A ‘Plog’ [Photo(b)log] of the Highway of Legends

Sunday, 7 June 2015
Carpios Ridge Campground — Trinidad Lake State Park, Colorado
Temps: Hi 77F (25C) / Lo 51F (11C)

No Work Today.  Except ...

… for continuing with a little online reading to educate myself about blog thefts — be they posts or entire blogs.  I gave myself a day off to enjoy some of what the area has to offer, so on with the fun stuff.

143 Miles on the Toad’s Odometer … Great Drive!

One of the recommended activities for the area is the Highway of Legends.  This Colorado scenic byway is referred to as Colorado SH12 on the maps —it is a scenic bypass in lieu of I-25, with start/end points in Trinidad and Walsenburg.  I like the fancy description better.

The brochure we were given describes it as “… a thin ribbon of civilization winding its way through sylvan meadows and ancient forests, past bubbling streams and mysterious ruins—leads you into the heart of primeval beauty, stunning vistas, and western lore.”

Sounds delightful?  It was — despite the occasional, and I might add unexpected, since they weren’t forecasted — downpours that caused us to skip a few of the places.  For the most part though, we had lovely blue skies with plenty of sunshine, and wondrous scenery to enjoy.  No wonder there’s a sign proclaiming that visitors are entering “God’s Country.”  Unfortunately, we didn’t see the sign; nor the house on the bridge.  Blame it on the downpours.

82-miles (132 km) on Hwy 12 between Trinidad and Walsenburg, plus the side trips
and the return to Carpios Ridge via I-25 = 143 miles (230 km) on the odometer today.

We set off from the campground shortly before 8:30a.  Having looked at the lay of the land on a map, we knew the light would be better if we drove the Highway of Legends clockwise, so that’s what we did.

Now for the virtual drive …

First stop — Cokedale, a former mining town … established in 1906.
A memorial to the people who came from the far flung reaches of the world to
work in the coal mines of the region is near the sign for the Cokedale Historic Distict.

Cokedale has a colorful volunteer fire department.

Contrary to what you might think, these are not the ruins of a Roman aqueduct.  Rather, they …

… are the ruins of ovens that were used to transform coal into coke for use in smelting iron.

If you were wondering how Cokedale got its name, now you know that it was from the coke ovens.

At one time, there were about 350 coke ovens operating in the area south of Cokedale.

A closer look at the coke ovens … they look like bunkers if you don’t know otherwise.

St Ignatius Church in Segundo … once the largest coal processing plant west of Chicago.

Purgatoire Valley scenery with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the horizon.

Our best view of the Sangre de Cristo [Blood of Christ] Mountains during
the drive; most of the time they were hidden from view by storm clouds.

Purple Salsify

Stumbling onto this farm scene outside Stonewall, I manage to ‘almost’ duplicate one of
the photos in the Highway of Legends brochure.  The now quiet town was once the scene of
contentious (and deadly) battles between land grant heirs and 19th century settlers.

It isn’t until I see the historic photo on the nearby signage that I realize
this was the entrance to a German officers' prisoner camp during WWII.

In the one second I have before the rain starts coming down in earnest,
I grab a shot of the Dakota Wall, which runs through Stonewall — with a gap
where the road passes through.  The 250-foot (76m) tall wall is one of the most
visible sections of the Dakota Formation, which is found throughout the Rockies.

Built in 1937, the Monument Lake Resort is owned by the City of Trinidad.

Panorama of Monument Lake … right after the sun comes out.
The road on the right side leads to the fee area; passes sold at the resort office.

Monument Lake from the terrace set aside for anglers to clean their legal catch.

At first we think our highest point on the drive is going to be Cuchara Pass — where our
gps reads the elevation at 9,963 feet (3,307 m).  But then we decide to take a little trip up
into THE Blue Lake/Cuchara River Recreation Area, where we document our highest point as
10,428 feet (3,178 m).  We’ve been much higher, so no adverse effects from the high altitude.

No sign of the mirror-like Blue Lake for us.  It’s raining hard; and it is freezing.  I take barely
30 seconds to do a quick pano shot before we run back to the car and turn on the heater!

The rain lets up a bit as we make our way back down the dirt road that runs
through the San Isabel National Forest.  In case you think I’m kidding about how
cold it is … here’s a shot of the Cuchara River with some snow still on the banks.

Spring meltwater rushing downriver.

Our hopes for a picnic lunch dashed, we find a parking spot with a view
and eat our sandwiches in the car.  Not ideal; but it will do.

Without a tripod, and with not another soul around to click the camera, the only
way to get a photo of the two of us is to take a ‘postcard’ with Mui’s Samsung phone.

Beautiful aspen trees — I bet they are gorgeous when they turn yellow in the fall.

Devil’s Stairsteps indeed resemble a staircase … although you’d have to be a giant to be able to
take them ;-)  Created by ancient upheavals, the brochure describes this formation as … “a prime
example of the 400+ stone dikes that radiate out from the Spanish Peaks like spokes on a wheel.

Valley scenery near Devil's Stairsteps, with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the horizon.

I love those mountains … I love being back in mountainous terrain.

Goemmer's Butte is an example of a volcanic plug (a lava vent that
never surfaced) ; it now lies exposed due to weathering.

Profile Rock is another one of the many dikes that radiate from the Spanish Peaks.
The roadside signage says that if you look closely you can see the profiles of
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson ... or perhaps Martha Washington
or an Indian .  There is also a train on a trestle and a rearing horse (deer).

I can see them all, but it does require some imagination!  Click for larger images if you want ;-)

This roadside memorial, with the Spanish Peaks as a background, screams B&W to me.

Martin Lake is one of the two lakes in Lathrop State Park.  Since we have a state
park pass, we go in to check out the campground and drive around the two lakes.

[By the way, we like Trinidad Lake SP better; the sites are more private.]

The plains indians knew the Spanish Peaks as Huajatolla, which means “breasts of the world.”

Spiderwort	Narrow Leaf Yucca

Prairie Evening Primrose

Spying a mural as we drive through Walsenburg — once the main coke
production center west of the Mississippi — I get out of the car to take a picture.

Detail from the mural painted by Roy Shaw.  If you look closely, two of
the windows of the car are actually the windows of the building.

Our last stop of the day was in Ludlow, on I-25.  All we knew was that the site we were going to visit was a memorial erected in honor of the Ludlow Massacre.  At the memorial site, we found plenty of information about the events in 1914 that led to the death of several miners and their families.

One of several information panels at the memorial site.

The gist of the story of the massacre is that on 20 April 1914, the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families.  Once the smoke cleared from the resulting fire that decimated the camp, two dozen (possibly more) people were dead, including women and children.

The canvas and wood tent camp housed some 1,200 people.  The camp was set up on public lands
by striking miners and their families after they were evicted from their company-owned houses.

Left: Members of the Colorado National Guard, called in to suppress the UMWA strike against
CF&I, including Sergeant John Davis, pose near an automatic rifle on a tripod on Water Tank Hill.

rIGHT: Men and women of the Red Cross stand in the ruins of the Ludlow Tent Colony after the fire.

Tribute to the victims of the Ludlow Massacre.

In the foreground of the memorial is the door to the pit where four women and 11
children were hiding out during the attack.  They were asphyxiated during the fire
that was intentionally set by pouring kerosene on the tents and setting them ablaze.

The visit to the memorial site was a sad note on which to end a day that was otherwise pleasant and fun ... filled with beautiful mountain and valley scenery that was definitely a change from the flat Texas landscape of the past 17 months.  The Highway of Legends brochure suggested a minimum or two hours for the drive, but that’s without stopping to enjoy the sights along the way.  We took seven hours — including a stop in La Veta, where we got some butter pecan ice cream and stretched our legs with a short stroll around the community that was established after the construction of a fort in 1862.

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