Colorado Mountain Towns – Gold in the Mountains

The Wild West meets the Gold Rush meets the Rockies: scattered throughout Southern Colorado are communities that began their lives as raucous gold mining towns and now have morphed into historic mountain towns that are centres for all kinds of outdoor adventures. I spent time in four: Gunnison, Crested Butte, Silverton and Durango.

Gunnison’s rich history is on display at the Pioneer Museum, including a Denver & Rio Grande steam train. Crested Butte nestles in an Alpine valley below a host of 14,000 foot peaks: a ski resort in winter and a hiking and mountain biking mecca in summer. I explored the nooks and crannies of this Shangri-La by bike.

Silverton is an old silver-mining boom town nearly 10,000 feet above sea level where the Old West seemed very much still alive, complete with a stage coach on the dirt streets.

And Durango, the main town of SW Colorado, where I discovered the delights of the dining, shopping and adventure options in this feel-good, funky town. I was sure that John Wayne was just around the corner as this has been the location for many famous movies including “How the West was Won”, “Around the World in 80 Days” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway

Riding aboard the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway was one of the most enjoyable of my many railway experiences around the world. In the 1800’s gold and silver were hauled on this authentically restored narrow-gauge train. It sweeps past abandoned gold mines, wild forests and the untamed Rio de las Animas Perdidas (River of Lost Souls) on its journey between Silverton and Durango in the heart of the San Juan Mountains.

I interviewed Conductor Dan Stangby as we rattled beside the unbroken river rapids, and he told me of the 200,000 passengers who ride the rails each year on this amazing steam train. It went straight to the top of my Top Ten Train Journeys which you can see at: http://www.chrisrobinsontravelshow.ca/images/upload/ChrisFavouriteTrainJourneys.pdf

Mesa Verde – Sandstone & Spirits

All wonderful journeys end on a high note. My last stop - and the location for the live radio Travel Show broadcasts – was Mesa Verde National Park. Situated close to where Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico meet, this is the only National Park in the US devoted to the works of Man. But it is the fusion of huge canyon desert-land scenery and abandoned 700 year old Ancestral Puebloan dwellings that make this place so unique in time and space. I visited Cliff Palace, tucked under overhanging sandstone cliff faces. It was the largest community, four storeys high, accessed by narrow wooden ladders – and it’s just one of over 600 cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. Wandering around Spruce Tree House, another atmospheric, cliff-sheltered home, I felt the spirit of this mystical place and its long forgotten people…

The Inside Track on Colorado Restaurants and Hotels

One of the privileges of broadcasting my Travel Show on location is that I get to experience some of the very best accommodations and restaurants that the destination has to offer – and Colorado offers some of the very best! Here are personal recommendations from this trip…

First of all the restaurants, where I enjoyed the rich Western cuisine from succulent elk to ‘angry’ trout: TAG and Marlowe’s in Denver; Cliff House in Manitou Springs; Summit at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs; Timberline at Crested Butte; Seasons at Durango; and Metate at Far View Lodge in Mesa Verde.

And memorable accommodations from city centre hotels to wilderness: Residence Inn by Marriott Denver City Center; Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs; The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs; Elk Mountain Lodge in Crested Butte; Rochester Hotel in Durango; and the incomparably situated Far View Lodge in Mesa Verde National Park.

Colorado Travel Show Guests

I would like to express my grateful thanks to the many hospitable and friendly folk of the Colorado tourism industry who combined to make this trip and my radio broadcasts such a success. My especial thanks to interviewees John Branciforte at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Chelsy Murphy at Colorado Springs CVB, Conductor Stangby, Judi Swain at Aramark Parks and Destinations, and the remarkable Michael Driver from the Colorado Office of Tourism: guide, tourism professional and new friend.