Crusty Musty and Bum-Bum Head go to Paint Mines

Crusty Musty is Nova’s nickname for Asa and Katy was calling Joey Bum-Bum Head today. Colorado Springs, Colorado

After a late night, we tried to let the kids sleep in but we were kind of impatient and got everyone up at 8am. Melissa came to our site to try out her Starlink (satellite mobile internet-providing-device) and Joe made eggs for the group for breakfast. Nole got a shirt for father’s day…but oops, the length and sleeves are pretty short (ladies’ shirt?). I guess the shirt is mine and we will have to find a different gift for Nole.

We drove approximately 1 hour east to Paint Mines Interpretive Park. We parked at the southern-most lot and we were the only ones there.

We took about a 2 mile hike and saw…

Plants:

Animal tracks:

Harvester ants:

Tent caterpillars:

Rock formations:

And of course our friends:

On our last leg of the hike, we realized we missed a path we wanted to take to see the most colorful formations. Cal went back with some of the Yatzecks and the rest of us continued on to the parking lot.

My pictures with the little girls:

Pictures Cal and Melissa took when they went back:

We were all hot and tired and ready for some R&R so we went back to the campground to swim, relax and start some laundry. The 4 youngest girls had really been looking forward to swimming. Today was 78 and sunny, compared to yesterday which was 60 and rainy. A big improvement!

We ate dinner–chicken was made on the grill by Asa and Joey. Then we went to Garden of the Gods for a scenic drive with stops to look at the rock formations.

We took advantage of the magic hour for photography and took some family pictures.

Asa was playing around with the wide angle setting and took these interesting pics.

Lastly we went to Balanced Rock at Garden of the Gods. Then we returned to our campsite to finish tidying and putting things away in preparation for moving day tomorrow.