One Colorado river valley has a working steam railroad, Ancestral Puebloan ruins, and zero guardrails

Where the Old West never really left

Durango sits in a valley at 6,512 feet in southwest Colorado, ringed by the San Juan Mountains and cut through by the Animas River.

About 19,000 people live here year-round, but close to a million visitors show up every year, drawn by a steam railroad that has run without interruption since 1882, cliff dwellings a half-hour down the road, and a mountain highway so dramatic it barely has guardrails.

There’s a lot packed into one small town, and the best parts take some time to find.

The railroad that silver built and steam still powers

Durango didn’t grow on its own. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad founded the town in 1880 specifically to move ore from the booming silver and gold mines of the San Juans.

Within a year, 2,400 people lived here, working smelters, mines, and the rail line. Former Colorado territorial governor A.C. Hunt picked the name, saying the country reminded him of Durango, Mexico.

By the early 1900s, the mines were slowing, and the town turned toward what surrounded it on every side.

45 miles of canyon on a coal-fired train from 1920

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has made the 45-mile run to Silverton every year since 1882, which makes it one of the longest-continuously operating steam railroads in the country.

Coal-fired locomotives built in the 1920s pull you through the San Juan National Forest along the Animas River. A crew of about 500 laborers cut the route into steep granite canyon walls in nine months.

The waterfalls, gorges, and high peaks along the way can’t be reached by road. The only way to see them is from the train.

Cliff Palace held 150 rooms before Columbus was born

Mesa Verde National Park sits about 35 miles west of Durango and protects close to 5,000 archaeological sites, 600 of them cliff dwellings.

The Ancestral Pueblo people lived here for over 700 years, from roughly 500 AD to 1300 AD.

Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America, contains more than 150 rooms and over 20 ceremonial chambers called kivas, all built from sandstone and tucked under overhanging cliffs that have shielded them for centuries.

It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and ranger-guided tours run from spring through fall.

The highway with no guardrails and a disputed name

North of Durango, U.S. Highway 550 becomes the Million Dollar Highway, a 25-mile stretch between Silverton and Ouray that climbs over Red Mountain Pass at more than 11,000 feet. Hairpin turns. Steep drop-offs. Stretches with no barrier between you and the canyon.

Nobody fully agrees on where the name came from, with theories ranging from construction costs to gold ore in the road fill dirt.

This stretch is part of the 233-mile San Juan Skyway, a loop that threads through former mining towns and national forest and ranks consistently among the most scenic drives in the country.

A roadside hot spring coated in orange and red minerals

About 15 miles north of Durango on Highway 550, a vivid, mineral-stained mound rises right off the roadside.

In 2001, the Colorado Department of Transportation stacked rocks and piped geothermal water across the highway to stop road damage, and over time, mineral-rich water coated everything in layers of orange, red, green, and yellow travertine from iron oxides, sulfur, and calcium.

James Harvey Pinkerton settled this spot in 1875 and once ran a bathhouse here before it burned down. Today it’s free, open year-round, and worth every minute you spend pulling over.

Gold Medal trout water runs straight through downtown

The Animas River flows from headwaters above 11,000 feet in the San Juans and cuts right through the middle of Durango.

A four-mile stretch through town carries Gold Medal status for trout fishing, meaning it holds large populations of quality rainbow and brown trout.

The river also handles everything from easy family floats to Class IV and V whitewater for experienced paddlers.

Kayakers, tubers, and paddleboarders share the water through the warmer months, and Durango’s Whitewater Park adds built-in river features for paddlers right in town.

Seven miles of paved trail, eight bridges, zero street crossings

The Animas River Trail runs over seven miles through Durango’s river greenway, paved and open to walkers, runners, cyclists, and skaters.

The path crosses eight bridges and four underpasses without touching a single street. Between 1,000 and 1,500 people use it daily.

Along the way you’ll pass the public library, the Powerhouse Science Center, the Durango Botanic Gardens, and public art installations and mosaics that tell pieces of local history.

It connects parks and open spaces that would otherwise take a car to reach.

The Strater Hotel has anchored Main Avenue since 1887

Durango’s downtown is a nationally registered historic district with over 200 shops, galleries, and restaurants along Main Avenue. The street plan the railroad company drew up in 1880 still holds.

The Strater Hotel opened in 1887 and still anchors the historic core with its Victorian architecture.

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad depot sits right at the edge of downtown, and attached to it, the Roundhouse Museum is the only one in the world housed inside a working narrow gauge roundhouse.

Admission to the museum is free.

1.8 million acres of wilderness starts at the edge of town

San Juan National Forest covers roughly 1.8 million acres of mountains, forests, and meadows around Durango.

The Colorado Trail, a 500-mile route from Denver to Durango, ends right here in town after crossing eight mountain ranges and seven national forests.

Closer in, trails like Animas Mountain, Horse Gulch, and the Centennial Nature Trail cover a range of skill levels. The forest is home to elk, mule deer, black bear, and mountain lion.

In winter, Purgatory Resort about 25 miles north runs skiing and snowboarding with views of the Needles Range.

The Ute, the miners and the cliff builders all lived here

Durango sits in a region layered with human history going back centuries before the railroad arrived.

The Ute people inhabited this land long before European settlement, and the Southern Ute Indian Reservation still borders Durango to the south.

Fort Lewis College, originally founded as a boarding school for American Indians in 1891, sits on a mesa above town.

Within a 100-mile radius, you can explore Mesa Verde, Chimney Rock National Monument, and Aztec Ruins National Monument.

The Animas Museum in Durango traces this whole arc, from Ancestral Puebloans through the mining era.

A town that keeps punching well above its weight

Durango has a population of about 19,000 and an outdoor reputation that most Colorado cities twice its size can’t match.

The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic sends cyclists on a 50-mile race against the train to Silverton every year. The Snowdown winter festival draws crowds every February.

Durango anchors the southern end of one of the most concentrated collections of scenic drives, national parks, and historic landmarks in the American West, and the combination of a walkable historic core, a river in the center, and wilderness on every edge makes it unlike most mountain towns its size.

Visit Durango Welcome Center in Colorado

You can start your visit at the Durango Welcome Center at Main Avenue and 8th Street, which carries maps, Mesa Verde tour tickets, and local recommendations.

Durango-La Plata County Airport serves the area with flights from several major carriers, and by car you can reach it via U.S. Highway 550 from the north or U.S. Highway 160 from the east and west.

Summer and early fall cover the widest range of activities, but winter brings skiing at Purgatory and the train’s winter excursions to Cascade Canyon.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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