Durango!

We arrived in Durango on a Wednesday afternoon, with little to no knowledge of anything about it. We had picked it because it was an easy drive from our last stop in Pagosa Springs, and for some reason I just liked the name of the city. Well, we have been very pleasantly surprised and have really fallen in love with Durango!  It is a very cute little town with beautiful mountain views, a river trail, and a historic downtown.

We picked the United Campground for our first night’s stay because the free trolley went right by the campsite and would bring us into downtown.  Since we don’t have a towed car yet, this was very convenient.  We walked around downtown for a couple of hours, had a great dinner, and then listened to some live music at a cute little bar, where I ran into some fellow Louisianians. All in all a great night.

The next day we decided to rent a car and move to a different camp site.  We considered a spot in the forest service area, but after I checked it out in the rental car, we ruled it out.  Our rather, I should say, I ruled it out after driving up and down a narrow gravel road with a steep shoulder.  Also, it didn’t really have the views we were hoping for.  So we decided on Alpen Rose instead, which was just a little north of town but has nice level sites, and beautiful views of the mountains and some horse pastures.  After pulling in, we immediately decided we would stay for at least 3 nights because we liked it so much.  An added bonus was that there was someone else staying at the campsite we wanted to meet. Hans and Lisa are fellow RVers and I have been following their blog metamorphosisroad.blogspot.com, so we were excited to meet them.  This campsite has a huge fenced in area for the dogs to play. Admittedly I was a little nervous about this after our last dog park experience, but so far we’ve only met very nice doggies.

Hans and Lisa saw us with our dogs in the dog park, and as usually happens, recognized us because of the dogs. I guess there aren’t that many idiots RVing with 3 dogs, so we’re easily recognizable.  So they came over to say hello, and we had a nice time getting to know them that evening over a nice bottle of Tallulah Syrah (side note: if you like California Syrahs, I highly recommend Tallulah!)

The next day we took a nice walk in the neighborhood behind the RV park, and saw some very lovely homes complete with horses in their very large yards. Durango is a lovely town!

The next afternoon Deas took his bike for a ride along the Animal River Trail, while I drew the short straw and went car shopping.  Later we met up and had a great lunch at Serious Texas BBQ, on a patio overlooking the Animas River.

This weekend was the Animas River Days Festival, so on Saturday Deas and I took the dogs and went into town to enjoy the festivities.

After watching the kayakers, we made our way to the beer garden and listened to a band for a little while. I also met someone else from Louisiana in the beer garden! I guess it’s telling that I keep meeting the Louisiana people where alcohol is being served.

That night we went to dinner with new friends Hans and Lisa, who we’ve had so much fun getting to know.  After dinner we went to the Ska Brewery to listen to a gypsy band. What a great night!

We’ve had such a great time in Durango, we’ve decided to extend our trip here a few more days!