March 27, 2018

San Juan Mountains, Awesome Adventures

Story by Kathryn R. Burke. Photography by Carolyn Wilcox
All content © San Juan Publishing Group, Inc, All rights reserved.

READ, LOOK, OR LISTEN TO THE NEWS and you are told that the planet is warming, unemployment (and the seas) are rising, and the economy sucks big time. Well, maybe so, and maybe if you aren’t one of the lucky ones on the bailout list, and you really work at it, over time you may be able to do something about the mess we’ve put ourselves in.

But in the short run what can you do for you? Your world view may have gone global, but your personal place could be a different story. Closer-to-home issues, like getting the bills paid or getting a job, probably take precedence over world consciousness. In the media-blitz, sound-bite world we live in, the stress we live with can often be overwhelming.

What can you do? It’s not such a stretch, really. Turn off the TV, shut down your cell phone and laptop. Forget blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Toss that newspaper (or better yet, wrap the garbage in it). Then, get out and get UP into the mountains.

Any time, all the time, the San Juan Mountains can and do provide inexhaustible beauty and a welcome respite from all that ails you. These awesome mountains and the area surrounding them are balm to the soul and panacea to world woe.

First of all, the San Juans are free to all who care to enjoy them. You don’t need a ticket and there’s no admission price. Those craggy vistas and rugged trails just beg for biking, hiking, (and if you can spring for a little gas) ATVing, and Jeeping, hopefully all at ground level. For a birds-eye view, try hang-gliding or soaring (through tree tops or in gliders high above them).

Rivers beckon rafters, canoers, kayakers, and fisher people (fishing is not gender-specific, you know.). Lakes await the kid with a new tube or parents with a new boat. With so much water flowing through and from them, these mountains offer every kind of water sport or relaxation, from freebie swimmin’ holes to $600-a-night hot springs luxury. Bathing suits optional.

If snow is your choice, we get about six months of it. There are plenty of opportunities to haul out your skis, snowboard, snowshoes, snowmobiles, or sleds.

What are you waiting for? Year-round adventure is right here and right now. All those global problems will wait. Get out and get up and enjoy the San Juan Mountains now, and you’ll be ready to save the world when you get back

The Silverton Magazine was published by San Juan Publishing from 2000-2010. All content is copyright, in perpetuity, San Juan Publishing, Group, Inc. All rights reserved. For reprint permission, c ontact the publisher.