Day 10: Bent’s Old Fort | 1933 Harley-Davidson VL Cross-Country Ride | Riding Vintage

Day 10: Bent’s Old Fort

Day 10 of the 1933 Harley-Davidson VL cross-country ride carried us out of Kansas and into Colorado, with yellow butterflies on the highway, lunch in La Junta, a stop at Bent’s Old Fort, and a night at Lathrop State Park.

Crossing into Colorado after nine days of riding marked the beginning of the western mountain stage of the trip.

Day 10 Ride Stats

• Date: September 28, 2015
• Start: Garden City, Kansas area
• Finish: Lathrop State Park near Walsenburg, Colorado
• Distance: 240+ miles
• Route: Garden City west into Colorado, through La Junta, Bent’s Old Fort, Walsenburg, and Lathrop State Park
• Motorcycles: 1933 Harley-Davidson VL and 1934 Harley-Davidson VLD
• Gas added: 5.184 gallons total
• Oil added: 0.75 quart total
• Roadside issues: none noted

Day 10 Ride Journal

It took us nine days of riding, but now we are truly “out west.” After today’s ride we will reach our biggest challenge yet: the Rocky Mountains, which make the mountains back home look like mere hills. Even taking a route that keeps us at lower elevations, we are still going to be climbing over 10,000 feet to make it over some of the passes. The bikes have been running great so far, so I just hope it continues as we head up the mountains.

Right after crossing the state line, we rode across large sections of highway that were covered with swarms of yellow butterflies. I assume they were just warming themselves on the blacktop, but they were reluctant to move and we found ourselves plowing through a storm of yellow. Soon our bikes were covered with yellow smears and crumpled insect bodies, adding a little bit of color to the dust and grime accumulated over the last 1,500 miles.

Soon after the Colorado state line, yellow butterflies covered sections of highway and left the bikes streaked with yellow smears.

Although I could have just opened my visor and had a mouthful of butterflies, we decided to break for lunch in the town of La Junta. The first restaurant we came to was Boss Hogg’s Restaurant and Saloon, which of course brought back childhood memories of watching The Dukes of Hazzard. I kept my eye out for a white convertible Cadillac or an orange Dodge Charger, but the parking lot was just full of SUVs. Even without Daisy serving us lunch, the food was pretty good and after downing a couple of BBQ sandwiches it was time to get back on the road.

Boss Hogg’s Restaurant and Saloon in La Junta brought back Dukes of Hazzard memories before lunch and the ride toward Bent’s Old Fort.

Just northeast of town we stopped at another famous landmark on the Santa Fe Trail called Bent’s Old Fort. It was opened in 1833 by the Bent brothers, 100 years before my bike was built, and was originally designed as a trading post, not a military installation. The Bents became very successful, using their fort as a center for trade with the local Indian tribes, frontiersmen, and settlers traveling west. In its day, it was the tallest U.S. structure west of the Mississippi River.

Bent’s Old Fort near La Junta is the reconstructed 1833 trading post we visited along the Santa Fe Trail route.

The fort was restored in the 1970s using original drawings made during a survey of the property by the U.S. Army in the 1830s. The Park Service outdid themselves with the reconstruction, which also included furnishing all the rooms just as they would have been during the fort’s operation. I was pleasantly surprised that we were allowed to wander around the fort, including the upper levels, without being tied to a guide or forced behind safety chains. Besides the fort, there was also an Indian camp and a trapper’s camp a short hike away on the banks of the Arkansas River.

The restored rooms inside Bent’s Old Fort were furnished to match the fort’s operating years, and visitors could wander without being tied to a guide.

We spent a couple hours at Bent’s Old Fort before heading west again to Walsenburg and ultimately to Lathrop State Park for the night. This was the first campground where we’d encountered pay showers. Unlike a pay car wash, these showers did not have a timer or a beeper to let you know when your time was almost up. So that meant I ended up walking back to the tent with a head full of soap. Everything else was top notch, even though our campsite looked like the perfect habitat for Crotalus atrox. Luckily I didn’t even hear a single rattle during our stay.

Lathrop State Park near Walsenburg was the first pay-shower campground of the trip, and the campsite inspired a rattlesnake-habitat joke.

Another 240+ miles in the rearview mirror today.

The Day 10 DeLorme accumulated route map shows the newest westward segment from the Garden City area into Colorado, through La Junta and Bent’s Old Fort, toward Walsenburg and Lathrop State Park.

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