San Juan Skyway Road Trip

Overview

Craving recreation at high elevation? Travel to the top of the world and back in time on the San Juan Skyway. Discover history and high times in the streets, gold mines, and railway stations of towns like Durango, Silverton, and Telluride. Enjoy rafting and water sports on the Animas River, or fish and boat on McPhee Lake, the second largest lake in Colorado. Join the many visitors who converge on the road trip each year for bluegrass, jazz, folk, and film festivals. 

The road trip is your open invitation to five million acres of the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests. Experience the ancestral homes of the Puebloan Indians at Mesa Verde, once voted the number one historic monument in the world. Enjoy it all on this 236-mile sampler of the best the southwest has to offer.

The sheer cliffs and rugged terrain of the Skyway boast some of the most dramatic scenery on the planet. See crashing waterfalls in the spring as the snow melts in the higher mountains. Wildflowers garnish the alpine forests in the summer months, where the gilded amber, bronze, and gold of the aspens delight autumn visitors. Winter brings a glistening blanket of snow to the road trip, perfect for quiet admiration or more active recreation.

The San Juan Skyway promises a fiesta for the senses any time of year. Skiing is one of its premier winter activities, filled with fresh powder and quality resorts. After the thaw, enjoy four-wheeling, bicycling, kayaking, dirt-biking, and motorcycle-touring with friends, or indulge in solitary backpacking, hunting, fishing, and photography in the lush landscape. There's rest and relaxation, too. You can browse town shops, soak in historic hot springs, stay in a Victorian lodge, or sleep under the stars in a forest campground. This playground in the sky promises something for everyone in every season.

Dramatic scenery and tempting sports are perfectly matched by the riveting history of the region. Nestled in the mountains to the south, the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park exemplify the complexity of the Ancestral Pueblos. Spanish conquistadors made their way through this area, and their discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains changed the nature of the country forever. Learn hair-raising stories of struggling settlers and rough prospectors in the ghost towns and historic mines along the road trip. Historic shops and Edwardian inns await visitors to Durango, Silverton, and Telluride. Witness the power of progress at the railway depots and stations that turned these small outposts into roaring western whistle stops.