A week basecamped along the Animas River, chasing a narrow-gauge whistle, two borderland ruins, and the most talked-about highway in the San Juans.
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Forty-two years ago, a much younger version of this trip happened at the same address. Before Fitting In Adventure existed, before the RV, before any of it, a family stayed at what’s now Junction West Durango Riverside — parents and a kid who had no idea she’d be back at the same site four decades later with a fifth wheel and a camera crew of two dogs.
The first pass through the gate didn’t feel like a discovery — it felt like deja vu with the volume turned down. Just familiar. Familiar enough that the thought never got the chance to form: it never occurred to her this could be the very same park, so the recognition sat there unnamed for a while before it was confirmed. It wasn’t until she and Vince had walked all the way to the other side of the park that she finally asked out loud if this used to be a KOA — and once the question was out, the familiarity became overwhelming.
One other detail from those first days on-site stuck: the Durango & Silverton train passing on the mountainside above the park, visible and audible from camp, a small preview of the narrow-gauge line the trip would circle back to later in the week.
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
The depot sits right downtown, a coal-smoke anchor for a town that never really stopped being a railroad town. The line has run since 1882, and it still climbs the same 45 miles north to Silverton it always has — through a canyon a road never quite managed to follow. We didn’t ride it this trip; we came for the depot itself, the platform noise, the engines idling before a run.
We caught it on a rainy, cool day with very few people around — a quieter, greyer version of the depot than the postcard shot, but an honest one.
Historic Downtown
Main Avenue still reads like the 1880s wanted it to: brick storefronts, false fronts, a skyline that tops out at four stories. The Strater Hotel anchors one end of it, all Victorian excess and a piano bar that’s been playing ragtime since long before Durango had a stoplight. Most of the patios along here don’t blink at a leashed dog underfoot.
One stop worth calling out: a French bakery downtown, good enough for a loaf of sourdough and a pastry to go — the kind of small, specific detail that does more for a place than another wide shot of Main Avenue.
Baker’s Bridge
North of town on US-550, Baker’s Bridge crosses the Animas at a spot that’s become shorthand for one very specific piece of outlaw folklore: the river jump Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid supposedly made here, staying one step ahead of a posse. Nobody can prove it happened at this exact bridge — it’s one of several spots in the Southwest that claims the story — but the bridge, the river, and the canyon walls make the case for themselves on camera.
The water underneath ran an opaque, bright green the day we were there — striking enough on its own that we walked out onto the bridge itself rather than shooting from the road.
Lime Creek Road
A dirt detour off the main highway, Lime Creek Road loops through backcountry the paved route never shows you — thinner air, tighter curves, fewer people, rejoining US-550 further north. We didn’t drive it ourselves this trip: between our truck’s wheelbase and advice suggesting it would be a bad idea for a rig our size, we chose not to risk it. If you’re in a smaller rig or a standalone vehicle, it’s worth the detour — just don’t assume it works for anything oversized, and check current road conditions before committing.
Mesa Verde National Park
We covered Mesa Verde in depth on a previous trip — the full guide to Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and planning a visit is already live: fittinginadventure.com/visiting-mesa-verde-national-park. This pillar links out to it rather than re-shooting; we didn’t revisit the park for this trip.
Salmon Ruins & Heritage Park
South into New Mexico, Salmon Ruins gets a fraction of the visitors Aztec Ruins does (see our Bayfield guide for that one) but covers ground that’s just as significant — a Chacoan outlier site with its own excavation history and its own heritage park built up around it. We walked the site in full; it’s not the most dramatic ruin in the region, but it holds its own and rewards the extra fifteen minutes.
Silverton, Ouray, and the Million Dollar Highway
However the name got started — a mile of Depression-era gold in the roadbed, or a driver who wouldn’t do it again for a million dollars — the stretch of US-550 between Silverton and Ouray earns its reputation. Three passes over 10,000 feet, switchbacks with no guardrail, and views that don’t let up for 25 miles.
We left Durango around 9 a.m. on a chilly, bright, sunny morning — a quaint town in the rearview as the road started climbing. Silverton itself was nearly empty when we came through, since the train hadn’t arrived yet for the day; the whole town had a stillness to it that a full platform of tourists would have erased. The full loop took a few hours door to door. We didn’t stop in Ouray itself, but did pull over at the Little Switzerland sign on the way — Ouray’s ringed-by-peaks reputation making its case for itself even from a roadside pullout.
WHERE WE STAYED Junction West Durango Riverside This stay was hosted — Fitting In Adventure received a complimentary editoerial stay. All opinions are our own. See our full disclosure policy for details.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Million Dollar Highway safe to drive in an RV?
The scenic stretch between Silverton and Ouray is narrow with sharp switchbacks and minimal guardrails — most RVers drive it in a tow vehicle or car rather than the rig itself, and that’s what we did.
Is Mesa Verde National Park near Durango?
Yes — about 45 minutes west. We’ve covered it in full in a separate guide, linked above.
How far is Durango from Salmon Ruins?
About 50 minutes, just past Aztec, NM.
Explore More
- Durango’s Historic Downtown & the D&SNG Depot
- Silverton, Ouray & the Million Dollar Highway
- Baker’s Bridge
Angela DiLoreto is a bestselling author, former Fortune 500 marketing executive, and a passionate advocate who successfully worked to change stalking laws in several states after a family friend was murdered by her stalker. That fight — for justice, for voices that weren’t being heard, for stories that needed to be told — runs through everything she does. She and her husband Vince travel the country by RV with their two rescue chihuahuas, Gracie and Loki, chasing history, great food, and the overlooked people and places that shaped America. Angela created Fitting in Adventure and the Historic Footnotes series because the best stories are usually the ones nobody’s heard yet.