Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 4 corners - SW Colorado vacation ideas?

Before moving from Denver to Houston in 2010 I did a road trip with the wife and 9mo kid to the 4 corners area.
We hit the Garden of the Gods in Co Springs, the Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon and Arches National Park. Both camped and stayed in motels.
The poor little guy spent hours in the car seat and then in the trekking backpack. Long drives to get to those places, but it was totally worth it and he enjoyed it a bunch. My daughter wouldn't have been as keen to remain in the car seat
There is a train museum in Durango and of course amazing train rides.
I realize some of the places I mentioned are far out from your basecamp, but to us it was the only time to get to see them until who knows when. We did take a heli flight over the grand Canyon which was even more impressive from the air than at eye level.

I rolled into Durango in '95. It was a very nice, but Yuppoe town. I just ETS'd from the 82nd and was obviously a veteran. The town seemed full of New Yorkers (pushy rude self absorbed city types; like home only different). I tried to get a cup of coffee and was pointedly refused service/ignored for twenty minutes. i know it was twenty because I really needed that cup of coffee for being 14 hours on the road and still had more to go that day. Well the turds in the coffee shop pretended I wasn't there until the male finally served me. I remembered he huffed and rolled his eyes like my ex-wife, only she was beautiful. So I was pretty butt-hurt and rolled into Cortez. Cortez was a breath of hope and fresh air. Cortez was America. Durango was LA, SF and NY. Good luck. I'll never go through Durango again.

Not smart enough to post a link, but google Bishops' Castle. It's not real close, but worth the drive.

Bishop's Castle is a long way from Durango, an eight-hour drive.

Previous respondents have mentioned Colorado National Monument and some have suggested that it's just so-so. You know if you want to see some pretty rock formations you could drive the Dolores River canyon from Uruvan to Gateway. It's a prettier drive and it's free. Both are a couple of hours from Durango, so they would not be on the top of my list for a vacation destination if my base was in Durango.

KC

Thanks for the correction, KC, I got this thread mixed up with the Colo Springs post.