Enjoy These Five Beautiful Sites
Paint Mines
Colorado is regarded as a very popular place to go in the winter for activities such as skiing and snow boarding; its no wonder with beautiful places like Veil and Aspen. As a Colorado native I can honestly say the only way I know these places are beautiful is through friends and pictures. It’s a catch 22. Natives of Colorado often don’t go to beautiful places that tourists do, but we know places that not many tourist websites will tell you about. As a native it is also much harder to appreciate the natural beauty of a place like Colorado because you were raised with the sites. There are things to see and places that even take the breath away of a native.
1. The Paint Mines
The Paint Mines are officially an “Interpretive Park” in Calhan, Colorado, about 30 miles west of Colorado Springs. I moved to Calhan at 12-years-old and in Calhan one of the only things to do is go to the Paint Mines, so I visited them quite frequently. There was never once that I saw the giant, naturally shaped and colored rocks and was not in awe. At the park they have plaques to tell you how the Paint Mines were formed, but when you’re there it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that all of the pinks, purples, blues, yellows, and oranges were made naturally.
2. Manitou Springs
I’m fairly sure Manitou Springs is a tourist attraction and it’s well worth a visit. Manitou Springs is a city, so there’s no cost or expense, but there’s something particularly special about this city. Manitou’s streets are lined with small businesses. On the weekends they have quirky festivals, but the true magnificence is in the nature. This city has trees growing through the buildings, plants coming out of the sidewalks, and a small creek running through it. Its nestled in the foothills of the mountains between Denver and Colorado Springs and if it weren’t always buzzing with people, it would seem like it’d been deserted for years. It’s definitely worth visiting.
3. The Mountains in the Fall
This is terribly vague but with good reason. When you drive into the mountains there are numerous spots where you can see walls of trees. I suggest driving somewhere with a purpose, such as up to Seven Falls or a good hiking spot because it’s that much better when you discover a wall of trees. These walls of trees are all changing colors, orange, red, purple and yellow, to form a rainbow of trees. In the mix there is anything from aspen trees to evergreens, making it the finger print of the mountains.
4. Seven Falls at Night
This is also a tourist attraction, turned local make out spot at night, but just like Manitou, there is a good reason for it. In the day Seven Falls is absolutely beautiful and that cannot be denied but during the night it’s completely different. Seven Falls during the night is an atmosphere, not a place; the mist rolls off the water onto your skin, the moon shines on the water making it glow, and the rocks shimmer with a light coating of water and moonlight. The sky is so clear from the area that there is nothing in the world like it.
5. The View of the Mountains
This is also a bit vague and at times I forget to appreciate the sheer beauty of it, which is why it is last. But it is in itself, reason to come to Colorado. When you drive down the highway and see Pikes Peak covered in snow, you can’t help but be humbled.
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