Durango 2010

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If you are looking for vacation for everyone, Durango Colorado is your place. You can go from desert to Mountain top in less than an hours drive. We left Texas and drive to Durango via Albuquerque. The drive from Albuquerque to Durango is amazing. You skirt the Santa Fe National Forest and drive through several Indian Reservations. The mountains and rock formations in this area are beautiful. The colors range from tan to red to a deep purple. This was a great surprise that we did not expect. When we arrived in Durango we hit the Walmart for groceries and headed north out of town to Purgatory where we stayed for the week.

Purgatory Village by itself was full of activities. Of corse it is a snow ski resort by Winter, but in the Summer they still run the ski lifts to the top of the mountain. They allow you to take your mountain bike to the summit and ride it down the trails and ski runs. You are also allowed to hike these trails. They run an Alpine Slide here in the Village as well. Between the Condos you will find a shopping center. They have have a small grocery store and several shops with anything from souvenirs to real estate to restaurantes. Coupled with the breath taking scenery and this is a wonderful vacation location.

Our first adventure in the Durango Area was the narrow guage train that runs from Durango to Silverton. The coal burning train will take you through incredible mountain passes. The train follows the Animas river through the San Juan Forest up to the small mining town of Silverton. This trip is worth taking your camera. You can see views that you can not see from the road and they are truely beautiful. Silverton is a small town with many restaurants and shops. We enjoyed lunch and some time to do some shopping before our return trip on the train to Durango. On our return trip we saw a black bear. We enjoyed our trip to Silverton via the train.

Our next trip was to the Mesa Verda National Park. This place is incrediable. I highly recomend you take the guided tours. The park rangers are very knowledgable about the Native Americans and their way of life. These trips are fist come, first serve and you should get their fairly early because the tours quickly fill up. We were able to visit the Balcouy house as well as the Cliff Palace. The park rangers can tell you about the native's way of life and how they survived by living in the cliffs in Mesa Verde. There are also several places on top of the mesa were the Native American's lived before they moved to the cliff dwellings.

Besides setting some time aside for fishing at Haviland Lake, we drove to Ouray, Colorado. It is completly obvious why this highway is called "the Million Dollor Highway." The scenery is breathtaking and it is well worth the trip. You will see many working and abandoned mines that dot the sides of the mountains. While in Ouray we visited the Box Canyon Waterfalls and the Bachelor-Syracuse Silver Mine. While the waterfalls were interesting, I would suggest you make sure to visit this silver mine. They will drive you into the mine on a mine car. The tour guide then explains the history of the mine and the mining techniques uses to extract the ore from the mine. It is very interesting as well as something your kids will never forget.

The Durango area is an wonderful place to visit. Make sure you have plenty of time to cover all of the interesting attractions.

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