Durango Photo Essay

I spent Monday driving seven hours to the southwest corner of the state, to a small city called Durango. I spent Tuesday conducting a training and taking photos, and spent Wednesday driving home.

Here's some of what I got. I love Durango; it is one of my favorite places in Colorado. It's touristy but you can tell that people live there. The community is closely knit. There's a college, a culture of outdoor activity, and some beautiful scenery. Also, they have some pretty fantastic restaurants.

Unfortunately, this time my room did not look like a brothel, but I made do.



The infamous Strater Hotel, with Old West-themed bar, restaurant, and decor. They claim Louis L'Amour wrote some of his books here.



I saw lots of people hunting on the way down and the town was swarming with men in camo. My favorite part of this sign: cats negotiable.



I took most of these photos on Main Street, some of which retains old-timey charm (rather than faux-timey charm)



The best place for breakfast, hands down. They serve Dan's favorite coffee in the whole world. This time I sweet-talked them into selling me 2 pounds of coffee beans and it totally made his day. Oh, and I think they're a brew pub, but I'm all about the pumpkin grill bread.




Never let it be said that Durango takes itself too seriously.



I took this one just for Jive Turkey because I thought she'd appreciate that somewhere in the world, someone gets paid for being melodramatic. It says so right on the sign!



Inside the Strater



Also inside the Strater. The place is full of old stuff. I liked this framed poster telling people to call their business contacts instead of write.



On the way back, we stopped near the summit of Wolf Creek Pass and I was able to take some photos. This one looks like a painting or something. You can see lots of aspen still golden amongst the evergreens.



Most of the mountainous areas we drove through had snow and golden aspens. Then we hit Alamosa and it was all dry scrub from there.