Colorado Porch

Tag

san juan mountains

7 Porch Notes tagged “san juan mountains,” from counties across Colorado.

Outdoors and wildfire - La Plata County

Purgatory Resort: Durango's Mountain in Every Season

Twenty-five miles up US 550 from Durango, Purgatory is the county's flagship resort, with deep San Juan snow in winter and an alpine slide, bike park, and chairlift rides in summer.

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History and culture - La Plata County

The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic: When Durango Cyclists Race the Train

Every Memorial Day weekend, Durango cyclists try to beat the narrow-gauge steam train to Silverton over two high mountain passes, in a race born from a brothers' bet in 1971.

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Outdoors and wildfire - Ouray County

The Uncompahgre Wilderness is big, quiet, and closed to motors and bikes

The Uncompahgre Wilderness covers a large stretch of the San Juans east of Ouray, with several trails leading in from the west and the usual wilderness limits on motors and bikes.

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History and culture - Ouray County

Otto Mears built the roads and rails that shaped Ouray County

Many of Ouray County's roads and rail lines trace back to Otto Mears, the late-1800s toll-road and railroad builder whose routes through the San Juans still underlie the modern map.

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History and culture - Ouray County

Why Ouray sits where it does: gold, silver, and the San Juans

Ouray County grew up around late-1800s hardrock mining in the San Juan Mountains, and that history still shapes the towns, roads, and old workings you see today.

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History and culture - San Juan County

Why Silverton sits where it does: hard-rock mining in the San Juans

Silverton grew up as a hard-rock mining town in the high San Juan Mountains, and that mining past still shapes the county's roads, sites, and identity.

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Water and land - Mineral County

An ancient supervolcano helped shape Mineral County's mountains

Much of the rock around Creede formed during enormous volcanic eruptions tens of millions of years ago, including the La Garita supervolcano's blast, and that origin still shapes today's peaks, cliffs, and rock shapes.

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