We had just spent a week suffering through near record high summer temperatures in Santa Fe, NM, so we were excited for the change when Durango, CO greeted us with…a dangerous hailstorm.
I’m just kidding. It wasn’t actually nice. We had to pull over at one point, just a few minutes outside of town, because visibility was so poor. It’s too bad because, dangerous storms aside, it’s a lovely drive between the two cities. At any rate, we made it safely and spent a week in Durango. This was our second stop with Dave’s family; we stayed here because my BIL Craig wanted to visit and then added on Santa Fe because there was tons to do there and it was a reasonably close drive. Colorado was a new state for us, so that’s always pretty great.
There are a number of well-reviewed campgrounds in and around Durango, but my sister-in-law, Amy, found something even better: a rental house (which my father-in-law affectionally dubbed “The Yee-haw House” owing to its enthusiastic Western theming) with a parking space and hook-ups for an RV right in the driveway!
It was a pretty perfect set up. The kids could all hang out together, there was plenty of room in the house for everyone to spread out (the basement had a separate entrance, second kitchen, etc.), and Milo and Gus slept in the house to make the trailer a bit less crowded for the week.
Durango is a fun little city with tons to do…in particular for the more outdoorsy among us. We found the outdoorsy offerings sometimes a little intense for our skill level, though. I had a surprisingly hard time, for example, finding moderate hikes that everyone would enjoy (and when I did find them they sometimes involved scary sounding drives to get there, at least with our 2 wheel drive van which was already having some troubles on this trip). And then the weather didn’t always cooperate with outdoor activities, as we were there in June at the start of “monsoon season,” which doesn’t really involve what those of us in the southeastern US think of when we think of monsoons, but does involve a lot of somewhat unpredictable and sudden afternoon storms.
So Amy and Nana went horseback riding one day, and came back reporting that it was a pretty challenging ride but beautiful. And then Craig and their kids did a guided mountain bike ride one other day. While my own immediate family did not take full advantage of opportunities for outdoor adventure. We thought about tubing or rafting, but we got a bit nervous about expenses this week as we were already doing the very pricey train ride. So that’s something to mention: it’s very easy to spend money in Durango. Had this been our only week of vacation, more splurges would have made sense, but we had a lot of trip left ahead of us and a few other big ticket excursions to think about. So we spent a good bit of time relaxing in the Yee Haw house, interspersed with two big outings and several more low-key ones. One of the big outings was to Mesa Verde National Park, about an hour’s drive from Durango, which I’ll save for its own post. But here are the things we did in Durango itself.
Durango and Silverton Railroad
I spent a lot of time during the period between buying our train tickets and our actual train ride wondering whether the Durango and Silverton Railroad could possibly be worth the very high ticket price. We’re talking ticket prices approaching day at Disney World territory, after all. And? …it’s a stunning ride, and I’m very glad we did it. Once at least.
They call this the most scenic train ride in America, and I’m not going to argue with them. The train climbs up into the Rocky Mountains and clings impossibly to the side of a cliff while you gaze down into a gorge at the Animas River very, very far below.
There are two main options for the Durango train: you can go all the way to Silverton and back–3 1/2 hours each way with a 2 hour layover in Silverton–or you can take the Cascade Canyon route, around 5 hours total, with a one hour stop for lunch at Cascade Canyon. We opted for the shorter train ride, mostly for practical reasons (money, younger kids getting bored, etc.) My understanding is that you get all the spectacular scenery on both train rides, so the main thing you’re missing with the shorter one is Silverton itself.
We booked an open air gondola car, where you sit on benches facing outward. There are enclosed cars, too, which you might want in colder weather, but the views are definitely the best from the open air cars. They sell boxed lunches, but we packed our own picnic lunch. We did take advantage of the snack bar, though, and, in particular the refillable mugs they sell. We bought two to share between the five of us and spent the trip getting it refilled with hot chocolate, sodas, coffee, etc. It was a chilly day, so an endless supply of warm drinks was very nice. The lines do get long for the snack stand, so it’s a good idea to get in line as soon as it opens.
We had no idea what seats to pick when we were buying tickets, but we ended up on the right side of the train, which meant we got most of the best views on the way up and were staring at a rock wall for a lot of the way back down. I’d do it the same way again, as the train excitement has waned a bit by the time you’re on the way back anyway.
The lunch stop in Cascade Canyon is a lovely little interlude. There are a few picnic tables, but those get snatched up pretty fast. We tried crossing a bridge and sitting on some rocks right by the river, but found the bugs a little overwhelming and moved to another spot. We at the lunch we’d packed and then the kids spent some time on logs jutting out into the river, which made Nana very nervous.
And then someone offered to take our picture on the train. This is everyone except Craig, who thought picture time was over already and had left:
The ride back, honestly, felt a little…long. We were seeing the same stuff, only not as good since we were on the cliff side! But we did have time to chat with one of the conductors, which was cool.
Roundhouse Museum
If you haven’t gotten enough of trains after your train ride, you can also visit the free Roundhouse Museum to see an eclectic collection of train stuff and lots of other stuff from Durango’s history.
James Ranch
James Ranch is a regenerative farm outside of Durango, with a very pretty backdrop:
Be prepared to spend a lot of money there, between the excellent restaurant and the market with a great selection of local goods:
They also offer walking tours for a fee, but we opted for the free self guided tour instead. You follow a path around a small area of the farm and read all about the sustainable agricultural practices they have going on, and also you get to pet some goats.
The Powerhouse Science Center
The Powerhouse Science Center is a small science museum in the downtown area where we spent part of one rainy afternoon. It’s aimed more at younger kids, but there was a traveling exhibit on the history of guitars while we were there that kept the big kids occupied for awhile.
Other than those things, we spent a good bit of time wandering around downtown, shopping, getting ice cream, walking along the river, etc. There’s a walking/bike path along the river that would have made for a lovely ride if we’d had bikes with us. This friendly dog helps to sell rugs:
One thing we noted about Durango was that it was surprisingly hard to eat out with our group of 11. At least two restaurants just flat out wouldn’t seat large groups and seemed sort of surprised that we would even ask. Like here’s the famous Diamond Belle Saloon, where you absolutely cannot eat with groups bigger than…I think they said 6?
That one made sense because it’s a small space in a historic building, but other places surprised us a bit. So something to be aware of!
Next up: Mesa Verde National Park
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