Durango, Colorado

Downtown Durango is one of those places where you feel like you'd be at home on a Sunday morning just strolling down the sidewalk, enjoying the sun, and not having a care in the world. Do a little shopping, maybe grab a beer (ok, maybe it's Saturday), and just enjoy yourself. To sum it up, I loved Durango.

Chimney Rock in the center, Companion Rock to the right

It's a great day trip from Pagosa, and an easy drive that's about an hour long. Plus on the way down 160 you can take in a great view of Chimney Rock and Companion Rock. If you don't want to just grab a picture from the side of the road and want to have a fuller Chimney Rock experience, you can do that too. Highway 151 will take you to the Visitor's Center where you can grab a guided or self-guided tour for $12. Guided tours will offer more of a complete visit of the grounds, including ancient structures of the Ancestral Puebloans. Self-guided tours are limited to the Great Kiva Trail. Four guided tours are offered each day, self-guided tours are available 10:45 - 2:45. There are also some special tours such as the Full Moon Tour. Through October 1-May 14 there is limited access to Chimney Rock and the gates are closed to vehicles.

Durango Train Station

So let's get to downtown Durango. We started at Main Street by the Durango Train Station. The station has a museum and gift shop, and is the starting point for the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad trips. There are several tours leaving the station, going through the San Juan Forest and along the Animas River. Be aware that the normal train route is abbreviated November through May and does not go all the way to Silverton and instead stops at the Cascade Station. Check for schedules and rates. Even if you don't plan on taking a train ride, the station is beautiful and worth a stop.

We walked down Main Street just going into any store that caught our interest. There are a ton of souvenir shops and I went into nearly every one of them. I'm a sucker for those types of stores. Good thing I was with someone very patient! Just as plentiful are the sports and ski shops. There are four major breweries in Durango, and one of them is on Main Street - Carver Brewing. I'm not much of a beer drinker, so I'm not the best to comment on the breweries, plus this was the only one we went into. The other ones in Durango are Ska Brewing, Steamworks Brewing, and Durango Brewing. Carver, Steamworks, and Durango serve food as well, but the menus are limited.

The "trail" we followed

A cave we climbed down into

After shopping and enjoying downtown we got back in the car and headed out on highway 550 about 30 miles to Cascade Falls. The entrance was all snowed in but we went down the road a little ways and just parked in the middle since no one else was around. But apparently if you keep going down the road you come to a red gate that you can open and go through and park at the Cascade Creek trialhead. From there there are two trails, one on each side of the creek - the trail on the west side is the better of the two. However, we just roamed off on some trail through the snow that a bunch of other people had made and wound our way down the side of the gorge until we reached the waterfall. The entire waterfall was frozen, and you could tell people had been ice climbing on it. It was beautiful. The hike wasn't particularly easy, the snow made it slippery and it was very steep. But we stumbled upon a little cave with giant icicles on the way that was very cool. The hike back up was worse and I really felt the altitude on this one. Dearly missed the oxygen saturated air of home.

Cascade Falls covered in ice

After a hike that nearly killed me we headed back to town for some lunch. Serious Texas Bar-B-Q. Oh. My. Heavens. I had the most amazing food! The menu isn't too big but all you need to know is Texas Taco. Chopped bar-b-q, cheesy potatoes, onions and jalapenos (not for me though) on a soft flour tortilla. Splash some of their bbq sauce on there and you'll be in heaven. Plus - if you're a southerner having sweet tea withdrawals, their sweet tea is spot on. So have all the beer you want at the breweries, but seriously...have some Serious Texas Bar-B-Q.

I would have loved to have had more time in Durango. It would be great to spend a week just exploring in the surrounding mountains. There are also hot springs in Durango - Trimble Hot Springs and one on the side of 550 that's actually quite beautiful. You don't soak there, but we pulled over to take a closer look and some cool pictures. No matter what you're doing though, Durango is sure to please!