Costilla County

This footprint serves as part III of the story of our third day of camping at Lathrop State Park. It covers a detour we made to our return route …

Leaving the San Luis Lakes State Wildlife Area, where we enjoyed an al fresco lunch, we headed back to the US-160 junction. Instead of turning left, however, we turned right. The plan was to drive another 20 miles or so to check out Alamosa.

Essentially, our goal was to see if this part of Colorado would entice us to return with the Cruiser to do some camping. The short answer? No, we would not camp in that particular area. But we might do an overnight on our way to more interesting places further west.

The drive was not without its rewards … one that we came upon by happenstance when we made another change to our route back home. It all came about because we did not want to be stuck in the long line of backed up traffic due to a construction delay in the outbound lanes leaving Alamosa.

We ended up using US-285 / CO-142 / CO-159 … making a sort of square loop to get back to US-160E. The scenery wasn’t particularly exciting, but there was no traffic and it was rather peaceful. The bonus? This route took us through the town of San Luis.

Founded in 1851, and at one time known as San Luis de la Culebra, this small settlement claims to be the oldest continuously occupied town in Colorado. Nearing San Luis, we spied a building sitting atop a mesa that reminded me of the Spanish missions of olden days. Aha! It was the Shrine of the Stations of the Cross, which I’d seen a photo of awhile back.

Dedicated in 1990, the shrine was built by the parishioners of the region. Officially, it is known as “La Mesa de Piedad y de la Misericordia” [The Hill of Piety and Mercy]. On the grounds is a series of meditation spots with ¾- to life-size bronze sculptures by Hubert Maestas that depict the Stations of the Cross. From what I have since read, the first edition maquettes of these Stations of the Cross are now in the permanent collection of the Vatican.

We stopped to ask one of the locals for directions. He told us that we could hike up (less than a mile), or drive out of town about a mile to the Stations of the Cross Road in order to access the shrine. If not for the gathering storm clouds, we would have hiked up for some exercise. But in this case, we opted to drive up.

The shrine is very photogenic and has a very peaceful setting where it overlooks the valley below. We wandered around the grounds for a bit so I could take photographs. I had no expectation of being able to go inside. Surprisingly, the door was unlocked, so we were able to check out the simple interior.

With storm clouds brewing overhead, we didn’t dally long. As it is, we hit a couple of sprinkles and one downpour once we were back on the road. Nothing to delay us on our trip back to Lathrop SP.

We arrived at our site just before 5:00p to find the temperature down to 80F … reasonably comfy, especially since the clouds were obscuring the sun. That did not last long, however. As soon as the sun peeked out again, the temperature quickly started to rise. As did the wind speeds. No patio time for us tonight.Læs mere