The Stations of the Cross Shrine, San Luis, CO

The day after my waterfall hike, I decided to go to San Luis and see the Stations of the Cross Shrine. It’s a beautiful, winding hike up a hill with the Stations of the Cross depicted in large bronze statues. The guide book says that the statues are life size, which I take to mean that people were MUCH smaller back in Jesus’ day. Historical accuracy is always nice.

Anyway, San Luis is a 45 minute drive from Alamosa, and it is a nice one. With views of mountains all around the valley, any drive anywhere is nice. The beginning of the trail to the shrine is clearly marked, and there is parking across the street.

Well marked! 

Trail head

I wanted to go here especially because it was something my mom loved. I remember going as a kid and finding it interesting for about five minutes before I moved on. But my mom lingered at each Station, admiring the work and reflecting on the moment depicted. She took pictures of each statue, and there was a whole section of the picture book of our trip dedicated to it. So part of this was a religious and reflective time, and part of it was a tribute to my mother.

Getting started, pre-eye incident

I was about 200 yards up the trail when I something caught my eye. That's not quite right. Something got IN my eye. Now if you’ve spent any amount of time with me, you realize that this isn’t exactly a rare occurrence. I think my eyes are magnets for dust and dirt and anything unpleasant that will cause me pain. But on occasion I get stuff in my eye so insidious that no amount of blinking will get out whatever it is. It always feels like a needle is stabbing me, and washing out my contact is the only way to go. On a trail without a restroom, this is not a convenient occurrence. I stood, paralyzed for a time, blinking, tearing up, and trying to make a decision. Finally I decided to go to a gas station that I could barely see through my tears. I hiked down, crossed the street, and entered the ancient building. Fortunately the facilities were clean and I worked out my eye issue quickly. I bought some Sweet Tarts so that the owner wouldn’t think I was super tacky, and headed back to the trail.

One of the Stations where Jesus stumbles

Jesus talks to his mother

View of the top of the hill and the church

Jesus is crucified 

Jesus is risen from the dead

The front of the church

This time, everything went off without a hitch. I saw very few people on the trail, which gave me time to appreciate each station. Like Mom did, I took pictures of each statue. (Technically this may not have been allowed, but I chose to interpret the sign at the beginning of the trail to mean that I can't make money off of any pictures I took, which I never intended to anyway.)  I reflected on the beauty of the work, the intensity of the moment in Jesus' life that is depicted, the beauty of the view, and how it seems sacrilegious that they have not hosed the bird doo off the statues. The hike isn’t hard, and I made it to the top in under a half-hour including reflecting time. I went inside the church and spent a few minutes looking around. It’s a lovely building with stucco walls, wooden pews, and a vaulted ceiling. I sat on the back pew, determined to spend some time in prayer and reflection, but then I heard voices approaching the door. I decided I could do better prayer and reflection outside, and headed out. I pushed open the door slowly because it opened outwards and I didn’t want to hit anyone in the face. I emerged to find a couple of older ladies, probably mother and daughter, who looked a little concerned. The daughter said, “I thought the door was opening by itself!”

“That would be interesting.” I replied.

“That would be scary!” she answered.

The inside of the church

The statue that reminded me of the Weeping Angels

After eating my lunch, I looked at some of the other statues that were around the grounds at the top of the hill. They were mostly of monks whose names I didn’t recognize. There was one of a woman, and I wanted to take my picture with it, but when I got closer it reminded me of the Weeping Angles from Doctor Who so I just took a picture quickly and moved on. I decided to check out an area that was a tribute to the Mexican Martyrs. I had no idea that this was a thing, so I was interested to see what it was about. Apparently during the 1920s, quite a few Catholic priests were killed in Mexico. The area had a trail around which were busts of the priests and plaques telling each of their stories. I didn’t plan on reading them all, but they were all pretty riveting. At the high point of this shrine, there was what appeared to be an alter, and behind it was a statue of Jesus writing in a book. I am assuming it was the Book of Life, but I really don’t know.

The entrance to the shrine for the Mexican Martyrs. The wall on the right has bullet holes and "blood" on it, as many of the martyrs were killed by firing squad.  

Statue of Jesus, presumably writing in the Book of Life.

After that, I checked out the Grotto, which had a statue of Mary and some guy kneeling before her. Hiking back from that, I noticed a trail heading off away from the church and the path I needed to take to get down. I had to see where it went. Where it went was a labyrinth! The path wound around in a fairly complicated circle. I followed it to the middle and back. It was cool and made me more happy than was necessary, I think.

The Grotto

The labyrinth, viewed from uphill a ways so that you can see how it goes.

View from the top

The path

After that, I had pretty much exhausted my options for poking around the hill, so I hiked down and went home. Overall it was a nice time. Not too hard of a hike, and I enjoyed it even though I’m not Catholic. If you’re in the area, I would recommend checking it out!

Zapata Falls

Zapata Falls is an easy hike just a bit south of the Great Sand Dunes. My dad suggested it to me, and I thought that it seemed like a good and easy way to ease into this adventure having that I have decided to do this summer. It was about a 45 minute drive to get to the trail head from Alamosa, during which I saw three large dust devils. That was exciting for me, as I am a giant nerd about tornados and anything that is related to them.

The trail head to the falls is at the top of a long, twisting gravel road that climbs up the foot of Mount Blanca. At the top I parked among quite a few other cars, situated my stuff, and began my hike.

Getting started!

The San Luis Valley

The trail up the mountain

The first thing I noticed was that I over packed. I have a tendency to do that, and I am pretty sure one doesn’t need food, a camelback bladder of water, two extra water bottles, and several layers of clothing for the half mile hike to the falls. In my defense, I didn’t know how short the hike was when I had packed for it, and I was debating going to the Sand Dunes afterwards and didn’t know how long I’d be gone for. Apparently I assumed it would be several days. Ah well, better safe than sorry.

The afternoon was beautiful, with some slightly ominous clouds blocking out the sun and making for a cooler hike. It was perfect for my first solo hike, perhaps ever. I usually have at least one friend with me, but today it was just me, God, and the mountain. Also, at least 30 other hikers, as this is apparently a pretty popular destination for visitors to the park, and particularly those with young children. A family with four young daughters passed me heading down. The girls were wrapped in towels and talking excitedly about what they just experienced. I heard one tell her dad, “That was worth the whole trip!” I got more excited about my destination and continued on, despite a sneaking suspicion that I was over dressed. As I worked my way up the path, I felt a few light raindrops hit my face and reflected that I left my raincoat in the car. Fortunately that did not amount to much. Then I heard thunder. I got instantly paranoid, as people get struck by lightning in Colorado more often than they should. I decided to press onward since I figured I was nearing the falls, but I listened carefully for more thunder. Fortunately I heard none. What I did begin to hear was thunder of a different sort.  

You can hear the falls before you can see them. That always seems the case with waterfalls. As I neared them, listening to their roar, I saw a sign warning against swimming. It made me flash back to my hike to Boti Falls in Ghana. (If you want to read about that: http://itinerantbarista.blogspot.com/2009/11/ghananana-ghananana-heeeey-goodbye.html)

The warning sign

I took some pictures of the ravine that lead to the falls, and debated wading over to get a good look at them. I didn’t want to get my boots wet, but then a couple of guys appeared down the trail heading my way. I didn’t want to look dumb in front of the strangers, plus I heard echoes of people laughing inside the ravine, so I started carefully picking my way along the wall of rock, heading towards the falls. I managed to make it into the cavernous interior, where the roar of the falls echoed off the walls and through my entire being. Mist from the water filled the air. A couple of other guys were playing in the water. I decided I would have to return in Chacos so that I could actually feel comfortable getting my feet wet. After enjoying the power of the water for a while, I picked my way carefully out of the cavern.

A dark picture of the ravine leading to the falls

A blurry picture of the falls and some people playing in it. None of the pictures I got were clear.

Once outside, I saw a large family attempting to get to the falls. I did my best to keep out of their way as they worked their way past me, helping a small girl who smiled bravely at me as her parents directed her steps. I passed everyone and was feeling pretty good, until I slipped. My right foot plunged into water up to my knee. My butt and back hit the wall, and my left foot got a little wet too. I recovered as gracefully as I could manage and worked my way the last few yards out of the stream to assess the damage. I had an intense internal debate on whether or not to wring out my sock then and there or wait until the car. I settled on waiting and started down. One of the guys who was playing in the water, a tan fellow who looked to be about 25, was having a cigarette and waiting for his friends. He looked very excited about his experiences, and he stopped me to ask if I had hiked over above the falls. I had investigated that path but decided against it because my foot was wet and it was really steep. I told him that I hadn’t but probably would next time. He said, “My friends did, but I had sandals on. I’m definitely coming back to do that!” I agreed with him on that fact and began my hike down.

The damage

The trail heading above the falls

About 200 yards down the path, I realized that I had lost a water bottle, most likely during my unexpected dip in the river. Fighting back irritation, I practically sprinted back and assessed the stream. I sort of expected that it was lost forever, and I sure didn’t see it. I was a little bummed because I hate losing things and I really liked that water bottle, but what else could I do? I sloshed down the trail towards my car, and ended up driving home before I took off my gross wet sock.

View of the Great Sand Dunes

Overall I enjoyed the hike. It was quick and pretty easy, which made it perfect for an afternoon. It offered beautiful views of the Great Sand Dunes and the San Luis Valley, which make it worth the trip alone. Plus, it’s pretty easy for children, so if you have kids and are in the area, it is an activity you should consider. And if you do go, keep your eyes open for a white metal water bottle. It’s mine.

Adventures

When I was a kid, all I wanted was to have adventures. Pretty much all my childhood fantasies involved some wild adventure or another. My mother cut out a newspaper article for me once that recounted the story of two young girls who had survived alone in the Amazon for a long time. She thought that maybe I would want to write a story about them one day, which I still might. Who knows? But what I ended up doing was pretending I was one of the girls, surviving in the Amazon. Armed with a knife with a plastic handle designed to look like bone and carved in the shape of an elk (a gift from a mother who knew her tomboy daughter all too well), I roamed the “Amazon” (my yard), surviving on my wits alone. My major problem with the whole thing was that my yard had far too few trees to pass for a legitimate Amazon jungle. Plus, my clothes were too nice and it was too cold to go barefoot at that time of year.

I also loved to read about adventures. Every summer, we would visit the library weekly, where my sister and I would each check out no fewer than five books each, but more likely over ten (we liked to read, what can I say?). If we went to the library today, I could still show you exactly where the adventure books were shelved in the children’s section, and I could still describe the brown “Adventure” sticker on the spine of each of the books that I wanted, no, HAD to read. Survival books like My Side of the Mountain and books that even remotely related to adventures, like mysteries and anything about flying or space, became the fodder for my imagination. The desire to read about adventures has not diminished with age. I am still drawn to mysteries, travel books, historical accounts of events, and other similar grown up adventure books. The desire to have adventures has also not diminished.

This summer I am doing my final fieldwork for OT school in Alamosa, CO. My reason for this can be boiled down to two words: free housing. But that aside, Alamosa is in the beautiful San Luis Valley which is full of potential adventures to be had. Therefore, I decided to attempt to actually seek out some nice adventures to take part in, and then document them for this blog. I figure it might be fun, plus it will motivate me to get out and experience this amazing and beautiful area of the state while I am conveniently in the middle of it. It will make me have adventures, just like I dreamed of as a little girl. I am making no promises, but the blog has the word “adventure” in the title, so I think it’s an obligation that I try!

All The Single Ladies

I went to a Christian bookstore today on a whim. I was in the area and they had all sorts of sales advertised on their window, so I decided to give it a walk through to see what I could see. I was perusing the books when I saw the plaque over a lone section of shelves. It said “Single Women’s Interests” or something along those lines. Being one of those, I went to check it out.

The options were slim, but they definitely had a theme. Nearly all of the books had something to do with marriage. They had everything from Lady in Waiting to some book about a praying wife which I think was probably in the wrong section. I was pretty irritated at the whole thing.
I am single, and most days I’m okay with that. In the place where God has put me in my life, having a boyfriend or husband would complicate all the things I want to do. This isn’t to say that I don’t want a boyfriend, and I definitely want to get married one day. In fact, if an awesome fellow came along, we would work through the complications together. But I am single right now. This is where God wants me. And most days, I love it.

Books like those that were displayed in the store have a place, of course. I have read at least snippets from many of the books they had, and they have benefited my life greatly. However, a section of a bookstore set aside for single women that had all those books in it gives us single ladies a strong message: “You are incomplete until you are married. If you are not married, something is wrong with you.” And even though I’m sure the authors of those books would be horrified at this unintentional message, it is being received loud and clear.

At my friend’s wedding a couple of years ago, she stuck me at a table of Christian single women with one of our friends from high school who definitely does not go to church. The women at the table talked about various things such as their jobs, but inevitably, as these things do, the subject quickly switched to men. I happily joined in and contributed my two cents about the sad state of affairs for us women. Later, my friend from high school pointed out that it was sort of weird and a little pathetic that all these women wanted was to get married. I realized that she was right. These women were great. They had good jobs, were quite good looking, and had an awesome network of friends through their jobs and church. But they were not looking at those elements of their lives. They were focused on the one thing they felt they lacked: a husband. And I joined right in.

Would we single ladies be so fixed on marriage if we were told that we were okay as we are? Why are we given the message that we are not normal if we are single? Why are we to prepare ourselves to be good wives one day when we could be encouraged to become the best woman we can be in the place where God has us right now? Is it possible to enjoy and be content in our single lives while still desiring to get married one day? I think it is.

Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I think we get so focused on the desires of our heart that we forget to take delight in the Lord sometimes.  I know that I do. And then, as we are so focused on our heart’s desires, we ignore the first part of verse 5 too:
“Commit your way to the Lord.” I am going to start practicing the elements of delighting myself in the Lord and committing my way to him. Not so that he will give me the desires of my heart, but because He is the Lord. He is worthy of delight. And doing so will bring more fulfillment and meaning into my life than any person ever could.