Journal 66: The Ever-Evolving Road to Pinehaven

If you stand at Pinehaven’s entrance today and listen carefully, you might hear an echo of every traveler who came before you. The entry may sit just off today’s Highway 12, the Highway of Legends, but it wasn’t always a simple turn off from a paved scenic byway.

Long before asphalt, guardrails, or roadside markers, this route began as an Indigenous trail threading through the mountains. Over time it became a rough dirt road, then evolved into Colorado State Highway 111, a rugged track that stretched from La Veta all the way to the New Mexico border.

That humble road shaped everything. It carried Ute Indians, Spanish explorers, homesteaders, ranchers, adventurers, and early tourists into the Cuchara Valley, slowly carving the corridor that would shape the region’s destiny. In fact, many of those early paths funneled travelers directly toward the very hillside where Pinehaven now sits, shaping the landscape long before a single cabin stood there.

So how did a dusty wagon trail transform into one of Colorado’s most iconic mountain highways? And how did each stage of its evolution leave a mark on Pinehaven and the valley surrounding it? Let’s take the journey and find out.

Indigenous Trail (1300 to 1870)

Long before Highway 12 wound its way past La Veta, Cuchara, and Stonewall, this corridor was part of a far older travel network shaped by the Núuchi-u (Ute) and other Indigenous peoples whose seasonal movements, hunting patterns, and trade routes carved the earliest paths through the southern Rockies. These were not engineered roads but narrow, well-traveled trails woven through meadows, ridge lines, and river corridors that often following the migrations of elk and bison, whose natural routes humans adopted over centuries. (1)   

The Spanish Peaks (Wahatoya) served as a major navigational landmark and spiritual waypoint, anchoring trails that connected high-country hunting grounds to lower-elevation wintering areas and to Pueblo settlements farther south and east. (2)   

Archaeologists have traced these routes across what we now call Cuchara Pass and the Purgatoire drainage, reminding us that long before pavement or survey markers, Indigenous travelers already knew the best way through this valley. (3)   By the time Euro-American road builders arrived, the basic route that would become Highway 12 was already an ancient pathway, shaped not by machinery, but by Indigenous stewardship, movement, and memory. (4) 

Spanish and Mexican Occupation (1700-1848)

To picture the Spanish and Mexican era along today’s Highway 12, imagine a landscape untouched by wheels, only narrow Indigenous footpaths winding through grasslands and timbered slopes. During this time, the corridor that would become Colorado Highway 12 was not a road at all, but a well-worn Indigenous trail system. Spanish parties entering the region in the early 1700s simply followed Ute and Apache paths through Cucharas Pass, the Cuchara Valley, and the Purgatoire drainage routes. These routes are described as narrow tracks shaped by centuries of foot travel and only widened where horses had passed before. (5 & 6)     Travelers often described the faint scent of piñon smoke drifting from distant camps, a reminder that these mountains had long been someone else’s homeland. The surrounding landscape was still wild and open, marked by buffalo grass, juniper, piñon, and the ever-guiding silhouette of the Spanish Peaks.

By the mid-1700s, the Comanche expansion turned this same corridor into one of New Spain’s busiest frontier routes. Travelers would have spotted thin columns of campfire smoke rising from Comanche horse camps tucked into the folds of the foothills. Along these dirt trails moved raiders, traders, and horse caravans, yet even with such activity, the path remained unengineered, bending with terrain, seasons, and water sources rather than colonial design. (7 & 8)     Even after Mexico assumed control of the region in 1821, the trail itself changed very little. Buffalo hunters, traders, and scouts passed through regularly, but the route remained what it had always been, a narrow, well-worn path shaped by footsteps and hooves rather than engineering.

The future Highway 12 thus remained a multi-tribal frontier trail, shaped primarily by Indigenous mobility well into the mid-19th century. (9)   The nomadic travelers of this era moved through the very stretch of valley that would one day cradle the Pinehaven community.

American Annexation (1848-1925)

When the United States assumed control of the territory in 1848, the corridor still looked more like wild backcountry than a future state highway. The untamed wilderness demanding grit from anyone who entered it. Instead of a graded road, travelers found a rough, meandering track, sometimes little more than a pair of wagon ruts cutting across open meadows before climbing toward the Spanish Peaks. Wagon wheels crunched over stone and sagebrush, creating the grinding rhythm that every homesteader on this trail came to know.

Early American soldiers, surveyors, and settlers followed this path not because it was engineered, but because it already existed. It has been shaped by centuries of Indigenous use and Spanish-era travel. Contemporary accounts describe a wild, uneven trace that bent around boulders, skirted stands of pine, and dipped toward water before rising again toward the passes. (10)  

By the 1850s, U.S. Army expeditions scouting the new territories pushed through this same corridor. These soldiers weren’t building roads, they were borrowing them. They widened wagon tracks only where necessary and relied heavily on Indigenous guides and long-established trails to navigate the mountains. (11) 

By the 1860s and 1870s, western expansion brought ranchers, timber crews, and miners into the area, giving the old trail new purpose. Wagons hauling supplies to Trinidad or La Veta carved deep ruts after rainstorms, while in dry seasons the path split into multiple parallel tracks, each snaking around obstacles in its own way. Small homesteads soon dotted the corridor, using the informal trail to move livestock, trade goods, and reach emerging market towns.

And then, in 1896, that same rugged trail carried Civil War Union veteran John L. Powell toward a destiny that would shape the very ground we now call Pinehaven. (12)   Arriving in a covered wagon, Powell followed the rutted frontier path into the valley, claimed his land through the Homestead Act, and began the patient work of taming the wild acreage our cabins now rest upon. His journey, made across that ancient and uneven trail, stands as a testament to the grit and hope of the people who believed this remote valley could become home.

Through all these changes, the corridor remained closer to a living frontier pathway than a modern road. It carried Native peoples, soldiers, homesteaders, and dreamers, John Powell among them, through the same valleys and passes. It would take decades more before the United States transformed this rugged, improvisational trail into a true highway. Yet every curve of pavement still echoes the journeys that came before it.

State Highway 111 (1920s)

Colorado’s State Highway 111 began life in the 1920s as one of the state’s early mountain highways. Back then it was a rugged route that ran all the way from the New Mexico border up through Stonewall, past Cuchara, and into La Veta. (13 &14) As it approached the vicinity of the present-day Pinehaven entrance, this old road made a sharp curve to cross the small stream. In spring, snowmelt often trickled over the dirt surface, turning the path into a muddy ribbon winding toward the hills. Locals came to refer to that spot simply as “the bend,” and by extension the creek running under the bend in the road was called “Bend Creek.” Every time we exit Pinehaven with Bend Creek on our right, we are reminded that this early alignment provided the first reliable vehicle access to the hillsides that would later become Pinehaven’s neighborhood roads.

By 1939, the state pushed the highway even farther, extending it north to meet SH 69, strengthening its role as a true north–south mountain corridor. Each improvement made Cuchara, and what would become Pinehaven, a little less remote. But the story didn’t stay that grand. By 1954 several factors resulted in SH 111 being scaled back dramatically and it was trimmed down to just a short stretch from U.S. 160 south to Cuchara. (15) That remaining piece was finally paved in 1963, giving Cuchara and Pinehaven a reliable modern road even as the original highway was disappearing piece by piece.

Then came a final twist. In 1964, the state extended SH 111 south again to Monument Lake, where it met SH 12. For a brief moment, the two highways literally ended at each other in the shadow of the Spanish Peaks. And then, in 1968, the name “SH 111” vanished altogether. The state renumbered the whole route as an extension of Highway 12, folding SH 111 into what is now the scenic Highway of Legends. In short, the road’s identity kept shifting, but its physical path remained the corridor Pinehaven depends on today.

Highway 12 (1939 – 1989)

Highway 12 first took shape in the 1920s. At that time, the route began in Stonewall and followed State Highway 111 eastward toward Trinidad and then on to La Junta. Over the next few decades, the highway evolved through several major changes. (16)    Across the next half-century, the road went through a series of upgrades and redesigns. Some were minor and some were transformative. Together, they stitched Highway 12 into the shape we recognize today:

• 1939: The stretch from Weston to Trinidad was fully paved.
• 1946: The entire route was paved.
• 1954: State Highway 111 was realigned, which left Highway 12 a “dead end” with no direct connection to another state highway.
• 1957: The section between Trinidad and La Junta was reassigned to U.S. Route 350.
• 1970: Highway 12 was extended north to meet U.S. 160.
• 1971: This new extension was paved.
• 1989: Highway 12 received its official designation as a Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway.

Little by little, the rough mountain route was becoming a true lifeline for the surrounding communities.

Today’s State Highway 12 starts its journey at the junction with U.S. Route 160 just north of La Veta. From there, it winds south through the heart of town before climbing into the San Isabel National Forest, slipping past Cuchara and skirting the edge of the Spanish Peaks Wilderness. The road then rises over Cucharas Pass and drops into Las Animas County, weaving through Monument Park before bending east near historic Stonewall Gap.

From that point on, Highway 12 follows the path of the Purgatoire River, rolling through the small mountain communities of Weston, Segundo, Valdez, Cokedale, and Jansen. Finally, after miles of scenery, stories, and changing landscapes, the highway comes to rest in Trinidad, where it meets Interstate 25 along with U.S. Routes 85 and 87. It’s more than a road, it’s a living ribbon of Colorado history, connecting valleys, towns, and generations. And today, Highway 12 carries tourists, hikers, photographers, and the occasional driver who slows to 10 mph the moment a deer looks at them.

Scenic Highway of Legends (Present)

When you drive the curves of Highway 12 today, you’re tracing footsteps far older than the road beneath your tires. The corridor that once carried Indigenous travelers, Spanish explorers, Mexican traders, and frontier homesteaders has become one of Colorado’s most celebrated roads, the Highway of Legends. It earns this name for good reason as the landscape is steeped in centuries of story: Ute spiritual traditions, Spanish folklore, frontier myths, and mining-era tales woven into every canyon and ridge (17).  

Its scenery is equally striking. The Spanish Peaks rise above volcanic dikes, deep forests, and sweeping valleys with geological features so dramatic that early travelers believed them to be supernatural landmarks (18).  

Along this route, layers of human history meet: Indigenous homelands, Spanish settlements, coal towns, and pioneer ranches form a cultural mosaic unmatched elsewhere in the state (19).   The corridor also remains a gateway to wildness, offering lakes, trails, wildlife habitat, and national forest land that continue to draw explorers as they have for generations (20).    

Given this rare blend of natural beauty, cultural depth, and enduring legend, it is no surprise that Highway 12 has earned both state and national scenic byway status (21).   For Pinehaven residents, Highway 12 is not just the road home, its a living timeline linking the community to centuries of story, culture, and landscape.

In all these ways, the road that leads to Pinehaven becomes a living archive where history, myth, and mountain landscape converge, reminding every traveler that some roads are not merely driven, but experienced. So pause for a moment the next time you enter Pinehaven. That simple turn off from Highway 12 has been a gateway for 700 years.(22)

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Footnotes

Parenthetical numbers in the text (e.g., 5) correspond to the sequentially numbered citations listed below.

1. James A. Goss, “Ute Trail Systems and Seasonal Movements,” in The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, ed. Richard O. Clemmer et al. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2011), 87–104.

2. Polly Schaafsma, Indian Rock Art of the Southwest (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1980), 55–57.

3.  William E. Vogt, “Trails Across the Southern Rockies: Indigenous Transportation Networks,” Colorado Archaeology 68, no. 2 (1992): 113–124. 

4.  Omer C. Stewart, Ute Indians: Before and After European Contact (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003), 45–48.

5.  Blackhawk, Ned. Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.

6.  Stewart, Omer C. Ute Indians: Before and After European Contact. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003.

7.  Hämäläinen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

8.  Vogt, William E. “Trails Across the Southern Rockies: Indigenous

9.  Simmons, Marc. Spanish Pathways to the Rockies. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2003.

10. Simmons, Marc. Spanish Pathways to the Rockies. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2003.

11. Weber, David J. The American Southwest, 1846–1850. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

12.  Gene & Rhonda Roncone, “Journal 4: From Battlefield to Backwoods: Homesteader John L. Powell,” Cabin in the Pines(blog), February 1, 2025, https://cabininthepinescuchara.blogspot.com/2025/06/part-4-homesteaders-dream-john-l-powell.html 

13.  Colorado Highways: Routes 100 to 119,” Mesalek.com, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.mesalek.com/colo/r100-119.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com#111

14.  David A. Mesalek, Colorado Routes 100–119, last updated October 2022, accessed July 12, 2025, https://www.mesalek.com/colo/r100-119.html. In the 1920s – SH 111 designated from NM border to La Veta. In 1954 – SH 111 truncated to Cuchara, and then in 1968 – SH 111 officially decommissioned and rebranded as part of SH 12. On February 16, 2021, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation elevated the Highway of Legends (SH 12) to a National Scenic Byway, making it one of Colorado’s 13 federally recognized routes. Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_State_Highway_12 

15.  Colorado’s former State Highway 111 was established in the 1920s as a north–south mountain route running from La Veta over Cucharas Pass to the New Mexico border. The state discontinued the highway’s southern half in 1953 because it was a lightly used gravel road that dead-ended at the state line, was expensive to maintain, especially during winter, and had no realistic prospect of connecting to a New Mexico highway. In addition, the closure of several mines along the route sharply reduced traffic, rendering the southern segment obsolete. After its removal from the state system, those portions of the route were transferred to county and local jurisdictions.

16.  “Colorado State Highway 12,” Wikipedia, last modified December 6, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_State_Highway_12

17.  National Scenic Byways Foundation. “Highway of Legends.” NSB Foundation. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://nsbfoundation.com/blog/highway-of-legends/

18.  Colorado Department of Transportation. “Highway of Legends Scenic Byway.” Colorado Scenic and Historic Byways. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://www.codot.gov/travel/colorado-byways/southeast/highway-legends. (Referenced for geological features, Spanish Peaks, volcanic dikes, and official scenic byway designation.)

19.  Highway of Legends Scenic Byway.” UncoverColorado.com. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://www.uncovercolorado.com/scenic-drives/highway-of-legends-byway/ 

20.  Highway of Legends Scenic Byway.” UncoverColorado.com. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://www.uncovercolorado.com/scenic-drives/highway-of-legends-byway/ 

21.  "Two New National Scenic Byways for Colorado". Colorado Department of Transportation. State of Colorado. February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2021.

22. Author’s note: In preparing this article, the author used AI-assisted tools for research support, proofreading, fact-checking, and stylistic refinement. The narrative, analysis, and historical interpretations are the author’s own, and responsibility for accuracy rests solely with the author. The blog’s research methodology statement is available at:

https://cabininthepinescuchara.blogspot.com/2019/03/methodology-sources-and-use-of-research.html