Durango Diary: Wandering in the Colorado Mountains

The chance to attend the 60-year reunion of your high school class only happens once. Kathy was eagerly anticipating the events organized by and for the Durango High School Class of 1965, and Brian was happy to tag along. 

Durango is the bustling tourist town located in southwest Colorado, in the general area of the Four Corners, that unique spot where four states, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Arizona, all intersect.

Kathy was born in Illinois, but moved to Durango in 1952, where her father joined a law practice and eventually headed the largest firm in the region.

Her two surviving brothers live in the area, as do several nieces and a nephew, making every visit a reunion of sorts.

We've made the 1,300-mile 21-hour drive many times over the decades, but flying has been our choice in recent years, even though it took us three flights with longish airport layovers each way.

That included BLI-SEA-PHX-DRO (Bellingham to Durango to Phoenix to Durango) outbound and DRO-DFW-SEA-BLI on the return, Dallas-Fort Worth being the long way around but staying within our current OneWorld alliance. It included a combination of Alaska and American flights.

For those interested, we flew Embraer EMB 175s outbound on all three flights, and an Airbus A319 (AA), a Boeing 737 (AS), and another EMB 175 (AS/SkyWest) on the way back. By the end of each trip, we found ourselves quite tired, considering we'd flown not all that many air miles.

We were guests of Kathy's brother Tom and sister-in-law Ellyn at a cabin owned by Ellyn's family on the beautiful Electra Lake north of Durango. The lake is actually a reservoir, owned by a Minnesota-based gas and electric utility, with a relatively few number of cabins belonging to lucky members of the Electra Sporting Club that was started in 1910.

Ellyn's family must enjoy one of the best views of the lake, with Engineer Mountain visible on clear days in the distance. 

Speaking of clear days, Durango weather was uncharacteristically miserable during our first few days there. After a hot and dry summer, we were treated to copious quantities of rain, wind, thunder, and lightning.

We were downright cold and even Kathy, who generally dresses in short sleeves, was grateful to borrow a warm sweater from Ellyn for the duration of our visit.

Weather notwithstanding, we managed to greatly enjoy the Friday afternoon class picnic in a local park and especially the Saturday dinner held in a (Brrr...) pavilion at Dalton Ranch.

Although she couldn't possibly have known everyone in a graduating class of about 250, Kathy encountered many familiar classmates during the events and shared memories, after the obligatory squinting at each other's name tags (we suggest larger print for the 70th reunion!)

A highlight for her was meeting up with Marjorie, a nearby neighbor and her best childhood friend. Marjorie's family took Kathy skiing and on weekend back-country jeep expeditions that included exploration of ghost towns. 

There was much to talk about, often prefaced with "Do you remember the time..." The event concluded at a respectable hour, given both the cold and rainy weather and the average age of the participants, but everyone left happy as far as we could tell. 

The day before the class picnic, we were guests at the Farmington, New Mexico home of Kathy's youngest brother Greg and sister-in-law June.

In a marvelous (for us) coincidence, Greg was hosting a nine-course gourmet dinner prepared and served in his beautiful house for 12 lucky guests by an up and coming young chef (a 2023 James Beard Best Southwest Chef finalist), Justin Pioche, assisted ably by his mother and sister.

Greg and June kindly invited us as soon as they found out we'd be in Durango. 

As it happens, our fellow guests included Mr. and Mrs. Gil Garduno. Gil is an old friend of Tom and Greg who happens to be a professional food writer and restaurant reviewer of long standing. You can read Gil's thorough and entertaining review of this event here in his blog.

We've experienced a number of memorable occasions over the decades with Kathy's brothers, and this one with the Pioche Food Group, Justin, Tia, and Mom, certainly ranked right up there. 

Toward the end of our stay, we spent a few nights in the recently renovated Durango Hampton Inn, where they recognized Kathy's lifetime Hilton Diamond status with a two-room suite, a lovely spot and we think the first suite upgrade we've ever encountered in a Hampton Inn. Aren't we special?

Along with some wonderful food prepared by Tom, we all savored the tastes of an Italian cucina (Mama Silvia's), a Tibetan restaurant (Himalayan Kitchen), a trendy sushi bar (Pop Sushi), and a Chinese restaurant (Mongolian Grill), on our final night. We two also walked a half block from our hotel to the Durango North location of Serious Texas BBQ one day for a brisket sandwich, and another day for a breakfast burrito at the College Cafe. now located on Ninth Avenue, despite what its own website states.

The cuisine that's now available in this still somewhat isolated mountain town is a far cry from 1950s Durango, where a night out for the family might feature Mexican food at the local Elks' Club (not to mention the roadkill deer served in the school cafeterias, as legend had it).

If we had to choose only two of the above restaurants to make a return visit, they would probably be the Himalayan Kitchen and Pop Sushi.

On one of our final days in Durango, we took advantage of the now-beautiful weather to drive the twisty and scenic US-550 to Silverton, a leisurely 60-70 minutes from Durango, especially with repairs under way.

This famous old mining town sits at the other end of the famous Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, featured in many western movies and TV shows over the decades. We've ridden the train a number of times and can thoroughly recommend it.

We had plenty of views out our car window on US-550, as we drove from Durango, at an elevation of 6400 feet, over Molas Pass at just under 11,000 feet, before arriving in Silverton, sitting at 9,302 feet.

We walked around gawking at the other tourists, ate a less-than-memorable lunch at one of the best-reviewed eateries in town (the employees were quite friendly), and then headed back to Durango after watching one of the trains arrive, this one diesel powered.

We dropped our rental car off the following morning at the airport, and found out as the day progressed that each of our three flights departed about a half hour late, but featured plenty long layovers. Departing for DFW around 11:40 AM Mountain Daylight Time, we managed to find a pleasant American Airlines lounge in which to pass some time about a 10-minute walk from our departure gate. 

Hours later we landed in SEA at the South Satellite, so had to take a couple of trains to arrive at the main Alaska Lounge in the C Concourse, about a five-minute walk from where the RJs (Regional Jets) park. 

We were definitely starting to fade, but were enthused by being upgraded to First for the 20 minutes in the air between Seattle and Bellingham. It was mainly helpful in being among the first on and first off.

It was then a pleasant Midnight walk to our car, and a quiet and uneventful 20-minute ride to Birch Bay. We made it by 1:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time!

Summing up our week in southwest Colorado, Durango is Kathy's home town, but we can still objectively recommend it as an outstanding destination, and we haven't even mentioned Mesa Verde, Music in the Mountains, or any one of a number of other indoor and outdoor attractions. 

We do recommend you pack a jacket and sweater for a mid-September visit. Trust us on that one.