We discovered several new locales and revisited a number of old favorites during the pandemic.
The first new area is the Calhan Paint Mines, a beautiful park we had never heard of until the pandemic. As you will see, it is a canyon cut into the eastern plains revealing beautiful intensely colored sandstone formations. It is an archeological district in the eastern plains of El Paso County about 75 miles south of us. It's so named because the Native Americans who occupied the area from 9,000 years ago used the brightly colored clay and sandstone for pottery and ceremonial face & body paints. It's a small area (4 miles of trails), very accessible, wonderfully unexpected.
Other new finds include Grand Mesa Scenic Byway and North Park. Grand Mesa is just east of Palisade, CO on the western slope. Palisade is famous for it's fruit, particularly peaches, but the range of mesas is spectacular both in terms of their massive heights and beautiful landscapes. North Park is a high (8,800') mountain basin in north central Colorado. The term park is commonly used in Colorado to name these high mountain valleys (also south park & middle park). The term was coined by hunters in the 1840's and may be derived from the French word "parc," which means game preserve.
Also included in this collection are a few images from some old favorite Colorado locales. The first is South Park ( to pair with newly discovered North Park). Another is Royal Gorge, a narrow 1250' deep gorge cut through the southeastern Rocky Mountains. Other old haunts include Crested Butte for wildflower season, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Georgetown.
A few of these images were captured prior to the pandemic, but were rediscovered because the pandemic gave me the opportunity to dig back into my photo archives.
Category:Scenic
Subcategory:Landscapes
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© Ted Stump