Most days, Durango is proud to be Durango, rather than Beijing, New York, Denver or Farmington. Some days, however, being Durango has it drawbacks. We have mountains, but the closest ocean is south of the border in the Mexican town of Rancho El Destierro, just more than 700 miles away. According to Google Maps, the car journey takes 11½ hours in good driving conditions.
The closest metro system and Michelin-starred restaurants are in San Francisco, about 1,070 miles away – beating the next nearest metro system, Seattle (who knew?).
Indeed, by the standards of urban life, existence in Durango is marked by deprivation. Durangoans who hanker after soul food, aquariums and professional baseball must go to Denver.
If you want a fish pedicure – the medically dubious must-have in modern spa treatments – you have to leave the Southwest altogether, where they are largely illegal. Instead, go to Lake Charles, La., where small carp will dine on your feet’s dead skin at University Hair Cuttery.
Meanwhile, the closest escalator remains a subject of considerable mystery. Rumor puts it at a mall in Albuquerque.
Twenty-four-hour dry-cleaning services are similarly elusive in this part of the world. Yelp, the popular online search engine, suggests La Unica Dry Cleaners in Santa Fe may be most proximate. The nearest mosque is in Gallup, N.M.; the nearest planetarium is Harry Zacheis Planetarium and Observatory of Adams State University in Alamosa.
Though it has a McDonald’s, Durango lacks many staples of the modern consumer experience. The closest Costco is almost five hours away, in Gypsum; the closest IKEA, more than six hours away, in Centennial; the closest full-fledged Apple Store is in Albuquerque.
Durango deprived
According to the Durango Area Tourism Office website, “Durango offers an endless variety of activities, all year long.” In February, the list seems to end more quickly than usual.
Durango Police Department spokesman Ray Shupe said, as far as he was aware, local boredom had not so far tipped over into crime.
But for some Durangoans, a trip to the nearest IMAX movie theater in Colorado Springs (319 miles away) would merely place a Band-Aid upon the gaping wound of their municipal yearning.
They need a vacation.
But Marie Smothers, manager of Rio Grande Travel in Farmington, said this time of year, she is inundated with Durangoans desperate to book vacations elsewhere.
“Especially the Caribbean,” she said.
She said most Durangoans hope to overcome their debilitating ennui by sojourning to places with warmer climates. But she often encounters Durangoans who seek the refinements of urban life: world-class museums, architectural wonder and a vibrant artistic heritage.
“Really, in this neck of the woods, I send them to Las Vegas – more than New York,” she said.
Unlike New York, Las Vegas is very affordable, she said, especially if people are willing to go midweek.
“I do get folks who want to see the Empire State Building or the 9/11 Memorial; but with Las Vegas, I really think it’s the gambling and to see the shows and the lights. You can go for a matter of two or three days and get back because it’s not a long flight,” she said.
Likewise, Wave Dreher, AAA Colorado spokeswoman, said New York is “a fabulous city, but it’s expensive.” She usually sends Coloradans who want the Big Apple experience to Chicago.
“Chicago is all of that – a magnificent mile for shopping, world-class museums; and between the two airports, you can usually get there for a fairly reasonable rate,” she said.
“The last time I priced New York, it was right before the Super Bowl, so it was somewhat inflated, but it was $350-$400 a night to be in the city; whereas you can still find a nice downtown Chicago property in the $200 range,” she said.
Katherine Burgess, director of Colorado Travel Connections, said she makes frequent trips to New York throughout the year to watch Broadway shows. But she said she just escaped the malaise of Durango in February by making an extensive tour of Southeast Asia.
She said Hawaii was the most popular of the major destinations for Durangoans, as it offers “beach, warm weather. It’s not cheap, but it’s sort of like the Caribbean is for the East Coast,” as the air connections make it accessible.
Every travel agent said the biggest trend in holidaying is river cruises.
Dreher said river cruises are an easy way to see Europe: You unpack once, get a lecture on a gorgeous city at night and wake up there the next morning.
Burgess said river cruises were so popular, it was nearly impossible to book one for 2014, and people should be thinking “in terms of 2015.”
Though Durangoans’ unrest can feel excruciating before spring, of course, travel has its own perils. A Carnival cruise recently turned nightmarish for 4,000 passengers and crew when the plumbing stopped working, earning it the nickname “poop cruise.”
“That’s why you want a travel agent. We didn’t have anyone on that large Carnival cruise. But when the volcano erupted a couple of years ago, we made sure people had hotel rooms. We’re not going to leave you stranded at the airport,” Burgess said, referring to 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland that made air travel impossible in Europe for six days.
Jack Llewellyn, director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, said while the chamber encourages “staycations,” he recognizes that some people need to get out of town.
“The point of Snowdown is to break up the monotonous cabin fever. But most locals, especially those with children, really use that spring break to escape from Durango, go rejuvenate and recharge, get a change in latitude and attitude,” he said.
He himself escapes to Phoenix when Durango’s charms ware thin.
“I will migrate,” he said. “To chase my son’s football games – he plays for the Colorado School of Mines. But I was just in the Denver metro area – and with the traffic, it took me an hour an a half to drive only 15 miles.
“Traffic drives me crazy, so I was so happy to be back in Durango. When people have to go away – that’s when they realize this is a pretty wonderful place to live.”
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
Some businesses and amenities were calculated using those stores’ online locator maps. Some of those distances were incorrect.
