Day 17: Rest day in La Veta

June 14, 2019

I'm not super exhausted but today is a rest day because tomorrow will be very challenging. If I didn't have lodging reservations I would pedal to Westcliffe in beautiful weather today, then take a rest day tomorrow when it's cold and wet.

La Veta is a great place to spend a rest day. It has all the services I need with a hotel, restaurant, grocery, and bakery all close together. Also a museum and excellent park.

Breakfast at the inn was a disappointment. Just bagels and butter. Better than sweet rolls, at least.

La Veta Inn faces railroad park, a 2 block long park between downtown and the railroad tracks. The park has huge trees that have probably been lavishly irrigated for 100 years. I walked out to look at the Denver and Rio Grande railroad tracks. It once had both standard gauge and narrow gauge rails, but now it's two standard gauge tracks. This line is no longer used for freight but has an occasional tourist excursion train from Walsenburg.

Denver & Rio Grande railroad looking west towards the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

The Denver and Rio Grande railroad was a badass railroad. They built the nation's highest railroad at Tenessee Pass. They built the Moffat tunnel through the Rocky Mountain front range. West of Pueblo the main line goes through incredibly deep Royal Gorge. They built a unique network of narrow gauge tracks in incredibly challenging terrain.

Two narrow gauge segments still operate for tourists. I rode both (Cumbres & Toltec, Durango & Silverton) during my Indian Country Part 1 bike tour in 2017.

The main Denver-Salt Lake City-Oakland line is now operated by Union Pacific Railroad. During my 2009 California J bike tour I saw impressive tunnels and steel trestles in the Feather river canyon where the Western Pacific railroad crosses the Sierra Nevada mountains, the last segment of their transcontinental route to be completed in 1909.

1914 route map. Red is standard gauge. Black is narrow gauge. Click to enlarge.

Today I enjoyed seeing downtown La Veta in morning sun and evening sun. It's my kind of charming small town. It's not a New Spain town. It was only founded in 1862 as a village on the busy Santa Fe trail. It remained a sleepy village for 14 years until a cataclysmic event occurred. The population of La Veta was about 100 when the Denver & Rio Grande railroad arrived on July 4, 1876. A year later the population grew to over 1000 because the railroad suddenly brought new opportunities for commerce and the railroad itself provided many jobs.

Downtown La Veta has many buildings built with local sandstone.

La Veta became prosperous very quickly and town leaders decided to prohibit wood construction (fire danger) and require sandstone or stucco instead. The sandstone is locally sourced. I can see sandstone cliffs all around the area.

Charlie's Market is an excellent small town grocery, deli, and ice cream counter.

The result is a very charming little downtown. I wouldn't mind living here during summer. Winter is a different story. At 7037 feet elevation it gets a lot of snow.

La Veta is a low-key tourist town. It's off the beaten track, not on a major highway. A few tourists pass through on their way to the higher towns of Cuchara and Monument Park. It's not crowded at all. There are no chain motels or restaurants. My kind of place. Rural mountain charm with many historic buildings.

La Veta has many historic homes but most are quite small. The realtor windows show many 2 bedroom 1 bath homes on sale for under $300,000. Kind of expensive, but cheap compared to trendy towns such as Aspen and Telluride.

I saw piles of sand bags all over town. A big fire burned last year in the mountains above, and FEMA predicted that a 4 inch (10 cm) rain would cause massive mudslides down below in La Veta. FEMA spent millions of dollars to install warning sirens and provide sand bags. I think it was a waste of money. La Veta gets 20 inches (50 cm) of precipitation per year and half of that is snow. La Veta is extremely unlikely to get 4 inches of rain all at once.

Most of the old houses are quite small like this one.

There are only a few big fancy houses. This was a working railroad and commerce town. No gold or silver mines to fund extravagant mansions.

Adjacent to Francico's Fort is an interesting tribute to hometown heroine Doris Bristol Tracy.

There are a few building murals near the La Veta School of art. La Veta seems like it would be a good place for artists but there are only a couple art galleries in town. It's not an artist colony like Taos.

Mural on the side of La Veta Inn facing La Veta School of Art. Do cows actually fantasize about bossing people around?

Today's main attraction is Francisco's Fort in the middle of downtown, a commercial trading fort founded in 1862. The fort was a U-shaped complex of buildings with no exterior windows and a stockade fence enclosing the opening. It was surely the most important thing in town for 14 years, until the railroad arrived.

Inside of Francisco's Fort, a trading fort established in 1862 on the Santa Fe trail.

Francisco's Fort is operated by Huerfano County Historical Society, with paid staff and a $5 admission fee. I had a long talk with the museum director. I'm on the board of directors of my local museum in Oregon.

Francisco's Fort has a large amount of floor space, so they have accepted a vast amount of donated materials. I enjoyed looking at the collection.

The museum has a lot of floor space and has filled it with donated artifacts.

My local museum has Post Office boxes but no switchboard.

Francisco's Fort museum has about 1 acre of land and several historic structures have been moved onto the property such as a saloon, school, and blacksmith shop.

The museum has several outbuildings that were not part of the fort. Saloon on the left, school on the right.

The saloon's claim to fame is that the owner shot outlaw Jesse James 3 times during an altercation at the saloon. They both survived that incident but both later died from gunshots.

Inside the saloon. The owner shot outlaw Jesse James 3 times.

The school has a metal device with rotating number wheels called a "math machine". I had never seen nor heard of that.

Inside the schoolhouse. I had never seen a "math machine" before.

Blacksmith shop at Franscisco's Fort museum.

Horse-drawn fire hose reel and a prairie schooner wagon.

One horse open sleigh and a wagon custom fitted to haul kegs of beer. The kegs lie on their sides in two rows.

Lunch was very good chicken tacos at the Bugling Bull restaurant. After lunch I walked about a mile uphill to Wahatoya reservoir, as suggested by the hotel owner. It was worth the walk, with a great view looking down on town and a great view of Spanish Peaks to the south.

Looking west towards La Veta from the reservoir. Sangre de Cristo mountains in the distance.

Looking south across Wahatoya reservoir towards Spanish Peaks.

It was the warmest time of the afternoon when I got back to town so I had an ice cream cone at Charlie's Market. I ate very little ice cream during this tour because it was seldom warm enough for me to want ice cream.

Later, a 1 hour nap before a cheeseburger dinner at the Bugling Bull. Yes, I ate there 3 times. Restaurant choices are limited in such a small town. The only other dinner restaurant is a fancy steakhouse.

In the afternoon I looked at all the other rooms at La Veta Inn (they are left unlocked). They all have antiques, but I think my room has the best antiques and the best views, with two windows. I mentioned that to the owner and he said he assigns the best rooms to guests who stay multiple nights. I'm a VIP guest for staying two nights.

Today had great weather. Mostly sunny, high of 78F (25C), cloudier and windier in the afternoon. I wish it could be like that tomorrow.

La Veta is a fantastic "undiscovered" little town. I'm very pleased that my route introduced me to La Veta. It's the best small town that I saw during this tour. I also achieved my goal of being well rested for tomorrow, the most challenging day of the tour.

Distance: 0 mi.

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