Dunton Hot Springs

On a beautiful sunny morning at the end of July we took Highway 535 and followed the West Fork of the Dolores river.

The road meanders along the river with some beautiful houses and farms along the way.

At Willow Divide there are hiking and ATV trails and after that the road becomes a graded red dirt road.

Further along, we came across some locals out for an afternoon stroll.

There are campsites further into the mountains with hiking, ATV and horse trails leading off into the San Juan National Forest.

After checking out a campsite, we drove on until we came to what we think is Dunton Hot Springs, although there was nothing to confirm it. If it was then the restored log cabins are a luxury all inclusive resort. There were no signs to the hot springs, so we never did find them.

Just beyond the log cabins a road junction turns left or right, the left turn sends you higher into the mountains and the right takes you to highway 145, 9 miles away. We took the turning to highway 145.

Further along a sign said road narrows, (narrows! it was pretty narrow anyway!) not recommended for trailers, hmmm……… We carried on through the quaking aspens, getting higher all the time.

Then it became even narrower, with precipitous drops on one side!

Eventually we came out onto an open meadow with a parking area for a trail head. We saw what we first thought was an abandoned building, but the hanging baskets and the trespassers keep out sign told a different story.

The road continued on getting narrower and rockier, in some places we came across meadows covered in wildflowers.

Since the road turned to dirt, then rock we’d only met one other vehicle. Needless to say the road got even rockier and even narrower with steep hairpin curves, then it turned into an ‘oh rats I hope we don’t meet anyone coming up the other way!’ sort of road. Needless to say that’s where we met 3 or 4 vehicles heading uphill.

Naturally as we were driving down, we were on the edge of the sheer drop. Hmm wonder if quaking aspens would stop an F250 truck going over the side?

Almost back on the main highway.

It was a lovely drive, but next time we, okay I, find an interesting secondary ‘paved’ road on the map, maybe I’ll check a little further.

Have fun, we are!