Paint Mines

It doesn’t look like much, it’s always windy and it’s in the middle of nowhere, but this is a fun and easy family hike. Rebecca is a night owl, which means she sleeps in every morning. Today I woke her up at 2pm (yes, 2pm) to go hiking with us. She was grumpy and didn’t want to go, but I promised her she’d feel better once she was outside.
When we got there the parking lot was full so we had to park on the side of the road. No worries about social distancing though, as the trails are wide and even with a full lot we only passed people a handful of times.

The goal today wasn’t to get in mileage or elevation gain, but to just get outside. You aren’t supposed to scramble on the rock formations (to preserve them) so here are some highlights we were able to get without damaging the structures:

And some pictures of the landscape

We got in about 2.5 miles of walking and 300’ of elevation gain. Oh, and it took about half an hour of hiking, but eventually Rebeca’s sour mood turned upside down and she enjoyed herself!

Afterwards we went to Big R looking for chicks, but they were out (and so is everyone else).  So we drove home and I sent the girls to Raising Cane’s for dinner while Steffan and I put the skid rack back on my truck:  The girls love Sweet Tea and I’d never had their food before, so it was a win/win.

Author: Laura M Clark

Laura has summited over 500 peaks above 13,000' solo, including being the first woman to solo summit all of the Colorado 14ers, as well as the centennials. After each hike, she writes trip reports for each one and publishes them on her blog, which is read by fans all over the world. Author of Wild Wanderer: Summiting Colorado’s 200 Highest Peaks, which is available to purchase on Amazon. View all posts by Laura M Clark