One eye on the road, one on the scenery

ALL ROADS lead to a destination. Some roads are the destination. Colorado’s San Juan Skyway, a designated All-American Road, does both. And it’s one I hope to travel again and again.

I started my 236-mile loop in Durango. After loading up on “The Cure” - a local speciality of eggs, potatoes, cheese, green chili and bacon - I double- checked the GPS. The time from Durango to Ouray, where I wanted to soak in the famous hot springs: One hour, 45 minutes. But that’s only if I didn’t stop. Five hours and a whopping 1,550 frames later - motor drives! - I arrived. On a road like this one, I’d have to be wearing blinders to arrive any sooner.

In just 70 miles, I’d photographed a neon hot spring, cowgirls on horseback, hillsides blazing with Aspen, abandoned mines, sheer cliffs, harrowing drops, mountains rising more than 13,000 feet and the funky former mining town of Silverton with its namesake railroad.

All of it stunning. And a perfect prelude to a soak. Unfortunately, the public spring was closed for renovation. But another place, maybe an even better place, was just up the highway. Clothing: optional. Temperature: Perfect. Ahhh. One hundred and sixty- six more miles to go.

As I was pushing toward Telluride, the 14,000-foot San Juan peaks became draped in darkness. Not wanting to miss more, I booked a room in Placerville and rested for the night.

Everybody knows about Telluride - the skiing, the festivals, the endless recreational opportunities - but I only had time for breakfast. On my way in, I paused for a herd of elk that were oblivious to rushhour traffic. On my way out, I lingered beneath fresh contrails streaming across a brilliant blue sky.

Then I braked again and again as the landscape shifted, and stunning peaks, valleys and evergreens gave way to desert, mesas, canyons and the archaeological wonderland Mesa Verde National Park.

Here, in a landscape once inhabited by Ancestral Puebloans, I pondered the cliffside dwellings that seemed almost unfathomable to scale and the people who once called of this sacred space home.

I wanted to spend the night beneath this vast open sky but I had another hour to Durango, a flight to catch, and a destination that unlike this one, was not about the journey. Sigh. — WPBloomberg

Landscape of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. The park is one of the destinations along the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway. The park preserves hundreds of cliff dwellings that were constructed by the Pueblos.

Birch trees blaze with colour along the San Juan Skyway between Durango and Silverton, Colorado. — WP-Bloomberg photos

An engineer navigates the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad into the station in Durango, Colorado. The historical railway is a popular tourist attraction and employees wear traditional clothing. The line from Durango to Silverton first opened...

Elk graze along the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway outside Telluride, Colorado.