PENITENTE CANYON
May 3, 2006
By Tim Briese
Unusual scenery and unique history characterize this obscure place that is located on the western fringe of the San Luis Valley, a few miles north of Del Norte. My wife Teresa and I were passing through the area on a trip in early May and stopped here to check it out.
We drove west from Highway 285 a few miles to the tiny village of La Garita and then followed gravel roads a couple of miles further to a developed trailhead at the entrance to the canyon, after passing informational signs and a campground along the way. There were two other vehicles parked at the trailhead on this fine sunny day. After studying a map of trails that wind about in the area, and making a rough sketch of them on a piece of scrap paper to take along, we headed up the canyon with our two labs. A nice trail took us up the level floor of the canyon, past a few trees and stands of dense bushes leafed out in bright green spring foliage.
There was a rocky wall along the right side of the canyon that towered up to 100 feet above the canyon floor. After hiking a short distance we came to an old painting of the Virgin Mary high up on a rock face, evidence of the area=s religious heritage. The image was about six feet tall and located perhaps 40 feet above the ground. A religious order called the Brothers Penitente sought refuge from the world in this canyon back in the nineteenth century. In more recent times Penitente Canyon has become a popular destination for rock climbers from around the world. We saw a few of them practicing their sport as we walked up the canyon.
After hiking a third of a mile we reached a fork in the canyon and went left on the Rock Garden Trail. A short distance later the trail climbed about 75 feet up out of the canyon to the right. A bit of mild rock scrambling was required here. Upon reaching the canyon rim we found ourselves on a generally level plateau laced with rocky outcroppings interspersed with junipers and pinyon pines. A nice view of the Sangre de Cristos could be seen far to the east on the other side of the San Luis Valley. We followed a trail that wound to the northwest across this area. After nearly a half mile it turned to the northeast and dropped into Rock Garden Canyon, another scenic canyon with impressive rock formations. We hiked down this canyon a few hundred yards to its mouth then turned and retraced our steps back up onto the plateau.
We found a different trail at a junction on the plateau and followed it southward to explore some more. Following posted signs at junctions we made our way to a place where wagon tracks from early pioneers are worn into the granite. As I gazed around at the rough, rocky terrain I couldn=t help but admire the fortitude and persistence of those early settlers. We spent a few minutes examining initials these folks had long ago carved into the rock adjacent to the wagon tracks.
From this point we backtracked a few hundred yards and found yet another trail that took us down into the upper end of Penitente Canyon. We followed it through aspen groves and past more scenic rock formations and soon reached the point where we had previously climbed up out of the canyon, thus completing a loop hike of sorts.
We continued on down the canyon, past the rock climbers again, and soon returned to our truck. We covered about three miles in two hours on this interesting little hike.
