The First Trail
I've mentioned a couple of times that we went to Colorado without much of a plan or agenda. We just knew that we were going to have four days around Durango, but we had no idea what we were going to do with them. We ultimately worked it out with the help of the people in the San Juan National Forest headquarters just outside beautiful downtown Durango, who pointed us here.
This is near the start of the Purgatory Trail, accessed just off US 550 about 15 miles north of Durango. The highway at that point is running along a little hanging valley, so that the trailhead sits at an elevation of 8,770 feet above sea level. According to the trail description we picked up from the Forest Service, the trail would run east and drop us quickly 700 feet farther down into a portion of the valley of Cascade Creek called the Purgatory Flats. From there, we'd turn south and follow Cascade Creek to its confluence with the Animas River. The trail description was a little vague on some things, but the way it read, it seemed like that confluence would be about three miles away, which would make a full round-trip six miles. Which is a good hike.
The view here was taken from a rocky outcrop where we had lunch about 500 feet down the valley of Cascade Creek at an elevation of 8,290 feet. I'm looking south down the valley, which is still off to the left and 300 feet below me. The confluence with the Animas is somewhere on the other side of that curve in the valley you see up ahead, though if you think you're only going three miles, you feel like it should be right there.
The First Trail
I've mentioned a couple of times that we went to Colorado without much of a plan or agenda. We just knew that we were going to have four days around Durango, but we had no idea what we were going to do with them. We ultimately worked it out with the help of the people in the San Juan National Forest headquarters just outside beautiful downtown Durango, who pointed us here.
This is near the start of the Purgatory Trail, accessed just off US 550 about 15 miles north of Durango. The highway at that point is running along a little hanging valley, so that the trailhead sits at an elevation of 8,770 feet above sea level. According to the trail description we picked up from the Forest Service, the trail would run east and drop us quickly 700 feet farther down into a portion of the valley of Cascade Creek called the Purgatory Flats. From there, we'd turn south and follow Cascade Creek to its confluence with the Animas River. The trail description was a little vague on some things, but the way it read, it seemed like that confluence would be about three miles away, which would make a full round-trip six miles. Which is a good hike.
The view here was taken from a rocky outcrop where we had lunch about 500 feet down the valley of Cascade Creek at an elevation of 8,290 feet. I'm looking south down the valley, which is still off to the left and 300 feet below me. The confluence with the Animas is somewhere on the other side of that curve in the valley you see up ahead, though if you think you're only going three miles, you feel like it should be right there.