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Calhan Paint Mines Trail

The Paint Mines Trail is a spectacular loop hike that crosses open prairie grasslands to eroded badlands of colored sandstone used by ancient Native Americans for paint and pottery. The trail offers panoramic views of the surrounding prairie as well as distant Pikes Peak on the western horizon.

Start: Paint Mines Interpretative Park Trailhead on the west side of the park

Distance: 3.7-mile loop

Hiking time: 1.5 to 3 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Elevation gain: 205 feet

Trail surface: Single- and doubletrack dirt path

Seasons: Year-round. Summers are hot. Winter days can be snowy and windy.

Schedule: Open daily, sunrise to sunset

Other trail users: None

Canine compatibility: Dogs not permitted

Land status: El Paso County Park

Fees and permits: None

Maps: USGS Calhan. Park map on El Paso County Parks website.

Trail contact: El Paso County Parks, 2002 Creek Crossing, Colorado Springs, CO 80906; (719) 520-7529; http://adm.elpasoco.com/CommunityServices/ParkOperations/Pages/default.aspx

Special considerations: Use extreme caution in the badlands area. Stay on the trails to avoid damaging the fragile rock formations. Watch children around drop-offs. Watch for rattlesnakes in summer. Summer can be hot; no shade along the trail. Wear a hat and bring plenty of water as none can be found along the trail.

Finding the trailhead: Drive east from Colorado Springs on US 24 for 25 miles to Calhan. On the east side of Calhan, turn right (south) on Yoder Street, which becomes Calhan Highway. Drive south on the road for 0.5 mile to Paint Mine Road. Turn left (east) on Paint Mine Road and drive to a large parking area and the trailhead on the left (GPS: 39.020507, -104.274266). A restroom is at the parking area. Another parking lot is 0.6 mile farther along the road on the south side of the park.

The Hike

The 3.7-mile-long Paint Mines Trail offers a wonderful hike that explores the high prairie and unusual badlands south of Calhan in eastern El Paso County. The single- and doubletrack trail has easy grades, several interpretative signs, and lots of history.

The Paint Mines, a small eroded badland south of Calhan and US 24, is one of those unknown off-the-beaten-track places that amazes when you first visit it. Eroded into the flank of a bluff, the mines are a wonderland of narrow sharp canyons, rounded alabaster-white boulders, and rainbow-dyed hoodoos. The colorful mines, however, are only one part of the 753-acre Paint Mines Interpretative Park, an El Paso County park, which spreads across a broad grassy valley and protects a swathe of short-grass prairie.

The Paint Mines form a miniature painted desert that was frequented by Native Americans, including Paleo-Indians for as long as 10,000 years and, in the past 700 or 800 years, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. They mined the colored clay for ceramics and to paint pottery and used petrified wood to make projectile points and scrapers. Later settlers in the 1800s used the clay for bricks. The Calhan Paint Mines Archeological District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their prehistoric significance.

Begin the hike at the trailhead on the east side of the parking lot off Paint Mine Road south of Calhan. A restroom is at the parking area, but there’s no water. The hike goes clockwise, following two loop trails across the rolling prairie before finishing at the Paint Mines area. Hike east 0.1 mile to a three-way T intersection. Go straight (east). A right turn, however, travels 0.7 mile south to the Paint Mines if you want to go there first.

The first trail segment makes a 1.1-mile loop across prairie and up a dry drainage. Hike northeast on the wide trail and after 0.4 mile reach an interpretative sign that explains Colorado prairie ecology. Drop into a broad dry wash and turn southwest. The sandy singletrack trail twists up the willow-filled arroyo between clay banks until it reaches a four-way trail intersection. Go left (southeast).

Hoodoos and shale cliffs line a shallow canyon in the heart of the Paint Mines.

The next 1.3-mile trail section makes a wide-open loop across the southeastern part of the park to a junction just north of the southern parking lot. The trail quickly leaves the wash and climbs to a bench that overlooks eroded white badlands, with dry eroded hummocks of soft sandstone. Bend left here and follow the trail as it contours northeast across a basin to an eroded badland and an old quarry where clay was excavated for bricks. The trail continues uphill left of the badlands to a bench, an interpretative sign detailing human habitation here, and a great view west across the park to distant Pikes Peak.

The trail turns southwest and gently climbs to a Y-fork trail junction at 2.4 miles. Go right (west) on the next 0.6-mile trail segment, which ends at the Paint Mines. The south parking lot is 0.1 mile to the southwest on Paint Mine Road from this junction. Back on the main trail, hike west and reach another Y junction after a few hundred feet. Keep left on the main trail, which descends onto north-facing slopes and contours west across a shallow ravine. At 2.8 miles is a marvelous overlook above the Paint Mines. Drop down to the eastern edge of the Paint Mines to a metal bench and enjoy a view of the white, gray, yellow, orange, and ocher badlands below. Continue down the trail to the bottom of a deep wash and a trail junction.

Go left (south) and hike 0.2 mile up the bottom of the deep arroyo into the heart of the Paint Mines. All around you are twisted gullies, standing blocks of sandstone, hoodoos carved into fanciful shapes by erosion, and tumbled boulders all tinted by every color of the rainbow. The exposed rock here is Dawson arkose, a coarse sandstone interspersed with clay layers that was deposited 55 million years ago when this region was covered with a tropical hardwood forest. Don’t climb on the fragile formations—they’re easily damaged by human activity. Also control your children since there are lots of drop-offs.

Return to the trail intersection with the main trail and head north. The last 0.7-mile trail section climbs away from the Paint Mines and returns to the trailhead. Walk north along the sandy floor of the dry arroyo for 0.2 mile to a four-way junction. Go left (west).

The last half-mile trail section begins with a gradual climb up a hill to a high metal bench and a good view south to the mines. Continue north on the trail as it gently descends an open grassland to a T junction. Go left (west) and walk another 0.1 mile to the hike’s terminus at the trailhead and parking lot.

Miles and Directions

0.0	Trailhead at the parking lot on the east side of Paint Mine Road (GPS: 39.020451, -104.274082).
0.1	Trail junction (GPS: 39.020863, -104.273012). Go straight for the loop hike. For a short hike, go right to the Paint Mines.
0.4	Interpretative sign about ecology.
1.1	Four-way trail intersection (GPS: 39.017359, -104.268546). Go left on the loop hike.
1.2	Reach a ridge overlooking the Paint Mines.
2.4	Reach a T-shaped trail junction on a high grassland (GPS: 39.014091, -104.261903). Go right. South parking area is 0.1 mile to the left.
2.8	Reach the crest of the trail and a great view of the Paint Mines (GPS: 39.014107, -104.267976).
3.0	Reach a trail junction in the bottom of a dry wash (GPS: 39.014879, -104.269186). Go left to the Paint Mines (or right to the trailhead). After exploring the mines return to this junction and go north down the wash.
3.2	Leave the wash and go left up a slight grade to a trail junction (GPS: 39.017213, -104.269554). Go left (west) on the uphill trail.
3.7	Arrive back at the trailhead and parking lot.

The trail bends north around the Paint Mines’ badlands.