Durango for just one night??

I'm planning a trip the week after Labor Day with my 27yo son. Plan is to hit half of the Alpine Loop from Lake City on a Saturday, but then I'm undecided... Should I go to Durango for the night, and then head north to Ouray, or spend two nights in Ouray?? I've never been to Durango. I was thinking about the train, but I don't think we'll have a whole day to use for that... If we're not going to ride the train is Durango worth going for one night...looks like about 1-2 hours out of the way....It looks like there are plenty of trails, etc. around the Ouray area if we stay there for two nights.

Thanks for the insights!

 

I would just stay in Ouray. Durango is a couple hours drive south, and while pretty with a couple of interesting stop and get out spots along the way, if you're not doing the train or much else down there you'd be better of just heading up to Ouray. Durango is certainly worth visiting, but if you don't want to spend most of your time driving between places (as opposed to driving a trail or just seeing/doing things), there's way more than enough to do in the Silverton/Ouray area given the time frame you're talking about.

 

Silverton/Ouray would be my choice. Durango is a nice town, but it is a very modern town (which can be a good thing if you need supplies). Plus, hwy 550 from Silverton to Durango is NUTS!!! Way scarier than any shelf road I've ever been on lmao.

 

Thanks for the replies. It confirms what I was thinking, and we'll do two nights in Ouray!

 

If you're camping, the Ouray KOA is awesome. If you're hoteling it, The Western Hotel is haunted... if you're into that thing.

 

Made a reservation at the Ouray Inn. I didn't see any bad reviews on it. Not exactly cheap, but nothing in that town is, on a weekend...

 

I'm surprised you even got a reservation this late in the game. I made my reservations a month ago, for my July 2018 trip.

 

A lot of places were booked for Saturday, but Sunday was pretty open. I think being after Labor Day helped. I thought about camping, but I'm not equipped for below about 45-50* and I'm thinking it gets pretty cool overnight that time of year.

 

That it does. I was in Leadville at the beginning of August and I woke up one morning to 36* and rain. But, a good sleeping bag and a cozy tent helps. Enjoy your trip

 

If your staying in ouray hit black bear pass then back to ouray over imogene pass. Two of the most scenic roads down here.

 

I was already planning on Imogene, but I'm a little intimidated by Black Bear. I've done the Alpine Loop (starting from Mineral Creek), Ophir and Imogene on a motorcycle, but I don't have much off-road experience with a 4WD vehicle.

 

Black bear is not that technical but you damn sure don't want to make a mistake. It's a long way to the bottom.

 

I will keep that in mind, and see how smoothly things are going. One regret I still have is that I didn't do Black Bear when I was out there with my motorcycle. I figured it was over my head, but after I got home I watched a couple videos of it, and I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem. Like you said though, no margin for error...

 

We just did this trip last week. FUCK the train, not that great and about 8-9 hours total for the day. Ouray is nice and all the trails are right there and very easy trails, more sight seeing than anything. Take him to Telluride, it's an awesome city but if you do stay in Ouray go to the book store on the main strip and look in the Green chest when you walk in on the left. What's in there is amazing and if the owner likes you what he shows you next is truely amazing

 

KOA there is also really really cheap and awesome breakfast

 

A quick follow up...

We probably should have taken the train... Turns out once we got off the smooth, graded road, and started climbing the relatively wide shelf road up Cinnamon Pass, my 27yo kind of freaked and said this wasn't his thing. I told him we were committed since I had a reservation in Ouray that night, and we continued over Cinnamon, California, Hurricane and Corkscrew passes. He never completely lost his shit, but he would get pretty tensed up at times. The next day I talked him into trying Black Bear with me, promising that it would be the last off-pavement driving we'd do. When we started up it, it was considerably narrower and rockier than what we had gone over the previous day, and I decided to take the cut-off to Poryphry Gulch. It turned out to be a nice drive and we went to the top and did some hiking, then we came back down and went to Silverton for lunch.

All in all, I had a great time, and my son said it was cool because he'd never been in the mountains before, but he's not going to be going back anytime soon. So much for me planning a trip to Moab with him...

 

Well sorry to hear that. If you ever get back this way look me up I'll go wheeling with you.

 

That's to bad. Some people just don't deal with heights well. And the experience is always considerably different as a passenger than the driver. I'm kind of surprised you elected to continue on over CHC instead of just going out via Silverton and up 550 to Ouray if he was that uncomfortable. And it's probably really a good thing you didn't attempt Black Bear (proper, as in down into Telluride), because that's probably the most concentrated bit of what he didn't like out there. Or was it the heights as opposed to just 'rough' ride?

 

I never told him we could bail out at Animas Forks and take the gravel road to Silverton. I'm a poor father . I thought if we spent a little more time he would start to acclimate and get a little more comfortable, and I think he did to some extent. We're midwest flatlanders, and I remember the first time I rode a motorcycle at Moab, it was a little overwhelming in the beginning.

I showed him pictures of the steps at Black Bear, and he flat out told me when he agreed to go on it, that he would not be in the truck during that part. That's one of the reasons I went over to Porphyry. If I had someone along to egg me on a bit I probably would've continued, but I didn't want to get into something that I wasn't entirely comfortable with and have to worry about him freaking out too.

The trip was a learning experience for both of us.

 

which trail is this one?