Last Updated: July 20, 2026
Pagosa Springs sits at about 7,000 feet in the southern San Juan Mountains, tucked just north of the New Mexico border on the west side of the Continental Divide. That position gives it a milder climate than most of Colorado — over 300 sunny days per year and winters that don’t punish the way they do at higher elevations to the north. The town’s name comes from the Ute word “Pagosah,” meaning “healing waters,” a reference to the remarkable geothermal hot springs that have drawn people here for centuries. The Mother Spring in Pagosa Springs holds a Guinness World Record as the deepest geothermal hot spring aquifer on Earth, at over 1,000 feet deep. Combine that with its position as a gateway to the San Juan Mountains and Durango’s high-altitude Jeep country, and you have one of the most rewarding stops in all of southwestern Colorado.
