Pagosa Springs is located in Southern Colorado in the San Juan Mountains at about 7,000 feet elevation. Overall, for Colorado, it has a milder climate because it’s just north of New Mexico, has over 300 days per year of sunshine and is located west of the continental divide.
Pagosa Springs, Colorado
The Ute word “Pagosah” means “healing waters”. The geothermal hot springs have been a driving reason for people to visit the area. The Mother Spring in Pagosa Springs is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Deepest Geothermal Hot Spring Aquifer” at a depth of over 1,000 feet. We didn’t visit the hot springs this trip because of COVID concerns.
Chimney Rock National Monument is a sacred site of the Ancestral Puebloans. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season.
The Navajo State Park was created after the completion of the Navajo dam in New Mexico. The San Juan River water backed up 35 miles into Colorado by the dam.
Pagosa Riverside Campground
They had full service and decent wifi. The sites were large and faced the San Juan river.
Exploring the area around Pagosa Springs was well worth it. Even though we were at the tail end of the fall foliage, the aspen trees were stunning with those Colorado blue skies.
It was still elk hunting season, so our hikes were limited when in the San Juan National Forest.
From a distance, we watched these two coyotes hunt for rodents. Jake loved it and we found it amusing also.
A Gray Jay, blue aster, and an apprehensive well hidden grouse.
A couple of years ago, we visited Treasure Falls in the spring and the amount of water was incredible. This fall, it was only a trickle.
Durango, Colorado
Durango is about an hours drive west from Pagosa Springs. The town was organized in 1880 to serve the San Juan Mining District. We were last in Durango about 2 years ago.
We wine tasted at Four Leaves Winery. They source their grape juice from Lodi, California. Although the wines were good, there wasn’t much individuality between the varietals, low tannins and acids, and low alcohol compared to the wines we tasted in Lodi.
The Jeep road to Snowstorm Peak took us to over 12,000 feet in altitude.
The views along the way were pure Colorado.
I’ve always enjoyed being at altitude above tree line in Colorado. We were surprised to see flowers still blooming in mid October above 12,000 feet.
Alpen Rose RV Park had full service but marginal wifi.
