People have said we should go to Pagosa Springs as part of our travels to CO sometime. So I have been kinda looking at it and looking for info as to why we should go there. We love hiking, paved or unpaved (even high clearance what with the 4wd truck) - natural beauty.Even their city website hardly lists anything along those lines.Eating out or "fancy" hot springs is near the bottom of our personal list of things we just have to do. We want a FHU park as a base and it can be there or somewhere near there.So thought I would ask here. Best source of info I know.Thanks.Be safe.

Pagosa Springs is good for a visit to say "been there, done that". But it is really a very touristy town. And the hot springs is the major attraction best as I can tell. And we have been several times.For natural beauty, hiking trails, mountain drives, etc in that same general area, I would be more inclined to recommend Lake City. Beautiful area and not nearly the number of tourist as Pagosa as it is off the beaten path. Some 4 wheel roads that would be best to rent a local jeep for rather than take your own truck.In the link above, you can click on the arrow on the left side of the top picture and scroll thru the other pics. And click on each pic for additional info for each activity.

Hey Lauren,The hot springs in town are fun, but unless one is really in to hot springs, it's a one time thing for most folks. However...H E R E is an interesting place to consider staying, looks like reasonable rates, and there's some hiking info on their website.And H E R E is a resource I've used before (alltrails.com) to evaluate hiking trails, since there are so many up here in northern Colorado. And H E R E is another resource for day hikes in and around the Pagosa Springs area. Looks like there could be enough to keep you busy for a bit!!:D

I've been thru there several times and don't remember ANYTHING worth seeing there.

We know we will be going to Ouray again and then we thought we would go to Chama, NM (never been there). Was looking for something in between. Could do Durango again but not all that excited about that. We were afraid we would miss something we would regret the rest of our lives! :-) Unless there is a really special thing or hike we might just do the over night one of those places.

In the immediate vicinity of Pagosa the scenery isn't as good as when you get closer to the mountains. We weren't fans of the hot springs pool either. The hiking trail south off of Wolf Creek Pass is pretty tame grade-wise, and you're already high up, so once you clear the trees, you have good views. All along the ridge, you'll look down to the east at Wolf Creek Ski area.A quick drive up CR 402 on the north side of Wolf Creek Pass takes you to a view point looking north. We haven't been there since the fire of June 2013 when the actually closed US 160 and CO 149 briefly from time to time. One time we had to drive way up past Williams Creek Reservoir to find a campsite. Pretty area as you get higher up. There's a trailhead at the end of the road heading into the San Juans but we didn't get to it. I do seem to recall seeing some horse trailers there, so the trail conditions may be affected by that. In mid summer, the flowers will be out and there are lots of meadows on that road.On our to do list is a much more in depth exploration of the Southern San Juans, those mountains south of Wolf Creek Pass. Pretty wild area down there.

Pagosa Springs, CO | Good Sam Community

4runnerguy
Explorer
May 21, 2016
jolooote wrote:
If in Durango make SURE to ride the World famous narrow gauge steam train to Silverton!!! A once in a life time event.
Been at least six times I can think of starting in 1964! (PS, not always with Allison! Shhh!)
ngreen
Explorer
May 26, 2016
We stayed at Pagosa Riverside resort, pretty park right on a small river. But we didn't stick around the town, charged our batteries, filled water and went to Teal campground on a reservoir north west of town. Beautiful area but no hook ups
Lauren
Explorer
May 26, 2016
We have been to all the other towns around there; some many times. Was just wondering about Pagosa.
jrp
Explorer
May 29, 2016
Lauren wrote:
We have been to all the other towns around there; some many times. Was just wondering about Pagosa.

Pagosa is a typical mountain tourist town. Its got lots of nice restaurants, specialty shops, and the hot springs. Its also got the San Juan River flowing right through town, which is kayakable during the spring runoff. They have a nice town park right along the river.
If you're not into the attractions around town, the other reason to go to Pagosa is access to the Weminuche wildeness area. this is the largest wilderness area (500,000 acres) within Colorado. lots of great hiking, fly fishing and off roading outside the official wilderness area.
2gypsies1
Explorer III
May 29, 2016
We love Pagosa Springs but it more for the outdoorsman rather than a tourist spot. We enjoy hiking, the San Juan River, fishing, and especially the hot springs after a work-out day. We've also played pickleball with the locals in the gym. If you want lots of tourist-type shopping it doesn't have it.
Lauren
Explorer
May 29, 2016
We are pretty much tourist town'd out having lived in Estes Park for 8 years!

And we eat about 99% of our meals at the 5th wheel - we were never ones for fancy restaurants or even restaurants at all for that matter. I grill a lot. But we love to go out for coffee mid mornings a lot.

Give us a good hike or day trip in the back country in the 4wd truck, a good shower and clean up (hot tub first if available), and dinner. Then Barbara goes into her passion - reading. And I usually work on my pictures or read.

Obviously, we do not hike to the level we used to. But I don't run marathons and 50K and 50 mile races anymore (gave that up in my mid 50's).

If I feel a need to get sick, we turn on the news on tv. We could care less if we get tv.

Thanks all for the info. Will look into the hiking aspect and most likely stay a couple days.

Side comment......... about a year ago the Publisher of a newspaper asked me to describe myself. In all my years and all my corporate marketing, travel, involvement in many varied things I was never asked that. And all of you might think about it sometime for yourselves for fun.

My answer that took me about a minute to reply was (and I had never had ever thought about it before) was, "I am an outgoing introvert."

She waited about 20 seconds or so and replied, "Then you must be a man very much at peace with himself."

Bingo. Yup.

And personally, I think many of you RVers out there are the same way.

IMHO.

Sorry I digressed. :-)

Forum Discussion

Pagosa Springs, CO

About Campground 101

Related Content

Route to Pagosa Springs, CA

Pagosa Springs, CO to South Fork, CO-Hwy 160

South Fork to Pagosa Springs

Broken Leaf Spring

Hwy 84 Pagosa Springs,Co to Santa Fe