Bicycling Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado and New Mexico - 2006

Alamosa to Antonito, CO

July 5, 2006
Distance 34.5 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 385 feet

As usual Mary Kay woke up well before 6:30 AM and eventually she woke me up with all of her activities. We ate breakfast before 7:00 AM, packed all of our gear and hauled it to our rental car, and headed out. Our first stop was to fill up the gas tank of the rental car. Our next stop was at the Alamosa Post Office, so we could send home all of our excess stuff. We then returned the rental car to Hertz, loaded up our bicycle and headed for Antonito.

From the time we left Alamosa until we reached Antonito we were going uphill very slowly. In the 35 miles we gained 385 feet in elevation, however we averaged 14 mph. We stopped in La Jara, at a small café for a snack while we rested before we continued our ride. Just as we reached Antonito we saw a sign that said we were near the oldest church in the state of Colorado.

We reached our motel on the far south side of Antonito by 11:30 AM. We unloaded the bicycle and then rode our bicycle back to Antonito where we did some grocery shopping and ate lunch. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is supposed to arrive in Antonito at 4:35 PM so we wondered over to the train station around 4:00 PM and picked up our train tickets for the next day. We continued to wonder around waiting for the train to arrive, stopping at an information center and a couple of souvenir shops. We talked to two bus drivers. One who did a lot of bicycle riding before he retired. Finally, just before 5:00 PM the train arrived. This is a coal fired steam engine.

On our way back to the motel we ate supper at the restaurant next door. Like every restaurant in the area they serve Mexican and American food.