All Around Trinidad, Colorado
ALL AROUND TRNINIDAD, COLORADO
The Trinidad History Society’s booklet, “A Walk Through the History of Trinidad” has as good an introduction to this town as anyone could write:
Trinidad has an amazing amount of history…. The brick-paved streets of Trinidad have time and again echoed with the cries and taunts and marching feet of violence, the roar of guns and the galloping horses of pursuit, the screams of women and the warning shouts of men. And more than once the eyes of the nation have turned with surprise and fascination on this small city.
On Trinidad, Colorado?
Why?
Trinidad History
For several reasons. Two of the major routes of the Santa Fe Trail converged at what is now the intersection of Main and Commercial Streets in the heart of Trinidad. The Santa Fe Trail carried traders from St. Louis to California from 1822 to 1879.
This probably isn’t the best place to mention this, but I read an interesting fact about Commercial Street. (You’ll spend a lot of time on this street and Main Street during your visit to Trinidad.) It’s also the oldest brick street in town. If you stand on Main Street, with your back to the bank, and look down this street, you’ll notice it curves for no apparent reason. The founders of Trinidad tried to straighten this road, in the 1860s, but people had started to build along it already and complained that they’d have to move their buildings. The city worked around them—hence today’s curves—but laid the street over a bean farmer’s field. He stuck them with a bill for $16.80 for the beans they destroyed.
Another reason for people’ interest in Trinidad is that a lot of people believed that Montezuma moved his golden treasures from Mexico to the mountains around Trinidad when the first Spanish explorers showed such interest in them. The Spaniards came to the area to look for the gold and the mines it came from, with moderate success.
Another historical reason is that some people say Bat Masterson was marshal of Trinidad in the 1880s. He definitely lived here after leaving Dodge City, Kansas. Wyatt Earp worked in the area after his showdown at the OK Corral. Billy the Kid often came here when he was hurt or on the run.
I wouldn’t call the mountain scenery in Trinidad ‘jaw dropping,’ as several of the local tourist brochures did, but there were several times during our visit when my wife or I commented on it. There are some very, very pretty views in town and around the town. Trinidad is the southernmost city in a line of cities that separates the Colorado Rockies and the Great Plains; this introduces plenty of beauty.
Two other introductory points: you’ll notice the Trinidad sign above the town. It’s been lit every night since it was put up in 1941. Which leads us to the second point, the name of the town itself—Trinidad?
Everyone you’ll talk to has a different story about where it came from. Some say it came from a daughter, others from a romantic interest who had been left behind, others from a beloved only daughter. They all agree there was a woman named either Trinity or Trinny. From her name came the name of the town. Not very romantic, but I’ve wondered since the first time I heard it and always connected it to Trinidad-Tobago.
The Trolley Tour was one of the highlights of our trip. It’s free and lasts about an hour; the driver leaves a cowboy hat out for tips, which he more than earns. I’ve never seen so many five’s and ten’s in a tip jar.
The tour starts outside the Colorado Welcome Center, right under I-25 (exit 14A). The freeway cuts across the western edge of town. The Welcome Center is a new, clean building, with very helpful workers, clean restrooms and free coffee. They have free maps and brochures for the entire state, and the workers are glad to tell you what’s worth seeing and what isn’t. I noticed Trolley Stop signs throughout town; the driver will pick you up at any of them. Tours start from the Welcome Center at the top of the hour, from ten to four during the summer. Contact the Welcome Center for details during the rest of the year. We visited the town in mid-September, and there were still four tours a day.
Our guide and driver loved Trinidad. This came through in everything he said. We spent a lot more time in the town and visited a lot more places than we’d planned to because of his positive and interesting comments.
If you don’t do anything else while you’re in Trinidad, take the Trolley Tour. How else will you find out why there are three tunnels from the train station to the opera house, all deep underground, or how 30 workers were got killed working on this building? Or what the only building in the United States is that had all its carved stone carved after the stones had been set in place and the building was occupied? Or who the mystery woman is whose face was secretly carved on the second floor of the building beside it?
Take the tour! You won’t regret it.
Places to Eat
I have to apologize for our coverage of places to eat. We got two snacks at the Dairy Queen (the cleanest one my wife’s ever seen), a cold beer at the microbrewery, breakfast at our b & b and dinner at Rino’s. I can’t tell you much about anywhere else.
Everyone we talked to in town recommended Rino’s, an Italian restaurant that first served as a church, then a warehouse. It’s at 400 E. Main. Each of our meals was in the $17 range, a bit on the high side, but this was our one weekend away for the year so we didn’t mind. The food was good; mine was so hot when it came out that I had to enjoy another slice of warm bread before I could eat it. When we came into the restaurant one of the waitresses was singing a ditty from an Italian opera. The diners loved it, and it added a memorable touch to the evening. Twenty minutes later, the owner sang a song. He had a great voice, very big. I didn’t mind this at all, but Carrie mentioned later that she felt obligated to stop eating out of politeness and watch them. I continued to shovel food in the whole time. We talked to some people the next morning who had eaten there after we left, and they told us that one of the guests came back from the bathroom as another one of the other waiters was singing. It’s asmall restaurant, and the waiter saw her winding her way around the tables, trying to be discreet. None of that! He grabbed her arm and danced with her through the rest of the song, singing the whole time. All that to say it’s a fun place that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It was a nice meal. There were several young local couples dressed up, on dates, but everyone else dressed casually. I was wearing my Cleveland Indians jersey and sandals and fit right in.
The Trinidad MicroBrewery, about four blocks down Commercial Street from Main, on the west side of the street, is worth a stop if you’re a beer drinker. They serve about six kinds of beer, from light to dark, plus homemade ginger ale and root beer and some third-rate appetizers. Avoid the appetizers, but try as many of the beers as you can. (The alcohol in some of them is over 8%, so don’t try too many!) I’m normally a bock beer drinker; if that’s not available I get whatever amber beer is. Just looking at the TMB’s menu, I couldn’t decide what I wanted, so the waiter/owner brought me a couple of samples. One was their lightest beer. I normally only drink yellow beer out of politeness, but I surprised myself by ordering that. I really couldn’t believe I was ordering a yellow beer when there were great darker beers available. But I did, and I don’t regret it. I sampled their pale ale. I’m not a huge fan of I.P.A., but they served this one warm. (Bold!) If the light beer hadn’t been so good, I would have been happy with this. The downside to this place is they don’t have much of a food menu, though our waiter told us this is going to change. They also don’t open until four in the afternoon. I was ready to go there first thing the next morning to try some of their other beers. Smoking isn’t permitted (harms the brewing process, the sign says), so that’s a nice plus. Plus there’s live entertainment some evenings. The owners were very friendly. I kept wishing they’d come over to our table and grab a seat. They were decent young guys who appreciate good beer.
Trinidad being one state north of Mexico and in the heart of Tex-Mex cooking, there were a number of authentic-looking Mexican restaurants that we would have tried if we had stayed longer. Estivin’s is on the top of this list. There were also a couple of barbecue joints (two in parking lots) that looked good to both Care and me. Lee’s Bar-B-Q looked like another good option. If you don’t like Italian and can’t get filled up on beer, there are definitely other places to eat and drink.
Places to Stay
Carrie and I stayed at the Tarabino Inn, a bed & breakfast. We looked at two others on-line before we arrived in town. Our first choice was the Chicosa Canyon Bed & Breakfast, but the owners didn’t return my phone call (bbonline.com/co/chicosa). In fairness to them, I called after Labor Day. Their hours change significantly after this, and since I only gave them an hour to return my call, I didn’t expect to hear back from them. They were our first choice though, so I was disappointed when I didn’t. The Stone Mansion B & B is one block east of the Tarabino, but looked a little dark in its web site photos (www.stonemansionbb.com). The Stone Mansion and Tarabino are both on Second Street, formerly known as the Aristocracy Hill area. This is where all the big houses in town are. The Tarabino didn’t look so great on the web—hot pink with hotter pink trim that made this brick home look like two flimsy frame houses jury-rigged together.
The Tarabino wound up being much, much better than I’d hoped. I asked Care to take a couple of pictures of it to give you a better sense of what you’d be in for if you stayed there. It’s a nice-looking home in person, and the inside is close to outstanding. The trolley driver claimed that words couldn’t describe how beautiful the inside of the house was; Care and I disagreed with this. Words can describe it, but pictures do it even better. Here are a few. You can go to their web site for more (www.tarabinoinn.com).
Theresa and Kevin, the Tarabino’s owners, were friendly and helpful. Theresa made chocolate chip cookies for us when we arrived, along with a very nice citrus tea of some sort. Kevin played at the Trinidad MicroBrewery the night we were there, so that added something as well. If you can get him to sing or play for you, go for it!
One thing The Tarabino’s website didn’t mention was that they have a nice little library in one of the front rooms. You can exchange your (quality) book for one of theirs. If we had known this, our visit would have been complete.
We also didn’t know that they have about two dozen pieces of artwork in a variety of styles hung throughout the house from local artists. Guests can buy these pieces. Some were very nice.
A quick word about the rooms. There are two on the second floor (the Walnut Room where we stayed and the Chestnut). Ours had a private, attached bath. The other room had a bath in the hallway. I assume this bathroom was private (who else would use it?) but don’t quote me on that. There were two rooms on the third floor, one on either side of the floor, with a shared bathroom and a beautiful oak staircase in between. The night we were there, only one family was staying upstairs, so they essentially had a private bath. There were very nice porches, with chairs and tables, off the second and third floor. As the pictures show, there’s a nice porch along the front of the house on the first floor.
The Tarabino couldn’t have been much nicer. Check-in was a little late (four o’clock) and we had to be out by 11. I understand this practically, but when I’m paying $150 a night, selfishness can overtake understanding. (We asked for the nicest room. You can find prices for their other rooms on their website.)
In our never-ending attempt to be helpful to our readers, and full of curiosity after the trolley tour, we walked the one block from The Tarabino Inn to the Stone Mansion and asked if we could see their rooms. A quick aside: on the way over, we noticed some of the few remaining original sidewalks in the town, primarily along Chestnut Street. I read that when the city decided to have these put in, everyone in town rebelled—they didn’t want to be told what to do! The city put the sidewalks in and sent bills to everyone in town. Twenty years later they were still trying to collect.
But I digress. The Stone Mansion didn’t have much curb appeal. We arrived at the end of a long, hot dry spell, and the grass was brown and crunchy. The house needed a fresh coat of paint and needed quite a bit of other work–rotted boards under gutters and that sort of thing. Robin told us right up front that they’d just signed contracts to get the entire outside of the house redone. There were signs up close that the workers had already started, so I imagine by mid-2005 the place will look outstanding. It’s a very nice-looking building aside from the disrepair, made of great stone blocks and quite massive.
The inside was in much better condition. The first floor has several private sitting areas. All are open to guests of course; the house only has three rooms that rent out, so if you want some privacy, you can easily find it. The owners (Robin and Jane) told us they try very hard to accommodate the needs of their guests; if someone’s there for a quiet retreat, they won’t book anyone who might disturb them. They seemed very tuned in to what their guests need.
They also mentioned that they drive 15 miles each way to get fresh, organic eggs for their recipes. The farm’s chickens don’t lay as dependably as industrial chickens do, so sometimes they have to go with store bought, but it sounds like they’re very concerned with creating the tastiest meals possible. I finally had to ask them to stop talking about the breakfasts they serve since there was no hope of getting one for myself!
The house was a bit dark. I’m not sure why, as it had plenty of windows. Check out their web site and you’ll see what I mean. I found myself squinting several times and putting my hand up to block out the light from the windows just so I could see.
The rooms were nice. They’re small, and only one had a private bath. The showers were inviting—large and with nozzles shooting water in all sorts of interesting places. We liked the innkeepers–they’re very serious about making each of their guests feel at home—but as we looked at the rooms I thought I’d prefer the Tarabino. There are miles of oak woodwork throughout the home, and it’s a very pretty place. I don’t think you’d be disappointed staying there. What the guest rooms are lacking in size, Robin and Jane make up for in care.
I realize that not everybody wants to spend the money to stay in a b & b or wants the kind of fancy breakfasts you get there. So I kept my eyes open for hotels. There are several. We didn’t go in any of them (we will if we go back). If someone wants to help with this, please feel free. There are many chain hotels along the interstate (at exits 11, 13A, 13B and 15) and along Main Street. Rooms are only at a premium during special-event weekends and when the highway closes due to inclement weather, so you should have no trouble getting a good one without a reservation.
Things to See and Do
The Trinidad History Museum fills a full city block with its three museums, the Baca House, the Bloom Mansion and the Santa Fe Trail Museum. Tickets are $5/person,with a buy one, get one free offer for AAA members. The ticket price includes a guided tour of the Baca House and Bloom Mansion, available on the hour and half hour from 10 to 4 May 1 through September 1.
The Baca House was built when the Santa Fe Trail was Trinidad’s gateway to the world. The Bloom Mansion next door was built just a few years later, but after the railroad had arrived. The difference between the two is striking. Ironically, it’s the more modern and sophisticated Bloom Mansion that’s sinking in one corner and cracking apart. The Baca House was interesting in that it was two full stories tall, yet made of adobe. Houses like that are very rare.
One of the oft-touted attractions around these museumsare the gardens. They were a little tired when we were there (due to the heat and drought, plus the gardener had just returned from a three-week vacation). A lot of the trees around the Bloom Mansion were planted when the house was first built. The elms in the front yard, a blue spruce on the east side, grapevines on the veranda near the spruce tree and several apple trees still exist and bear very nice-looking fruit to this day. I wasn’t overwhelmed by these museums, but I’m glad we visited them. The National Geographic tie-in was especially interesting.
We didn’t go into the Old Fire House No. 1 Children’s Museum (314 N. Commercial Street). It looked fun in person and in the brochure, but it was closed while we were visiting. Call (719) 846-8220 for information.
The other commonly mentioned museum in Trinidad is the A.R. Mitchell Memorial Museum & Gallery. It contains several hundred paintings and sculptures from Mitchell and other western artists. This sounded like something we would have enjoyed, but we ran out of time and the desire to visit another museum. Next time! It’s at 150 E. Main Street and is open more than it’s closed; call (719) 846-4224 for information.
The Trolley Tour was definitely one of the pleasant surprises during our visit. The last area of town we visited on this was Trinidad State Junior College. As soon as the tour ended we headed back to check it out a bit more closely. It’s a nice little college surrounded by quaint, well-tended homes. Trinidad residents mentioned different evening classes they’d taken and enjoyed there. But more than that it was a fun, safe, clean area to walk around in. The views of Trinidad and the surrounding countryside were very pretty as well. It houses the Louden-Henritze Archaeology Museum, but aside from what the brochures say, I can’t tell you anything new about this. (Go to www.trinidadstate,edu/museum for more information.) Our trolley guide mentioned an experiment the school is running, in which they’re watering plants in certain plots around the college from underground. It’s a brand-new program, but it seems so sensible in this arid part of the country.
The farmer’s market, (between Beech St. and Convent, one block north of Main St.) was another pleasant surprise. It’s only open from July through October, from 8 to noon. It’s small too; there were only 15 vendors. But they well represent all the agricultural products in the area–and many more. For example, the honey vender (who also sold bee pollen and homemade cheeses) sold a half dozen or so varieties of her own honey, but had honey for sale from up and down the West Coast. She explained that whenever she’s asked to bring her bees to farms outside the Colorado/New Mexico area, she brings a few cases of her own honey to trade with other beekeepers. A quick word of warning if you’re not a regular at farmer’s markets: buyers are cutthroat in their efforts to get the exact melon, piece of fruit or other product they’ve spotted. I had my hand on a very nice-looking watermelon and was juggling the pumpkin we’d purchased so I could pick it up. Even though my hand was on it, someone else picked it up, paid for it and walked off with it! While I was talking to the honey vendor about the curative powers of pollen, ignoring her homemade cheese, a short but very powerful woman literally pushed me out of the way (I almost dropped our pumpkin!) and grabbed the last block of mozzarella-with-green-pepper cheese. Then she tried to grab my bag of pollen, after I paid for it! Thankfully the vendor had another bag under the table! Be careful, be aggressive and be prepared to get body checked! That being said, we bought a very tasty watermelon for $3, a large, brilliant-orange pumpkin for $2.50 and some pecan chocolate fudge (for $4). We also enjoyed several bread and cookie samples from one vendor, some fresh-roasted chili peppers from another and a delicious peach from yet another.
The Highway of Legends was another pleasant surprise—very pretty and well worth the trip. I strongly recommend this. You can start this drive in Trinidad or Walsenburg, 35 miles north on I-25. You can drive it in a loop, going one way on the freeway. I’d recommend going both directions on Highway 12. The freeway is faster, but free of anything of interest. It added about three hours to our drive from Colorado Springs, but I was disappointed that time didn’t allow us to take it on the way home. More on this below. The brochure I got at the Welcome Center accurately calls this a day trip; some of the other things I’ve seen and heard say you can do it in as little as two hours. Maybe with a jet engine strapped to the back of your car, but it’s 80 miles long! With many pretty towns along it! Three towns I recommend you either walk around in, have a meal in or spend the night in are La Veta, Cuchara and Monument Lake.
The small town of Cuchara, about halfway up the Highway of Legends, was a nice place to stop. Imagine Victorian shops and houses, tucked into deep mountain woods and connected with a covered wodden sidewalk—that’s what Cuchara is. We had an excellent lunch at The Timbers Hotel. There were several other places to eat that looked inviting. Very quaint. If you drive the Highway, count on stopping here. It’s a great place to stretch your legs, if nothing else. I’ll mention several other must-see places along this route below.
The town of Cokedale was a disappointment. It’s a living ghost town about ten miles west of Trinidad in the heart of the old coal-producing region along the Highway of Legends. We saw postcards of the coke ovens long before we saw them ourselves. The 190 remaining ovens (of 350 originally built) are on one side of Route 12, the town of Cokedale is on the other. The quick glimpse of the town I got as we drive by looked nice (a pond with fountain in the center and small houses hidden in old trees going up the holler), so we drove out there after dinner on Friday night. We never got of the car, simply because there was nothing to see and nowhere nice to walk. There is a mining museum, but it was closed. A couple we talked to the next day said they’d enjoyed their visit to the town, but as there were no shops to visit, I’m not exactly sure what they enjoyed. The brochures say Cokedale is one of the very few company-built towns that still exist in the U.S.; as such, it’s listed as a National Historic District. It’s possible other visitors might be able to give us some real help here. If so, please write!
Trinidad Lake State Park is between Trinidad and Cokedale. It was very, very low after five years of drought and, like all state parks in Colorado, charges for admission. The cost used to be $4 per vehicle (we didn’t go in), so it won’t break the bank, but coming from a state with beautiful state parks that are free, I still can’t handle this. One interesting note with this lake is that it covers the mining town of Sopris, formerly one of the nicest and most successful mining towns in the area. A dam was built near the town across the Purgatoire River (which flows through Trinidad) to form the lake; it covered the town, then opened to the public as a state park in 1981.
One of the Welcome Center brochures mentioned ‘a trail of dinosaur tracks, reportedly the longest single trail of tracks in the world’ just south of Trinidad, but we never saw or heard anything else about them. Show me the tracks!
The other disappointment is that there aren’t any pressed penny machines in Trinidad. Big disappointment!
Next Time We Go to Trinidad we’ll go inside the Catholic church. The Trolley Tour said it’s worth a quick visit. We’ll also check out the old Walter’s Beer brewery. This is a beautiful brick building that’s sat empty for far too long. Then we’ll see a movie at the old opera house, which serves as Trinidad’s movie theater today. Everything I’ve heard about it makes it sound outstanding—original theater sets still in place, loads of Tiffany glass in the windows, etc. We’ll check it out, and you probably should too. The only way to get inside is to see a movie.
We’ll check out the Riverwalk, along the Purgatoire (pronounced Purgatory) River. It wasn’t completed when we visited, but still looked attractive. We’d done quite a bit of walking by the time we stumbled onto it, and my pregnant wife wasn’t up for it. (Neither was I, to be honest!) One note about the name of this river and the different spellings you’ll see of it. Its first name was El rio de las animas perdidas en purgatorio. (Animas means souls.) The locals shortened this to the Purgatorio. French-Canadian trappers changed this to the Purgatoire, which was then mispronounced Picket Wire! Today it’s simply called the Purgatory.
In a chamber of commerce booklet on Trinidad, I saw another few things I’d like to visit: ‘One of Trinidad’s many attractions is Fisher’s Peak, the most distinctive landmark in the area. Formed naturally by lava overflows, it rises 9,600 feet and can be seen to the south of the city. Another dramatic image is Simpson’s Rest. Named after the famous explorer George Simpson, who is buried at the top of the sandstone bluff, Simpson’s Rest is accessible by car. The top of the bluff provides a breathtaking view of Trinidad, the Purgatoire River Valley, Fisher’s Peak and the Sangre de Cristo mountains.’ The walking tour brochure gave directions to Simpson’s Rest: drive north on Commercial Street; turn left on North Avenue; when this street ends, move to the right.
All the brochures mention a ‘concrete skate park’ in town. I’m 36 and haven’t touched a skateboard for 20 years, but if you’re traveling with teenagers, this could be something to check out.
Care and I aren’t big shoppers, but there are several nice antique stores we went through, most along Main Street. City maps can give you names and addresses. I enjoyed the Great Escape Bookstore, at 255 N. Commercial (719 845-0246). They sell new and used books, with some good local ones. Old World Lighting was closed every time we walked by, at 115 N. Commercial (719-680-1450). They sell light fixtures taken from the old homes in town. There were several that were very attractive. Alas, we couldn’t get in to buy them! The Trinidad History Museum Bookstore (300 E. Main, 719-846-7217) is worth a visit if you like bookstores. They also sell small history-related gifts for children. For those who can’t leave the 21st century behind for even a few days, there’s a Safeway grocery store at 457 W. Main.
We’ll spend some time at Monument Lake, west of Trinidad 30 miles or so on the Highway of Legends. The water was a breathtaking blue.
I saw this enticing note on a brochure for the Highway of Legends: ‘At the top of Cuchara Pass, a small dirt road on the right (Cordova Pass) offers a winding trip through the wildflower, aspen and pine forests along the Apishapa River to Aguilar.’ If we pass by this way again, we’ll explore this for sure.
A lot of people have been spending a lot of money to make Trinidad a more visitor-friendly town, and their investments are bearing fruit.
Trinidad has a rich history that left behind some things of real beauty and interest. The stonework is outstanding; 25 miles of brick streets add a lot of charm too. Then there are the Rocky Mountains that surround the town.
We spent two enjoyable days in Trinidad. I’d like to have a couple more soon..
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