Walk With Me Hiking Edition - Calhan Paint Mines

After being super cold late last week, it warmed enough by Monday to go exploring. Since it has been so cold lately, has snowed a few times, and is winter, my hiking partner and I decided to go out East to the plains. We ended up at one of my favorite places, the Calhan Paint Mines.

Picture from last August, spent the day of the solar eclipse here

Also, fair warning, you will see my fingers in some of these pics. I'm still getting used to my new camera and chest mount for it. I apologize.

Monday we decided to go down a different trail instead of heading straight for the mines. There are three trails, one directly to the mines, a large circle, and then one in the middle. We went down the one in the middle.

I love signs! I always stop to read them, and yes, sometimes photograph them. <3

This may not have technically been a trail, but a dried creek bed. Oh well, it put us on a trail eventually. This is why I don't lead when I go hiking, and never go hiking by myself

This is the best picture I got of the wind farm that has recently been built over the course of the last three years or so. There used to be none, and now there seem to be even more every time I go. Love it!

My hiking partner and I agreed that these had the look and feel of an old Gothic church

We didn't do a whole lot inside the mines themselves, there were a lot of icy spots that we didn't want to deal with. I do have some photos from summer to show you, after a brief explanation.

Yes, they are called mines. No, they are not a conventional mine. Indigenous people's dating back thousands of years have been harvesting the rocks from this area to paint and dye with. You'll see better in the upcoming photos how the rocks look. Pinks, magentas, yellows, whites, blacks. It's really awesome. Any time I am anywhere out east, I find it very easy to imagine myself to be back in pioneer times or before that.

I don't appear to have gotten a picture, but I did meditate on this hike as well. If you read my Garden of the Gods post (https://steemit.com/walkwithme/@bearsquared51/walk-with-me-colorado-springs-part-four), you know I did a wind meditation that proved rather successful. And just like at GotG, I felt a pull to do the meditation. So this time, I did a rock meditation.

Shocking, I know. :p

My hiking partner joined me, and I swear, we both had different interactions with Gaia. He was telling me that as he managed to calm his thoughts, he saw a woman's face surrounded by vines and flowers appear. What I found interesting was that, while it was not directed at him, he felt a sense of anger coming from the face (and can we really blame her?).

I had taken off my shoes so as to sit more comfortably (I have really stiff hips seemingly no matter what I do to try to limber them up). I did not see anything, but I heard a voice, comprised of many, reassuring me that the foundations I've been building for myself are strong and will hold me up, and that the time I'm taking to do that is alright, I can get to everything else later.

Enjoy some more pictures of the mines, taken in the summer. And thanks for coming on this walk with me.

You aren't supposed to climb on the rocks in order to help preserve them, but this little cave called to me

Oh, and the rocks are rather soft. It's easy to see how, with minimal effort, they would have been harvested for use.