2015 Subaru Legacy road trip: Paint Mines Interpretive Park

/

I was provided a 2015 Subaru Legacy free for one week for review as part of the #SubaruLegacy blogger program. Opinions are my own.

Last month, I had a sleek and chic sedan for a week. A 2015 Subaru Legacy 3.6R Limited, which I told you much about in this post right here.

During the week I had the Subaru Legacy, I visited a few places nearby that I'd never been to before  despite having lived in the area for more than thirty years. One spot I toured: the Paint Mines Interpretive Park in Calhan, CO. My friend Ruth of Cranium Crunches—a devoted fan of minerals, gems, and geological wonders of any sort—was in town for a day and was delighted to sit back in the comfy passenger seat of the Legacy and head off to the Paint Mines with me.

The Paint Mines Interpretive Park is an overlooked gem of a place many folks in Colorado and beyond may not know about. The Paint Mines website succinctly states, "in the northeast section of the County near Calhan with approximately 750 acres the paint mines have evidence of human life as far back as 9,000 years ago. The colorful clays were used by Native Americans. The park features fantastic geological formations including spires and hoodoos that were formed through erosive action that created incised gullies and exposed layers of seienite clay and jasper."

The Subaru Legacy (with a 3.6L DOHC 6-cylinder boxer engine) provided a smooth as can be ride away from the city and out to the plains and tiny towns of Eastern Colorado. Not only was the ride smooth, it was cool—literally, thanks to the Dual-Zone Climate Control, which made Ruth's and my differing temp preferences a non-issue.

Having lived in the Pikes Peak Region as long as I have, I was confident I'd know exactly how to get to the Paint Mines based on the directions on the website. I turned out to be quite wrong. And quite lost the farther east we went.

So Ruth and I pulled into the tiny parking lot of this popular neighborhood hangout on the way...

...and made use of the Subaru Legacy's voice-activated Navigation Infotainment System (see the video below on exactly how it works). It took a time or two for the system to recognize the location we sought—partially because Ruth and I were laughing so hard our voice commands weren't incredibly clear) but then we simply typed in the address and we were on our way.

The Paint Mines turned out to be a magical spot. Come along with us via this little slide show of our tour from the parking lot and on into the Paint Mines (the slideshow sometimes crops funky so feel free to check out the full pics in my Paint Mines photo gallery):

Such an incredible park—one that Ruth and I surely would have taken longer to find if not for that aforementioned Navigation Infotainment System. This video shows exactly how the helpful, high-tech system works:

The navigation component of the system was indeed a huge help. As far as the entertainment options, we had the SiriusXM Radio on low because we chose to chat rather than listen to music. A portion of that chatting revolved around Subarus Ruth owned in the past and how a Subaru WRX literally saved her life. Honestly—just like in those Subaru commercials where accident victims amazingly survive thanks to the safety equipment on their Subarus. (Click that link and you'll see what I mean.)

The road trip to the Paint Mines was about 70 miles round trip. I had no worries at all about the amount of gas the drive might require, though, as the Subaru Legacy gets 20 mpg city and 29 highway (combined fuel economy of 23 mpg).

My outing with Ruth to the Paint Mines was just one of the places I drove the 2015 Subaru Legacy 3.6R Limited. Next week I'll tell you about the day my husband and I hopped in the Subaru and headed to Red Rock Canyon. Feel free to catch up on my #SubaruBlogger series by reading my first Subaru Legacy post here.

And, of course, visit www.subaru.com for even more on the 2015 Subaru Legacy.

Disclosure: I was provided a 2015 Subaru Legacy ($33,380 MSRP) free for one week for review as part of the #SubaruLegacy blogger program. Opinions are my own.