Durango one of Coolest Town's in America!

Check out this article from the March, 2011 issue of Men's Journal:

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Put Your Outdoor Life First: Durango, Colorado

In its taste for fleece and proximity to awe-inspiring mountains, Durango often gets compared to Boulder 20 years ago. But with its isolation, modest size and population (16,000), and a down-home, just-folks genuineness, Durango clearly doesn’t aspire to Boulder’s growth, and it will never be a bedroom community for any metropolis. Tucked down in the southwest corner of Colorado, where the San Juan Mountains meet the arid Colorado Plateau, Durango has plenty of trademark Rocky Mountain beauty. But what distinguishes it from places like Boulder — or dream towns like Aspen and Vail — is how protecting its way of life and defining qualities is built into the town charter as well as its collective zeitgeist. Residents voted years ago to tax themselves to raise funds for parks, open space, and trails, all of which it has in crazy proportions relative to its size — 1,575 protected acres in town alone. Volunteers fervently maintain local trails through a nonprofit called Trails 2000, which boasts 2,000 members — that’s 12 percent of the total population.

The high-desert city, cleaved by the Animas River and perched 6,500 feet high at the stoop of the San Juans, has just enough oil and gas, ranching, and clean tech to support a handful of coffeehouses doing fair-trade brews, four microbreweries (seriously — it’s the water), and fine community arts and theater programs in an Old West downtown. The presence of four-year Fort Lewis College lends an additional cultural boost, but Durango is also decidedly laidback, the kind of town where a shopkeeper is likely to lock up early and post a gone skiing sign when fresh powder falls at Purgatory, just 24 miles away.

High-paying gigs are scarce, but plenty of locals are happy to work two jobs for the right to live in a place so blessed by geography and sunshine. A mile south of downtown, the RiverGate complex has lofts overlooking the Animas, with views of the La Plata Mountains and hop-on access to the town’s main bike path. Cars are left parked for weeks at a time as kayaking, fishing, hiking, and mountain biking are right out the door, as are millions of acres of Forest Service and BLM land. A Durango ritual that speaks volumes is visible on any summer Friday, about 5 pm — it’s the Animas River clogged with tubers nursing beers and hailing one another as they drift through town — happy hour in a happy place.