800 miles round trip to Durango, Ouray

[matthew1]

Matthew's Beef Jerky Law: the smallest, least-cosmopolitan gas stations have the best beef jerky. It's an inverse relationship.

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Looking west from our Durango hotel.

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Train station: Durango-Silverton train. "The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad operates a historic, coal-fired steam train along a stunning 45.4-mile route through the San Juan Mountains and Animas River Gorge. The 9-hour roundtrip departs Durango at 9:00 AM, arriving in Silverton for a two-hour layover before returning at 6:15 PM."

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Strater Hotel. We stayed here two years ago. It's the go-to hotel for train riders. The whistle wakes you up every morning at 8am sharp.

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Durango is for the most part working class and college, not at all a ski town, though Purgatory is ~30 minutes north. It has several blocks of tourist/train tourist attractions, and the rest, 95%, is normal middle-class quiet neighborhoods.

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I wouldn't call it a high-trust society like I do Telluride, but it's head and shoulders ahead of Denver and Denver suburbs. Very relaxed, not a worry in the world. Lots of families with kids walking, playing, kids out playing by themselves. 5/5, would recommend. I can't say enough good things about Durango, and that includes the average temperature, which is 7-8°F cooler than Denver, with more summer rain.

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This crepes cart owner is a riot. He owned an Aspen restaurant for a decade but got tired of babysitting celebrities. Worked in Club Med in the Bahamas in the early 1970s. Been everywhere. Full of stories, great fun to speak with.

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Purgatory ski area.

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Then we toured Ft. Lewis College. There is a neglected chapel on the west edge of the campus, and it's at the edge of the FLC property which itself is on a bluff overlooking the town. Probably +700 feet give or take.

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BlackBart, I'm here to report to you there is exactly 0 architectural orthodoxy in Durango. No two houses look the same. Go 75 miles south where you're well into NM and any average town will have ~50% adobe, and as much as maybe 85-90%. Even Santa Fe's post office and government buildings are adobe. Durango has no adobe anything.

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Durango Hot Springs...

My son and I were sitting in a 105° hot springs pool in a cool light rain, 60° weather. Perfect evening combo. Two years ago here we were there in the afternoon and it was hot sun and hot water, which is a little too much hot for me even with their 45° cold plunge pool.

Back to our hotel we had our seat heaters on for the 20 minute drive.

Durango Hot Springs has a photo of Marilyn Monroe on the wall when she visited it long ago.

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Ouray for a night at the Wiesbaden Hotel, natural hot springs-fed pool, about 100°F. And my favorite, a hot springs-fed VAPOR CAVE in the basement, water from the ground around 115° I'd estimate. It's literally a cave under the hotel. Low-ceiling cave with a small pool and max humidity. There's also showers/robes/towels/cold water/rest room. If more people went there I don't think they could run it. NYC lawyers would get rich suing them.

There's no observation, no lifeguards, no cameras, no attendant. You're on your own and you better not pass out in the cave and if you do you'd better hope some hotel guests find you. And that's just exactly the way I want it to be. I don't want Big Brother to police me everywhere I go because that shaves off all the fun edges from society. I like responsibility. I'm a responsibility enjoyer.

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Bear(s) tried to get into the trash the night we stayed there. I heard a dog barking at the bear(s) around maybe 2-4am.

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[BlackBart]

Funny I should just pop in here and you've just posted this! The Inverse Jerky Rule is interesting, I've never tested that! Why is jerky always associated with long road trips through the middle of nowhere? And where is nowhere exactly...

I don't know much about Durango really. My (much) older brother lives maybe 25 miles west.
When I was little my dad took us through Durango (on the way to Mesa Verde?) We went to the SW a lot. He got a room in a classic old brick hotel downtown, which surprised me, he was more of a Best Western Motel guy. You could sit in a window and watch people and cars down on the main drag. Maybe this?? We were way off the street.

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or...??

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I remember very clearly figuring out how to whistle while I looked out the window. I even remember the song.

The zero Architectural orthodoxy is interesting, you don't see that often. I'd say the SW was heavily influenced by the Spanish, but before that the ancient tribes - that's where the adobe and the flat roofs came from, heat.
Most of those mountain mining towns were of an era when they were heavily Victorian in style, 1850-1900 when the early gold and silver booms were. They really wanted to show off that they had arrived and were making real money, so ornate buildings and grand hotels were the ticket.

That translates down to humble mining shacks and small houses - steep gable roofs (partly for the snow) with overhangs, tall windows, porches. In Steamboat where my brother lived forever, all the old houses were white wood with very steep metal gable roofs in bright silver galvanized. Heavy snow loads.

Now these places have things like this popping up.... this is Durango. what exactly do we call this stuff? "Mountain Modern?"

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I think I left before babysitting celebrities was a thing. Before celebrities in the mountains were a thing. Aspen was a Victorian mining town next to a fantastic ski hill, clear blue sky, and town square park with old VW buses lined up around it and hippy kids living in them. Can you imagine now? Aspen??

The only reason I've heard of Ft Lewis College is there is a soccer pipeline to Missoula where coaches and top HS players have conveyor-belted down there to win championships.

It's so dry and crumbly rocky! (uh, ROCKY mountains, dummy). I've been in the NW and Western MT so long now I'm always surprised how dry Colorado is.

Nice ski fence! I think it's funny that they're all nice matching pairs, like they've lived there a long time and all their friends dropped off obsolete pairs! You could probably trace the modern era of skiing with that fence!

OH, caves!... there is a place in MT with a grand old hotel where people would stay in order to go down into the closed Gold and Uranium RADON mines to "take the vapors "(!). It was supposed to heal many ailments they thought. It's RADIOACTIVE people! Can you imagine? They were paying to go in there. The Merry Widow Health Mine, the Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine.

Wow......

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[matthew1]

panos



Amazing 1950s chapel on the FLC bluff overlooking town.

Durango hotel room after 3 days

Route 550 "Million Dollar Highway" rest stop

Ouray hotel

[matthew1]

map


https://maps.app.goo.gl/7RwBAAZ93U33bDfa7

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[matthew1]

He got a room in a classic old brick hotel downtown, which surprised me, he was more of a Best Western Motel guy. You could sit in a window and watch people and cars down on the main drag. Maybe this?? We were way off the street.

I'd guess you stayed in the Strater Hotel. Late 1800s red brick. We stayed there in 2024.

Most of those mountain mining towns were of an era when they were heavily Victorian in style, 1850-1900 when the early gold and silver booms were. They really wanted to show off that they had arrived and were making real money, so ornate buildings and grand hotels were the ticket.

Interesting. Makes sense.

Now these places have things like this popping up.... this is Durango. what exactly do we call this stuff? "Mountain Modern?"

Sounds about right. From what I've seen at Vail, much of it was built 1970s-1990s, so the tear-down-build cycle hasn't hit close to the town center. Those existing homes are still there because the tear down/build new financial equation doesn't make sense yet. Farther outside the center you'll see these Mountain Modern homes because they're newer.

It was supposed to heal many ailments they thought. It's RADIOACTIVE people! Can you imagine? They were paying to go in there.

If you're not breathing it for months/years, radon is not a problem. Radon mitigation only started in earnest in the 1980s, so consider that people were breathing it for hundreds years, and more or less, not dropping like flies. As to the radon relaxation mine, it probably doesn't do much for health except kill weak bacteria if it's in direct contact (unlikely). Heck, uranium isn't harmful unless it's aerosolized, like radon.

[abscate]

. Heck, uranium isn't harmful unless it's aerosolized, like radon.

Or if you pack it too tightly into a box

[volvolugnut]

Back in the 80's and 90's my inlaws lived in Arvada, CO. My wife and I made many trips around Colorado (often in one of their cars). We visited Durango, Vail, Leadville, Golden, Crested Butte, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Montrose and others.
Lots of memories.
volvolugnut

[matthew1]

^ that's great! Do you have any photos from those trips?

. Heck, uranium isn't harmful unless it's aerosolized, like radon.

Or if you pack it too tightly into a box

What if that guy in the video ate a few U kilos, then washed it down with Mentos and Coca-Cola? Detonation?

[volvolugnut]

^ that's great! Do you have any photos from those trips?

No, I don't think any photos from those trips.
volvolugnut