Slow down to enjoy James Turrell Skyscape in Green Mountain Falls

Tucked into the foothills of Pikes Peak, Green Mountain Falls is a tiny town that has made its name by combining art with nature.

Now after a project five years in the making, it is celebrating a James Turrell Skyspace.

The Historic Green Mountain Falls Foundation commissioned what is the first Skyspace in Colorado and the first in the world on the side of a mountain.

Green Box, an organization that brings public art into the charming mountain community, operates the Skyscape.

Now it's celebrating the work from the world-reknown artist. And this Skyscape offers an opportunity to visit during sunrise and sunset, to take in the changing sky.

"Green Mountain Falls provides visitors with the opportunity to slow down and experience something truly unexpected and unlike anything else," Green Box Co-Founder Christian Keesee said in a news release announcing its opening. "The James Turrell Skyspace will add to the already inspirational setting and community that brings together art and nature, family and friends, earth and sky."

The Skyscape is part of the new Red Butte Recreational Area and is a naked-eye observatory where visitors view the sky through an opening, or oculus, in the ceiling.

 You can visit it before sunrise and sunset for an different kind of experience. But because it is one of the few in the world with a retractable roof, visitors can also experience shows during the day.

Project managers worked to make sure the Skyspace fit in to the nature around it, sourcing rocks from Colorado quarries and using pine beetle kill trees.

James Turrell is a highly honored American artist known for his work in the Light and Space movement.

His website describes a Turrell skyspace as "a specifically proportioned chamber with an aperture in the ceiling open to the sky. Skyspaces can be autonomous structures or integrated into existing architecture. The aperture can be round, ovular or square."

Visitors in Green Mountain Falls take off their shoes before heading into the Skyspace for what Green Box calls "a one-of-a-kind kinetic light and color encounter - a sensory and contemplative experience unlike anywhere else in the world.

You must have tickets for the shows but the trail system is open daily and you can visit the Skyspace outside of shows after sunrise and before sunset without a ticket.