Experience the best of Durango

Durango was founded in 1880 as a railroad town for the silver mines of the San Juan Mountains, and its Main Avenue still has Victorian brick buildings, saloons and hotels from that time. A coal-fired narrow-gauge steam train, running since 1882, chugs up the Animas River canyon to the mining town of Silverton, through scenery of high peaks and gorges.

Mesa Verde National Park, with its Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, lies about an hour west of town. The Animas River runs through Durango, popular for rafting, tubing and fishing, and the San Juan National Forest has trails, lakes and ski runs at Purgatory, north of town. The Million Dollar Highway to Silverton and Ouray crosses high passes, and Chimney Rock and Four Corners are in reach.

South-western cooking here means green chile smothering burritos, craft beer from local breweries, grilled trout and elk burgers, with hot-spring soaks after a long day. Summer is warm and sunny, autumn aspens turn gold, and winter brings deep snow to the mountains.