Day 16: Fort Garland to La Veta, La Veta pass

June 13, 2019

Today I cross La Veta pass but it will be a short easy day. Fort Garland is 7936 feet (2419 m) elevation, the pass is 9413 feet (2870 m) elevation and the grade is gentle.

I got up at 7:30 and away from the motel room at 8 to pedal to Del's Diner for breakfast. On the road at 9:30. I deliberately wasted time so the morning sun wouldn't be in my face.

Morning view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains north of Fort Garland.

The climb to La Veta pass is well graded and the tailwind made it easier. US 160 has moderate traffic but also a usable shoulder. It's the only major highway that crosses the 240 mile long Sangre de Cristo range. I expected more truck traffic because there so few truck routes across the mountains.

Looking east while climbing La Veta Pass.

Old La Veta pass road is still open for traffic. It looks like it would be a fun back road adventure, going closer to Spanish Peaks than the new road. Maybe next time...

Old La Veta Pass road is still open to traffic. Spanish Peaks in the distance.

I reached the summit before 1 PM. No hurry today. It's nice to have sunshine at a pass. Most of the time it's cloudy by the time I get to a pass.

Third and final crossing of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

The east side of La Veta pass is steeper and noticeably more forested than the west side. Apparently the precipitation mostly comes from the east. Unfortunately there was a big fire here last year.

Descending La Veta Pass. It burned last year.

The landscape is more forested on the east side of La Veta pass.

The descent from La Veta pass is quite scenic but it got even better when I turned south onto county road 450 which has a continuous view of La Veta to the left and Spanish Peaks to the right.

Spectacular 4 mile descent to La Veta on county road 450.

Approaching La Veta the scenery is equally good, with pastures, mountain views, and the big brown Cucharas river full of snow melt.

I don't know why the river has such a strange name. Cucharas is Spanish for spoons. I did not see any spoons in the river!

Cucharas river in the middle of La Veta.

I arrived in La Veta at 1:45 PM and the hotel office opens at 3, so I looked around town. Main street is very charming, with mostly sandstone and stucco buildings.

I went to the bakery just before it closes at 2 PM. I got a ham and cheese croissant for late lunch. That was fortunate because I learned later that the bakery is only open on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's closed tomorrow.

The Spanish word Veta has two meanings: wood grain and vein of minerals (in the ground). I'm not sure the intended meaning here, but La Veta was never much of a mining town.

La Veta city hall is in the old Denver & Rio Grande train station. I wish my town still had the old train station.

The former Denver & Rio Grande train station is now city hall.

I will stay 2 nights at La Veta Inn. $250 for 2 nights-not cheap but it's super charming and the location is excellent. My room has central evaporative A/C but no fridge or microwave. My room is one of the few rooms at the inn with two windows, with a great view of the city park.

Tonight's home is La Veta Inn, built in about 1910. My room is the two closest corner windows.

My room was full of antiques. This time I remembered to take a photo of the room before messing it up.

Room of antiques at La Veta Inn. The bed has a valuable Eastlake style headboard.

Heavily loaded touring bike parked at La Veta Inn.

The presence of a Baptist church suggests that La Veta is more of an Anglo town than most of the towns I've seen during this tour. This side of the mountains wasn't colonized by Spain.

The 1877 Baptist church indicates that the town had many Anglo settlers.

But La Veta also has an impressive looking Catholic church, as expected.

Christ the King Catholic church makes a dramatic statement.

The valley is all private property but apparently the nearby mountains have National Forest land. This is perhaps the cutest National Forest Work Center I've ever seen.

The Forest Service built this adobe office in 1937 to resemble the many rustic structures built at the time by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

La Veta has many historic houses. I enjoyed looking at the houses and will see more houses tomorrow.

Note the four rocking chairs and snow shovel on the front porch. Average annual snowfall in La Veta is 102 inches (2.6 meters).

Dinner was 2 blocks from the hotel at the Bugling Bull restaurant.

Today had great weather. Mostly sunny afternoon for once. 65F (18C) at the summit, 80F (27C) in La Veta at 7037 feet (2130 m) elevation. There was a brief shower in late afternoon but it quickly became sunny afterwards.

Today was a great touring day thanks to a combination of great cycling, pleasant weather, beautiful scenery, and a charming destination.

Distance: 36.7 mi. (58.7 km)
Ascent/Descent: +1698/-2403 ft. (+518/-733 m)
Average Speed: 9.6 mph (15.4 km/h)

Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 572 miles (921 km)

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