The Scenic Highway of Legends

As we were driving north on I-25 a week ago, we started seeing the signs for an exit off to Highway 12 and something called "The Scenic Highway of Legends."  When we ended up camping at La Veta, we discovered that we were now living on that highway.  So we took a day to explore all of the scenic things around us.

A few miles south of La Veta we came to Profile Rock.  To an untrained eye, it looked like a rock wall.

We came to learn that these long rock walls that show up randomly are actually called great dikes.  They radiate outward from the mountains like spokes on a wheel.  There is a geological explanation for them that is too long and technical for this blog, but they make for very interesting landscape in the area.  This particular rock wall is called portrait rock because you can see portraits of famous Americans if you know where to look and from what angle.  Now that we have a trained eye, we spotted George Washington (or anyone else with a prominent nose).

Next stop along the scenic Highway of Legends is the "Devil's Staircase."  We have a legends booklet that explains that the devil was allowed out of his fiery home to survey the world, and this is where he climbed up the steps to look around.  But God saw the beauty of this area and took it as his own instead--banishing the devil forever.  So I guess that means this is another of God's wonders.

It was such a pretty staircase that we took another picture on a cloudy day from the other direction.

We also stopped at the town of Cuchara, but if you blink you will miss the one block of downtown off to the east of the highway.  We marveled at the beautiful pots of flowers in front of all the souvenir shops and eating establishments.  We also noted all the houses that lined the highway, but came to find out they were all summer rentals.  There are only 70 people that live in the town of Cuchara year round.

Our next stop was Cuchara River Recreation Area.  After four miles of steep gravel road, we arrived at Blue Lake.  At 10,000 feet in elevation, this is a cool place that attracts lots of fishermen even in the middle of the week. 

There is a hike that takes you to several smaller lakes, as well as our favorite lake in the area--Bear Lake.

 We were really looking for a nice mountain lake to put the kayak in.  But Blue Lake was too shallow, and we thought that the fishermen lining the banks of Bear Lake might not appreciate our rowing around their lines.  The two guys fly fishing in tubes in the middle of the lake were either eskimos, or had insulated flippers, because the water was just a few degrees above freezing.  Denisa sat beside the waterfall that was feeding water into the lake, and at 10,500 in elevation it could literally take your breath away.

There were also hiking trails that started at the campground at Bear Lake.  Even though we are seeing large areas of evergreen forests that are turning brown, the forest around Bear Lake is green and healthy.

The tops of the mountains are still white, and the snow melt makes this beautiful waterfall cascading down the mountain ice cold.  We had to marvel that a landscape engineer couldn't have planned a prettier fall.














The Scenic Highway of Legends then took us over Cuchara Pass, beside North Lake, and over Monument Lake.  We must not have been in the mood to kayak because we never put the boat in today after driving by all that water.  Our final destination of the day is a town by the name of Stonewall.  Built in the shadow of another one of those stone dikes that radiate from the mountains, it was hard to take a picture.  It would have been a great place for a public park that could show off that stone wall, but that land had "no trespassing" signs instead.  The best thing we can say about Stonewall is that the only restaurant in town has really good homemade pie.

We drove by a succession of little towns with names like Vigil and Weston, and saw the long conveyer belt that crosses over the highway at the New Elk Mine.  The entire loop is 80 miles, and we had already seen the portion along the interstate, so we headed home.  We stopped back through Cuchara on the way back, as there was a pizza calling our name at the Dog Bar and Grill.  You know, since we have retired we have found that we can't survive on pie alone.