by Joy Gipson
TRINIDAD — Whether or not your time in Trinidad is limited, your best use of it would be a free trolley ride that gives you a one hour “crash course” on the architecture and local history of this historic city. The Trinidad trolley departs the Colorado Welcome Center, 309 Nevada Avenue, seven days a week, on the hour; Monday 10 am to 1 pm and Tuesday thru Sunday 10am to 2pm.
There are two different tours offered each day. The 11am and 1pm tours include the Ave Maria Shrine and the Mt. San Rafael Hospital where you may depart the trolley and get an informative talk by Matthew Zuniga, the pleasant and informative trolley driver, describing a 28′ x12′ mural, created by Sister Augusta Zimmer of the Sisters of Charity in the 1970’s. The second tour is basically the same, but substituted for the hospital and shrine is the Louden-Henritze Archeology Museum. This tour departs at 10 am, 12 pm and 2 pm.
One of the highlights of these tours is a fifteen minute stop at the Trinidad History Museum where you can stretch your legs while browsing through historic memorabilia of the prominent lives and lifestyles of Trinidadians in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Admission to the museum is free, so if fifteen minutes isn’t enough for you, feel free to return to the museum for a closer look at their beautiful displays. Don’t want to leave your dog in a hot car during your trolley ride? Dogs are welcome on the trolley, but must be on a leash and controlled at all times.
The tour takes approximately forty-five minutes. There are various trolley stops along the tour route where you are welcome to get on or off. The trolley tours have been operating for over 35 years. These tours are offered free to the public from Memorial Day, in the last week of May, through Labor Day, in the first week of September. For more information, call the welcome center at 719-846-9512.
