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!