MINI TOUR: Lassoing the Wet Mountains
By Jeff Miller

Where? Travelers who don’t know this area will find simple pleasures and little surprises that make for a worthwhile journey.


The scenic view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains from the Frontier Pathways Scenic and Historic Byway.
© Weaver Multimedia Group/Anna Zoromski

So much of how we experience life depends on our perspective. As antiques dealer John Hegler of Florence puts it: “When I sell something, the look of age is ‘patina.’ When I buy it, it’s ‘rust.’”

Some readers might think there’s not much to a drive to the Wet Mountains. The route’s no Million Dollar Highway (in Southwest Colorado), but its subtle charms make up for the lack of flashy, dramatic scenery. Sometimes smaller is better.

The trip is less than 150 miles roundtrip from Colorado Springs, and can be driven in a day. But it takes two or more days to fully enjoy what’s there.

What is there? Canon City and Royal Gorge are the best known destinations. Surprises include the white-knuckle Skyline Drive, little dynamo Westcliffe, and vistas of mountains, prairie and canyons.

Starting south out of Colorado Springs on S.R. 115, the road drops down to two lanes and settles into country mode—soft hills and scrub pines wax and wane with each mile.

Crossing major artery U.S. 50, the first stop on S.R. 115 is Florence. Best known for prisons, including Supermax, the town could be called super-fun—at least for antique hunters. Reportedly, 15 years ago the town had only the Oil City Merchants Antique Mall. Over time the town attracted a bevy of other antique stores (20 total to date), five art galleries and almost a dozen restaurants.

Today, bustling Main Street can hold your interest and satisfy your hunger (try the incredible sweet potato fries at the Mainstreet Grille and Bakery) for at least a few hours, if not half a day. Two events on the same weekend (Sept. 16 and 17, 2011) are definitely worth attending: The 8th annual sidewalk/street sale, Junktique, and the 84th annual Florence Pioneer Day Celebration, complete with Main Street parade.

Back on SR 115, it’s only a short 10-mile hop northwest to Canon City (originally named Canyon City, but a reporter used the Spanish spelling, canon, which stuck). Known also as a prison town, it is an enjoyable mix of broad streets and eight 1800s buildings in one of the largest intact National Register of Historic Places districts in Colorado. A must-see is the small, evocative Museum of Colorado Prisons. Outside is an actual gas chamber. Inside, 32 jail cells include displays that highlight bad guys from the 1800s up to the 1970s, as well as information on little-known women prisoners.


The entrance to Skyline Drive in Canon City, Colo. © Jeff Miller.

Shifting gears from museum to vista, you can find one of the most surprising—and vertigo-inducing—vistas outside Canon City on U.S. 50 heading for Royal Gorge. A sign and right turn leads to Skyline Drive (See Pin 1 on the map), a one-lane, one-way track that climbs up to what looks like a relatively small hogback. But the tiny ribbon of asphalt has such serious drop-offs on both sides that you feel as if an opened car door would hang over thin air.

Built by convicts in 1903, the road has a pullover at the start and end, but the middle is right on the knife edge of the 800-foot-high hogback and doesn’t seem much wider than your car. Spectacular 360-degree panoramas can be seen by anyone not closing their eyes from fear.

Regaining the more down-to-earth U.S. 50, it’s only a few miles west to the turnoff for Royal Gorge Bridge and Park (See Pin 2 on the map). This Canon City-owned natural and man-made wonder is Disneyland-clean.


The Wet Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop to the breathtaking view of the Royal Gorge. © Jeff Miller.

For a closer look, the incline railway—the world’s steepest at 45 degrees—makes a five-minute crawl from the canyon’s edge to the Arkansas River below. You then have 10 minutes to look around—and up! If you’re there at the right time, you can see the passing of the Royal Gorge Route Train, a 24-mile roundtrip passenger train that gives a whole other perspective to the Gorge (pick up the train at the Santa Fe Depot in Canon City).

Another way to see the canyon is from a seat on the Skycoaster—a free-fall tower that sweeps you 50 mph to hang momentarily 1,200 feet out over the canyon floor.

Coming back down to earth, you return to U.S. 50 and shortly enter Big Sheep Canyon. The scenery is nearly forgotten as you contemplate the seemingly endless strings of ghostly train cars that sit patiently beside the west canyon wall like lost cattle waiting for someone to lead them somewhere. Will their owner ever return to save them?

At Texas Creek you branch off U.S. 50 and take S.R. 69 heading for Westcliffe. The road gets smaller then crests a rise and suddenly before you is the wide expanse of Wet Mountain Valley, with the Wet Mountains to the east and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the west. The contrast between the two ranges is stark: The Wet Mountains (named for the amount of snow they get) barely reach over 10,000 feet and are covered mostly in pine forests. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains boast more than 25 peaks over 13,000, with sharp crests.

Bookended by these ranges, the Wet Mountain Valley is an ocean of prairie grass, highlighted by the occasional ranch house. The vista is stunning—the air is so clear you can see individual trees miles away, and the afternoon light creates a golden magic, transforming the land into a postcard you want to keep just for yourself. As the road levels off into the distance like some hope for the future, you feel like you could drive this range forever.

Soon you notice a clump of buildings, rising from the waving grass like some mystical island. There you find 463 of the friendliest residents of Colorado—two of which are Doris and Mel Porth, married 55 years. Mel, tall and lean, with a crew cut and square jaw, makes some people of the right age think of cartoon good-guy Steve Canyon. Mel’s performed his own good deeds, most notably helping establish All Aboard Westcliffe Inc., a group committed to restoring the old train depot and an engine house, which is now a museum. “It’s a start,” Mel says with a note of pride, “but we still have a long way to go, using only volunteers and limited funds.” Even though it was after 5 p.m. closing, Mel showed people around the museum while Doris made numerous calls to help a stranger find a room for the night.

Westcliffe offers a wide selection of interesting accommodations, from motels like the Golden Corner Motel and the Westcliffe Inn, to the newly opened three-room bed-and-breakfast, Over the Brim Inn, on the west end of Main Street, run by newcomers Kathy and Bob Seei.

“I want this to be a place of bonding, sharing and healing,” Kathy says. At the other end of Main Street, long time residents John and Mo Johnston own another bed-and-breakfast, the funky Courtyard Country Inn B&B. Eight rooms open onto an Alice-in-Wonderland type of courtyard, packed with trees, shrubs, pond, little paths, benches and chairs. “It’s perfect for reading a book or having an afternoon beer or wine and just relaxing,” John says.

Walking the compact Main Street, you get the feeling this is a community that not only welcomes strangers but also trusts its neighbors. An unlocked bicycle propped against the town’s library captures that feeling in a wonderfully peaceful image.

At the Chili Bear Restaurant, a sign proclaims: “Stressed spelled backwards is desserts.” The breakfast crowd includes three families of camouflage-covered hunters, as well as five black-leather-clad bikers—all of whom co-exist peacefully even though there’s enough testosterone in the room to intimidate a herd of bison.


The small gravestone of Emma Schneider in Silver Cliff Cemetery. © Jeff Miller.

Driving east out of Westcliffe on S.R. 96, visitors should stop at two old cemeteries one mile south of nearby Silver Cliff: Assumption and Silver Cliff (See Pin 3 on the map), which is famous for nighttime “ghost lights.” While the lights haven’t been seen in awhile, the old headstones do their own illuminating in sad, subtle ways. A small gravestone near the entrance of Silver Cliff Cemetery now barely whispers that its resident is Emma Schneider, who died August 27, 1880, at 12 years, 3 months and 19 days. Looking out across the sea of surrounding prairie grasses, listening to the lonesome trill of a bird searching for its mate, you can’t help but wonder what kind of life Emma must have had—and that her parents must have loved her very much to have erected a monument that’s probably outlasted the entire family.

Returning to SR 96, the drive turns northeast and cuts through Hardscrabble Canyon and the middle of the Wet Mountains. This section of the trip is part of Frontier Pathways (See Pin 4 on the map), a national scenic and historic byway. At Wetmore, you take S.R. 67 north back up to Florence.

Before taking S.R. 115 back to Colorado Springs, you take one more stroll through the Florence antique shops and think about how this road trip has challenged your perception of a lot of things, from towns to scenic drives. Appearances can be deceiving and true value lies more in the experience than geography.

Such musings, though, only go so far—especially when it’s close to lunch hour. You realize happily that you have just enough time before heading back to grab another order of those incredible sweet potato fries at the Mainstreet Grille and Bakery!

Jeff Miller is a Denver-based freelancer and former editor of EnCompass.

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