Highway of Legends

We took the historic Highway of Legends (12) on our way home from New Mexico. It makes a wide arch from Trinidad to Walsenburg, 82 miles of beautiful scenery. It added about 2 hours to our trip, but it was worth it.

Click here for a site with some of the history.


The coal ovens in Cokedale, just west of Trinidad, look like Roman ruins. Cokedale apparently was a bustling community for 40 years, until the demand for coal and coke dwindled after WWII.

The stone wall in Stonewall.

The stone wall and Purgatoire River.

The Purgatoire River (also known as the Picketwire) in Stonewall.

The Purgatoire River was named many years ago, during the time when Spanish Conquistadors were exploring the area in their search for Cibola (the Seven Cities of Gold), around 1594. The legend says the leaders of the expedition argued and Juan Hermana killed Francisco Bonilla to assume full leadership of the group.

The priest who accompanied them refused to follow a murderer so he and part of the expedition left and returned south to Mexico. Hermana and the others forged ahead and continued searching. Some say they found gold near the Spanish Peaks and forced Native Americans to dig it out for them. In leaving the area, they killed all their Native American slaves and headed south over Cuchara Pass with their ill-gotten gold.

All versions of the legend say they were ambushed near the Purgatoire and wiped out to a man. Their bones and armour were found many years later along the river bank but no stash of gold has ever been found. Because they died without the benefit of last rites, they were said to be in Purgatory and the river was named "El Rio de Las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio." The French changed that to "Purgatoire" and the English to "Picketwire."

I'm not sure, but this may be the side view of the Devil's Stairstep.

Some of the burros in the area.

The Spanish Peaks. We traveled between them and the Sangre de Cristo range. I didn't get any pictures of the "fourteeners" in that range because of the lighting.

We stopped at the city park in Walsenburg to let Charis stretch her legs and play a while, found a local eatery, and then headed home.

I'd love to do that trek again. There is a lot to see, and I know I missed quite a bit. The article I had mentioned a dilapidated "house on a bridge," but we never saw it. The weather alternated between beautiful and sunny, to downpours, which made it difficult.