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.
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.
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. 🙂
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. 🙂
We have been to all the other towns around there; some many times. Was just wondering about Pagosa.
jrp wrote:
Whether its Pagosa, South Fork, Creede, Lake City, Ouray, Silverton or Durango; its not the towns that are special, its the large unspoiled, lightly used high country wilderness areas that those towns surround.
If your interested in hiking, off road exploring and natural beauty, you won't find it on the cities web site. Try the Rio Grande and San Juan National Forest sites.
I've been exploring this large area by foot, Jeep and ATV, every summer for 6 years and have barely touched the surface. I alternate which city I stay at every couple weeks, just for variety. The town & campground I use that week is just a place to park. What keeps bringing me back are not the cities, but the hundreds of high country hiking trails, high country lakes and streams full of trout, and hundreds of miles of Jeep or ATV trails into some of the most beautiful scenery & lightly used trails in Colorado. Most days, once I leave the trailhead I don't see more than 1 or 2 people or vehicles all day long, except for Holiday weekends if I don't get far enough into the back country. What I do see are deer, elk, moose, beaver, black bear, big horned sheep, mountain lion, lynx, and lots of hungry trout on my line.
Pretty much sums up the Beauty of the San Juan's, BUT there are some towns that are fun to drive through, Lake City and Silverton where fun for us.
But it's the trails and Mountains that are just so easy to Access in and around all of this area.
No wrong Roads and No wrong Towns, as long as you are able to get out of them.
JMHO,
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.
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.
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.
