July 7 – Garden City, KS to "Uptop", CO

We left the Garden City Comfort Inn at about 8:30, after a big breakfast, our destination Uptop, a “ghost town” in the Rockies, west of Walsenburg, Colorado, that had been bought by two friends ten years ago. They had advised us earlier to stay south to avoid driving head-on into smoke from the wildfires around Colorado Springs, but at a tourist information stop in Lamar, CO, we were advised to go even farther south, not because of the smoke but because the 73 miles of  route 50 between La Junta and Walsenburg would be too dull, in his view. He told us to go south  instead and take Route 135 to Trinidad (80 miles), and then to take a scenic loop drive (another 82 miles) through the foothills, winding up in La Veta before heading up into the mountains to Uptop. This added about 2 hours to our trip, but it was well worth it.

We saw the last of Kansas and entered Eastern Colorado with a long and mostly lovely drive across wide open plains, rising slowly in elevation as we approached the Rockies. Cultivation (mostly sorghum and wheat) gave way to grazing land that went on for miles without a building or another car in sight. Low shrub vegetation and a few stunted trees, but most of it was pale gray grassland  As we approached Trinidad the road began to thread its way through long rolling flat-topped table lands, more trees appeared, and at last we rolled into Trinidad, a sizeable town. All the way the temperature kept dropping, from the mid 80s down as low as 57. Quite a contrast to the 100s we had been living with for the past four days.

We stopped in Trinidad at another tourist information facility, where we replenished our water bottles and were given a brochure describing the scenic loop road we were to take to La Veta. We looked for a place to eat lunch (salads picked up at the Wal-mart in Lamar) and settled for a shady spot under Highway 25, before setting out. The scenic loop road was called, quaintly, “The Highway of Legends,” but what the legends were was not explained. Carmen, our normally helpful GPS, was quite upset by our route choice and kept trying to steer us back to the main highway, the only way she thought we should go to La Veta. We finally shut her off. And the Prius was unhappy with the  high altitude.

Our scenic drive started out inauspiciously, passing through fairly unattractive suburban streets, then past an array of abandoned coke ovens and then through an active coal mining operation, with ugly bare black hills and mountains of coal. Eventually, as we began to climb, we entered more rugged open terrain, with giant rock outcrops, sparkling  clear blue lakes, and spectacular vistas of distant peaks, all made more dramatic by a succession of forbidding dark clouds that swept through, sporadically unleashing short-lived torrents of drenching rain. 

Headquarters of "Uptop"

We reached Uptop a little after 3, after a long winding climb up a gravel road and were greeted enthusiastically by Dianne (“Sam”) and her sister Deb, whose log house stands in the middle of what was once a railroad depot and then a logging camp. They bought it ten years ago, christened it “Uptop,” and have been refurbishing it ever since.

The site was first developed by a railroad pioneer, William Jackson Palmer, Head of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, who set out in 1871 to build a narrow-gauge railway from Denver across the Rockies. the line ran from Walsenburg to Fort Garland, carrying freight and passengers up a steep grade with sharp switchbacks -- one called a “muleshoe” for its shape). It was a big success, but only for a couple of years, until the railway decided it was a nuisance to have to transfer all freight from the cars of a standard gauge 4’ 8 ½” line to those of the narrow gauge 3’ line and then back again, and more costly than it would be to tunnel through the Rockies elsewhere, which they soon did. So the life of the narrow gauge line was short. The tracks were pulled up. The roadbed remained as a useable wagon trail and eventually an automobile and truck road, “muleshoe” switchback turn and all.

Over the years the site had been a logging camp for a while for cutting and shipping timbers to nearby mining operations, and subsequent uses had included an Inn, a Tavern, a schoolhouse, and a Catholic chapel. The two sisters bought the 600 acres of land from the last owner; the decrepit buildings were thrown in for free.  Sam and Deb have turned the former headquarters of the logging company into their own home, and refurbished the Tavern to create a function hall and meeting house, with a comfortable apartment at one end.  The Depot has been turned into a museum, and the chapel is open for all passersby to visit. Last year a couple in their 90’s renewed their vows there on their 60^th anniversary, riding there on horseback from Kansas. The old Inn still stands but is unusable, as are several other structures.

All in all, it’s an amazing place, and the two owners have done extraordinary things to it. They recently persuaded the Department of the Interior to declare it a national historic site; Interior Secretary Salazar and Colorado’s two Senators and Governor all came to Uptop for a ceremony commemorating its new status.

There are plans to improve the museum, and perhaps renovate another building or two. Sam and Deb would like to install solar panels for electricity, but the need to retain the historical nature of the site may complicate that plan.

Deb and Sam, Queen and Mayor of Uptop