasper. The park includes a restroom facility, four miles of trails, interpretive signage, and many natural wonders.

We had never visited the park before, but the photos on the website were beautiful. I'm so glad we went. This was a pretty amazing place.

We arrived a little after ten and started off on the trail. We had a beautiful, deep blue sky above us and lots of sun. It was a perfect day for a hike.

And we're off!

There are so many things I like about hanging out with the Goulds. Chris graduated from Clear Creek a year ahead of Steven, and they were friends in high school. I was friends and graduated with Chris's younger brother, Scott.

We didn't get to meet Suzanna until many years later when we all showed up at Cindy Catanese's costume store opening when both Maya and Anya were just babies. Cindy was a teacher at Clear Creek whom Chris, Steven and I both spent a great deal of time with.

Several years after the opening of Disguises, we met up with the Goulds again. Chris was part of a musical ensemble in Idaho Springs, the Cowboy Band. He invited Steven to join and we've been close friends since then. Our kids are nearly the exact same ages and they get along brilliantly. 

The Goulds even came to see us while we were living in Germany. We spent time with them over Christmas and New Year's and got to do some really fun travelling with them in Luxembourg, France and Germany. It was on New Year's Day while we were in Heidelberg with the Goulds that Maya took the photo that became the cover of Alabama Skye.

We always get a Wing family picture or two when we're with the Goulds.

We've seen some really cool things while with the Goulds. The Painted Mines fell into that same category.

Chris, Suzanna, Steve and Anya

I have so many fun shots of the four of these kids together.

The scenery at the Painted Mines was spectacular.

Even though we were there on a Saturday in June, there were very few people in the park. We only encountered one or two on our hike. The colors of the mines in front of the deep blue sky and fluffy white clouds was breathtaking.

Mylee and Anya.

It got pretty hot by the end of our hike. Here's Maya happy to catch a bit of a breeze.

Look at all of the yellow butts! Climbing around was dirty work.

When I called the kids over to the park sign once our hike was done, all four of them trudged over without complaint. Anya informed me that they'd hung out with me long enough to know that when we're together, there will be a lot of pictures taken. She said it was just easier to comply with the request. :)

After our hike, we drove back toward Colorado Springs. We decided to have lunch at a park in Manitou Springs before heading back to our house. Between our families, we had a lot of birthdays happen in the months of May and June. We celebrated Maya, Steve, Chris and Anya with a Black Magic cake and vanilla ice cream.

After sharing a few glasses of German wine, we got the kids settled on the back porch and the adults all went to bed so we could be ready for more fun the next day. 

We had a great time at the Painted Mines. My only problem is trying to pick just one or two pictures to enlarge and frame for our house. I got so many...it will be a difficult decision.