La Junta and Bent's Fort, CO -- PHOTO TOUR (Denver: home, neighborhood) - Colorado - City-Data Forum

McGowdog · 09-08-2008, 12:28 PM

Unlike Lamar, Las Animas, and Rocky Ford, La Junta isn't really built along Hwy 50. You really miss this town if you just drive through. I hope a few of my pics give a peek into the appeal this town really has. There again, I didn't spend but about a few minutes snapping some of these shots. I wish we had more time. We had to get home after a nice weekend with the folks. A person from the Chamber of Commerce from LJ Direct Mailed me and thanked me for some of my comments to these Ark Valley towns.

All I can say to that is, You ain't seen nothin' yet. As a former student of Rye High School, I'm usually seen in one of their gyms as the "enemy".

Truth be told, my mom went to JH HS back in the day. I think this was when you could swim in Sheridan Lake

Little Kiowa County humor. As far as the awesome food out there, another thread for another day. That will take some time. A friend of mine from HS was a doctor out there for a while. Don't know where he's at now but I'm sure he and his family couldn't be far. I'll probably run into him on a bike trail somewhere. I've gotta start workin' off some of the food I've been eatin' lately. Hope you enjoy some of these, but the ones of the town turned out mostly fuzzy and lost more than half of them and it was getting too dark. Maybe we can add some in time and do a lot better job than these;

Onion harvest??

famlife · 09-08-2008, 01:33 PM

that is so wierd, that little shop in the bottom of the old church... what is it, a convenient store, a restaurant?

McGowdog · 09-08-2008, 01:59 PM

I don't know yet. It looks like there was an incredible tornado that wisked the top of a church building and threw it on top of a small white brick building or something.

la junta econ devel · 09-08-2008, 02:55 PM

First of all....McGowdog....thanks for taking the time to snap some shots of the Lower Arkansas Valley while you were here. Like the threads on Lamar, Wiley, Hasty and McClave.

The old First Presbyterian Church was converted to a business in the late 50's/early 60's and is now a video store! I buy items off of EBAY for the local museum and post cards of the old church come up quite often.

Shots before that ....Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site is a great trip.

El Rincon....great neighborhood Mexican Restaurant; Mexico City is not a bad neighborhood Mexican Restaurant, either.

Downtown blocks built in the early 1900's

After that is Post Office...circa 1920.

The sunset is from the bridge over the Arkansas River.

Next time down, you have to catch the Koshare Kiva and Otero Museum, then the dinasaur tracks and Vogel canon.

McGowdog · 09-08-2008, 04:17 PM

All right! Now we're talkin! Thanks for the info. We will eat at those two places ASAP. I had a breakfast burrito with chorizo in LA or LJ, can't remember where, and it was the best gas station food I'd had in my life! It was very homemade.

I guess LaJunta is a bit of a crossroads too, as you can get from Trinidad to La Junta on Hwy 350 or 160 or "Santa Fe Trail"

... or you can go from Walsenburg to Ja Junta via Hwy 10.

la junta econ devel · 10-21-2008, 02:31 PM

A Norwegian Photojournalist by the name of Trond Soras recently is doing a photo journal on life along the Coast to Coast, Historic US Highway 50. He stopped for an intended overnight in La Junta, and he enjoyed himself so much he stayed for another 2 days.

His blog can be found at www.trondfoto.no/madevisible (http://www.trondfoto.no/madevisible - broken link) Some of the pictures on the blog are from La Junta. The first picture under "untitled" is Don Lowman, volunteer curator at the Otero Museum. The debate pictures are at the La Junta Elks Lodge, as well as Lloyd Mueller, Sr closing the bar at the Elks.

He started in Sacremento and will end his journey in Ocean City, MD.

Just another example of how stopping in a small town gives you a completely different perspective than simply driving through and forming opinions.

Once again, thanks McGowdog for starting the Thread....it has now spread to Norway!

Plain Jane 3953 · 10-21-2008, 04:13 PM

Fabulous buildings. That actually looks like a fascinating place to stroll around in. Gosh, it looks like one could see for miles. How lovely...

McGowdog · 10-21-2008, 05:52 PM

DOUBLE H · 10-22-2008, 07:12 AM

Lots and lots of cool pics there McGowdog! Been a few years since I've been through La Junta but it's a nice town. Good fishing at John Martin Reservoir east of town, and on 287 a little further east you have the Nee Noshe group with 2 reservoirs on each side of the highway.

McGowdog · 10-22-2008, 09:25 AM

Nee Granda and Queens to be exact. Go to my Wiley McClave Hasty thread to see pics of the former. Those three are way down, but still bigger than your average Colorado pond.

Thanks for checkin' them out. I didn't realize I had so many photo threads. After seeing Vegaspilgrims post, I got the idea to put them all in one place. 26 and counting! I must like taking pictures or something.