Ye Ha! Durango

Durango is a cowboy town. We spent a full week here taking care of business (escrow closed on our second rental property) and just enjoying the town. The downtown area is all centered on one street, main street, and what a fun street it is. Bars, Restaurants, a new release movie theatre, an artsy movie theatre, a vaudeville theatre, etc. all in one street within walking distance of each other. Fort Lewis college is also here so there's a decent amount of music, art and culture too. More importantly the people here are really friendly and down to earth. This is not Aspen or Vail, its still got the feel of a working persons town.

Our hangout was Diamond Belle's, a saloon right out of gunsmoke. Long mahogany bar top, naked lady portrait on the wall, server and bartender wearing old western outfits (wo ho), real cowboys hanging around having a beer, singer playing a guitar or piano at night, etc. It was part of the Strater Hotel, again authentic old west complete with outfits, where we ended up spending the night one night (a beer turned into another.....). In additon to the Bar, the Strater has a high end restaurant, a second appetizer, drinks and music bar with a more upscale theme and the vaudeville theatre.

The town is surrounded by national forest-- great 4x4, mountain biking, hiking, fishing, etc. -- ranches, farms and purgatory ski resort (renamed Durango Mountain Resort recently) is about a half hour from downtown. The animas river with whitewater rafting and a kayak challenge course runs right through the town. We really liked the area and would recommend a vacation here to anyone. If you do, try real hard to get rooms at the Strater. You will not be sorry.

We also decided this was probably not the place to settle down. We really liked it but it is surrounded by purple sage. If it was bugging my and Tracy's allergies this much in the fall, it would be totally miserable when it is pollenating season.

Still I would come back here for a week vacation in a second.



Oh yeah, while we were here we also went to Mesa Verde National Park. The tour of the ancient Cliff Dweller homes was great. Well worth the trip.