TAPESTRY OF PHOTOS STAFF PICK: “FELL IN LOVE - AND STAYED”

People have been coming to Colorado for over 10,000 years. East of Colorado Springs, just outside Calhan, on the edge of the prairie, sits one of those reasons people have been drawn to Colorado, Paint Mines Interpretive Park.

Here, the earth is gashed open to reveal brightly colored clays. These clays, filled with oxidized iron, were gathered by Indigenous peoples over 9,000 years ago, and used to make decorative paints.

The approach to the site in no way prepares you for what you find there. The town of Calhan is a local farm and ranching gathering spot. If you come into town from the north, via the Calhan Highway, besides seeing achingly beautiful prairie vistas, you'll pass by an Orthodox church, complete with an onion dome steeple. This charming building shows the history of 19th and early 20th century immigration to the Colorado plains from eastern Europe.

As you drive south of Calhan on Paint Mines Road, you pass by Calhan High School, an El Paso County Fairground, and El Paso County Raceway, a quarter-mile dirt track that has races twice a month throughout the summer. And yet, the most visible thing in the area is a true 21st century item, the windmills of an electricity-generating wind farm.

If you park in the first lot at the park, you still cannot see the reason for the park. However, a short hike around a bluff or two, and then you see it, acres of eroded hoodoos in the most amazing, rich tints of purple, ochre, buff yellow, bright white, and deep brown. In places, the hoodoos reach 20 to 25 feet above your head. This is truly a magical place, and even without the need to gather these clays for use, it's easy to see why this location has drawn people to it for over nine millennia.

On one of my most recent trips to Paint Mines I was casually shooting, not to take any great pictures, but shooting mostly to force myself to look closely and pay attention to the details of the clays. And then, by chance, I looked up and saw that besides the striking colors Mother Earth was sharing with me, Father Sky decided to join the chorus of beauty and so lit up the sky with an equally dazzling, if ephemeral set of complementary colors. I grabbed a quick shot, and then put the camera away and just sat and enjoyed the beauty of the moment. A beauty that I shared with people for at least 10,000 years.

PAINT MINE INTERPRETIVE PARK, NEAR CALHAN, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Todd Warnke

TAPESTRY OF PHOTOS STAFF PICK: “FELL IN LOVE - AND STAYED”

As an avid reader, I always stop at little libraries when I see one. I never know what books I'm going to come across, but I'm always excited to see what's in store. They give me a glimpse into what people in the area read and spark an interest in a topic that might not have otherwise crossed my mind. They also remind me how important community is to people and how something as simple as a little library can be effective at connecting people in a fairly rugged and remote corner of the state. I came across this one in McElmo Canyon on the way to a hike in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, and it is one of my all-time favorites. You can tell by the sign, the hardware, the woodwork, and even the lights strung up around it that the community put some time in to it and it was taken care of. I also liked how it sat upon a rock to protect it. I couldn't stick around until dark, but I've always wanted to go back and get a photograph of it when it was lit up.

MCELMO CANYON, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Patrick Gardner

TAPESTRY OF PHOTOS STAFF PICK: “INDIGENOUS TIES”

My name is Montoya Whiteman. I am an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. I moved to Colorado in 2007, returning to the ancestral homelands of my people who were forced out after the tragedy of Sand Creek. I am a descendant of Vister and White Buffalo Woman, who were in Black Kettle's clan.

Today, I live in Brighton with my rescue pup, Tazi. In my free time, I volunteer at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA). I love the RMA. I volunteer because I love the wildlife. I enjoy meeting people and educating visitors and staff of Colorado and Tribal histories. I am deeply connected to this land as a Cheyenne and Arapaho woman.

In 2020, I was driving the RMA on a quiet day. Somedays I spend hours at the RMA because there is abundant beauty, and plenty of birds and animals to see. I passed First Creek when I saw to my left a red tail hawk (Hawk #1) fly to a low tree with a vole in its claws. I observed the hawk as it ate the vole. Wild kingdom. A few yards off to the west, a different red-tailed hawk landed in a tree. Hawk #1 saw Hawk #2 - finished the vole and flew to the tree to meet Hawk #2. Let the fireworks begin! For a few minutes they stared down each other with some squawking and head bobbing from where they sat in high and low branches. Hawk #1 flew closer to Hawk #2. There was more staring down then Hawk #1 stretched out its wing in a display of strength and intimidation. Hawk #2 got really mad and stretched out its head almost head-butting Hawk #1. They both couldn't take each other any longer and the sparring ensued with talons out and wings flapping. One hawk landed on the ground and the other on a high tree branch. I don't know who won that hawk fight, but I sure won! It was a thrill witnessing these beautiful raptors "duke it out"!

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Montoya Whiteman

TAPESTRY OF PHOTOS STAFF PICK: “BORN AND RAISED”

You might often wonder, what lies beyond-
Life, planets, galaxies
Into the abyss, no one responds.

Cold summer nights like these,
Staring to the sky,
From the drop of the tailgate,
Deep in the Rockies.

Grabbing my camera for a picture,
With light pollution scarce,
Gaze toward the sky,
Where the stars are a fixture.

In that moment, you feel so small,
Problems, pain and sadness
Disappear from your senses,
And reach up toward the sky,
When the Milky Way calls.

VAIL PASS, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Sean McNeil

TAPESTRY OF PHOTOS STAFF PICK: “FELL IN LOVE - AND STAYED”

I call Colorado my home, my homestead, my playground and my muse. The endless sky, and enormous palate of nature, every color we have ever seen, can imagine, and more, I am endlessly in awe at the beauty of the world I live in. The same tree looks different every day, if only I stop long enough to notice. If I capture the day, when the uniqueness of today reveals itself in just the right light.

And when I get complacent, about another sunrise, sunset, singing bird, or horses in the distance, I have the reflection of the awe of nature reflected in my son’s eye. And my insatiable desire, to pick up the camera, and capture what I see.

One of my favorite things to do is go on a photo adventure with my son. We like to take pictures of animals, birds, farms, old things, new things. On this particular day, the sky was moving, it was a bit moody and just beautiful over this barn. It spoke to us.

IN BETWEEN ERIE AND LONGMONT, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Bari Gisin