La Veta Pass bridges the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between the Eastern Plains and the San Luis Valley. This is the modern route, more properly known as North La Veta Pass, elevation 9,413 ft. US Highway 160 travels through the pass connecting Walsenburg and eastern Colorado with Alamosa, Monte Vista, South Fork, Pagosa Springs, and Durango.

Travelling west from Walsenburg the highway crosses the broken plateau of western Huerfano County, passing on the south side of Mt. Mestas and rising along its' flank to the top of the pass.

It's a long climb up the hill but the scenery is excellent. Mt. Mestas (to the north) is almost entirely BLM land, meaning it's almost entirely public property. There are a lot of elk and Bighorn sheep on the mountain but accessing the property for hunting purposes isn't easy: there's only one place where the BLM boundary touches the US highway right-of-way and that place isn't marked. Parking in that area isn't recommended anyway. Everything to the south is private property, as is most of the land directly against the highway on the north side. That explains the beautiful homes and log cabins on the hills above the highway, high enough to get views across the top of the pass to the Blanca Massif and eastwards across the Spanish Peaks to the valley of the Arkansas and the Great Plains. Imagine... you don't have to: if you drive the pass from west to east you'll get almost the same eastern view as they do. And as soon as you reach the summit going west...

Before too long, the top arrives and the western vistas open up. It doesn't take too long though and you are down below the surrounding hills and the views close in again. But while you are in that wide open bowl at the top, Pass Creek Road heads off to the north and that's a simply gorgeous drive through some wild country into the Upper Huerfano Valley. As a shortcut from US 160 at La Veta Pass to State Highway 69 at Gardner, this beautiful drive on good roads is highly recommended.