Paint Mines Trail

The Paint Mines trail takes hikers on an easy 3.7 mile loop through a badlands landscape of rainbow sandstone and hoodoo rock formations. We will take this loop trail clockwise for the best views. The Paint Mines were given their name because Native Americans used the crushed and colored sandstone to make paint and mined the soils to craft ceramic potter. Later, settlers mined the same area to make bricks. The swathes of color are made up of iron compounds that oxidize when the rock is exposed to air. Gypsum and Quartzite bring the white colors and sparkles to the rock. It’s all clay, dense sandstone color, and the erosion from many years of water of wind has carved out some spectacular hoodoos (those columns of weird looking rock that stand out) and gullies that look like something from the surface of Mars. Carpool meetup at Stroh Ranch Soccer Park with a departure time of 6:50am. It is a 70 minute drive to the trailhead but I promise it is worth it!