Church of St. John the Baptist

In the small village of La Garita, located in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, is a church with historic value.

The “Capilla de San Juan Bautista” represents a Catholic church tradition that dates back to the 1870’s. The removal of the Southern Ute Tribe by treaty from this area opened the door for settlers and nearby mining activities. La Garita was selected to serve as a parish church, rectory and cemetery. On June 24, 1879, the original parish church was dedicated. The church served as the parish church for this area until 1895. The original building burned down in 1924. A new church was erected almost immediately but by the 1960’s had become abandoned. In 1973, a local women’s craft cooperative, called “Artes de Valle” took over the building to sell their wares, but by 2000, the building was once again abandoned, even though it had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2007, Father Joseph Vigil spearheaded a drive to restore the structure with significant donations from some local families. The building was then restored to its present condition and in 2012, the St. John Paul II Rosary Walk was completed on the east side and stands between the church and the Carneros Creek Cemetery.

The gleaming white walls and red roof, along with the unique steeple cross can be seen for some distance around and grabbed our attention as we headed into the La Garita mountains to climb some peaks. We were so impressed, we stopped here twice to collect a photo series of both the church and the rosary walk and beautiful displays of flowers located all about the walk.

HDR image taken in August of 2017.