July 23-August 22
Hiking in San Juan Mountains was our main objective for the trip: trekking part of Colorado Trail. We added acclimatization hikes in Wolf Creek Pass area and out of Silverton. We also added a few hikes on slopes of Blanca Peak and Great Sand Dunes, in Mt Shavano area and a couple more out of Keystone.
It took us 31 days and 3000 miles of driving to complete the trip. Just driving across Midwest from Chicago and back, and spending most of the time in Colorado. We stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park (our 40th), but skipped Mesa Verde National Park which we visited in 2003.
We spent 8 days hiking SOBO Segments 25-28 of the Colorado Trail from Silverton to Durango: 118 trail kilometers (total km walked closer to 145) and 3 km total elevation gain. Trail is well maintained with gentle slopes except a few short steeper stretches. We left our car parked in Silverton and took tourist train back after the hike. This part of Colorado Trail runs at elevations above 3300 masl (except last day and a half descent to Durango) with highest point at 3800 masl. We used several day-hikes to warm-up (dragging our feet through Great Sand Dunes) and slowly going to higher elevations (Island Lake at 3780 masl). It worked-out well. With additional adjustment to altitude on the first night (at 3700 masl), we had no big problems covering 9 miles a day (our normal pace). Altogether we also hiked 130 km with 5 km total elevation gain on ☞14 longer day-hikes, plus some more on short walks. We were tired at the end.
For Piotr, summer of 2025 was 62nd anniversary of first multi-day trek (with parents in Bieszczady, Poland). It is now getting harder to pull enough energy to carry extra load and walk extra miles.
We enjoyed beautiful and changing mountain scenery, friendly social interactions on the trails, learning about gold mining, visiting small towns, scenic train ride, soaking in hot springs, visiting friends in Keystone. We were very lucky with the weather – almost no rain which is unusual for this time of year, minimal impact (smoke) of wild-fires. No health or car mechanical problems.
Completed itinerary
| Destination | Overnight | ||||
| Jul | 23 | Wed | 1 | Driving Chicago-IA | Microtel Inn Colfax IA |
| 24 | Thu | 2 | Driving IA-KS | Annie Motel Oakley KS | |
| 25 | Fri | 3 | Blanca Peak area | Lake Como Rd | |
| 26 | Sat | 4 | Great Sand Dunes National Park | Great Sand Dunes CG | |
| 27 | Sun | 5 | Great Sand Dunes National Park | Great Sand Dunes CG | |
| 28 | Mon | 6 | Wolf Creek Pass area | Wolf Creek Ranch Lodge | |
| 29 | Tue | 7 | Driving to Durango, Pagosa Springs | Adobe Inn | |
| 30 | Wed | 8 | Driving to Silverton, Potato Lake | Columbine Roadhouse | |
| 31 | Thu | 9 | Island and Ice Lakes, Silverton | Columbine Roadhouse | |
| Aug | 1 | Fri | 10 | Silverton | Columbine Roadhouse |
| 2 | Sat | 11 | Highland Mary Lakes, Silverton | Columbine Roadhouse | |
| 3 | Sun | 12 | Silverton | Columbine Roadhouse | |
| 4 | Mon | 13 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Camp 1 | |
| 5 | Tue | 14 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Camp 2 | |
| 6 | Wed | 15 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Camp 3 | |
| 7 | Thu | 16 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Camp 4 | |
| 8 | Fri | 17 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Camp 5 | |
| 9 | Sat | 18 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Camp 6 | |
| 10 | Sun | 19 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Camp 7 | |
| 11 | Mon | 20 | Colorado Trail (25-28) | Strater Hotel Durango | |
| 12 | Tue | 21 | Durango-Silverton Railway, Million Dollar Hwy, Ouray | Hot Springs Inn Ouray | |
| 13 | Wed | 22 | Box Canyon, Dinosaur Trackway, Ouray | Basecamp 550 Casita Ridgeway | |
| 14 | Thu | 23 | Orvis Hot Springs, Ridgeway | Angel of Shavano CG | |
| 15 | Fri | 24 | Hiking in Mt Shavano area | Angel of Shavano CG | |
| 16 | Sat | 25 | St Elmo, Agnes Vaille Falls | Cascade CG | |
| 17 | Sun | 26 | Twin Lakes, Keystone | Friends’ apartment | |
| 18 | Mon | 27 | Wheeler Lakes, Keystone | Friends’ apartment | |
| 19 | Tue | 28 | Willow Lakes, Keystone | Friends’ apartment | |
| 20 | Wed | 29 | Keystone | Friends’ apartment | |
| 21 | Thu | 30 | Driving Keystone-NE | Quality Inn Grand Island NE | |
| 22 | Fri | 31 | Driving NE-Chicago | Home |
Highlights…
