Both sides of the pass: Trinidad, Colorado

Not many interstate views can rival entering Colorado from New Mexico, when the white-capped Sangre de Cristo Range soars magnificently to the west. Otherwise, the pass feels like a straight downward trek into Trinidad. 

More than many Colorado towns, Trinidad feels like a town of hills, like a place built to follow the mountains. The bricks on Main Street and several intersecting streets were stamped with the city name. 

Like Raton, a Trinidad signs sits upon a Simpson’s Rest, a mesa standings northwest of town. Mesa-topped Fishers Peak, home to a new state park, looms to the south.

Can't gas up here

Much like Raton, Trinidad started as a mining town, and received a boost from the railroad’s arrival. Once, Trinidad was the sex change capital of the world due to a local doctor who became a pioneer in such procedures. These days, Trinidad is best known as a town saved by marijuana legalization, as it’s the first major town when entering Colorado from New Mexico. 

The city leaves no doubt about embracing legalization. Entering town, one passes the Weed Mall, a string of recreational marijuana stores as one drives onto Main Street in Trinidad. None can top the vintage gas station that also has become a recreational store. 

As in other times in Trinidad’s history, success from legal weed could prove temporary. New Mexico has legalized and once those shops come online, it’s expected that the locus of weed tourism will shift southeast to Clayton, New Mexico, a small town bordering the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles with a reasonable drive of Kansas.

Always look up

For now, Trinidad hopped on the weekend, its restaurants and bars open again. There is still some reclamation necessary, but the city has pockets of activity that radiate a renewed vibrancy. 

Trinidad a has series of public art installations that note its history. A longtime mining center, one the sculptures is a giant birdcage with a canary, the birds that alerted miners to toxic air conditions in the mine. A series of metal donkeys stood nearby. Metal lizards climbed down the side of one building. While not intended as public art (I think), a vintage wooden niche for a pay telephone was perched on the side of an old theater under renovation. 

The Trinidad Carnegie Library is one of those stylish libraries from the early 20th that could withstand a tank assault. 

Trinidad sign, as seen from Commercial St.

Up the road on Commercial Street, which has a mix of old buildings and new mixed-use space, we ended up at the Books and More Bookstore, an expansive used shop run by Friends of the Library and staffed by volunteers. The Trinidad Carnegie does not have space for so large a store, so the Commercial Street location allows the library to widen its reach and draw in visitors. 

The talkative man running the store this afternoon was full of Trinidad pride. He had recommendations on the best green chili cheeseburgers in town, the luck to have a library store this nice and the ways in which Trinidad has changed during his life. 

Main Street sits on high ground above the Purgatoire River (also known as the Picketwire, as you’ll hear in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). French trappers named it for a Spanish exploration party that never returned. 

In summer, the Purgatoire can appear no larger than a lean stream. Thanks to the snow and rain of late spring, the river charged on its course, brown waters roiled and surging toward its confluence with the Arkansas River near Las Animas. Trails wandered along its floodplain. The river loses some scenic luster as it runs along the same path as the interstate before branching northeast across the Colorado Plains. 

Trinidad had not received the same craft brewery rush as the rest of Colorado. Several entrepreneurs have tried and failed to establish one. In the past year, Paradox Brewing of Divide has opened an outpost brewery, which hopped on a warm summer Saturday. 

That could be said of Commercial Street in general, as people were out and enjoying some 90-plus heat. As heat melted the snows high in the Sangre de Cristo and fed the rivers below, Trinidad held its own at Raton Pass’s northern entrance. The weed boost might be fleeting, but Trinidad’s sturdy business district and nearby natural draws should keep it aloft.