Best Trails near Durango, Colorado

Muddy but great.

Beautiful hike! Set out on 12/4 around 8am. One other car at the trailhead, but not one other person on the trail for the 3 hours it took us. Lots of snow and ice on the trail, but it was well-packed throughout. No microspikes on the way up, but we used them on the way down for good measure and to keep a normal pace. Overall an absolutely gorgeous hike- the river and surrounding plant life coated in snow was amazing, and the views at the top were truly breathtaking. The weather was perfect- a good 30 degrees or so the whole time. Highly recommended for an easy-moderate mid-length hike!!

Fun and easy if you don’t have much time to be out there...

We did this hike back in mid-July. It’s a lovely hike from a spur off Junction Creek Rd. Nice switchbacks through pines lead to the “slide” where the trail narrows and people with a fear of heights might have problems. Sadly we couldn’t make it all the way up as we hit winter snow avalanche remains and weren’t willing to fight our way through or around it. If you do make it up you can take the trail to the left to the remains of Muldoon Mine. Great explorations there.

Great view of old/new parts of Durango and the surrounding mountains. Not very many resting spots and there are two small parts where the trail becomes a little unclear, but it’s really easy to find the trail again. All around a great hike.

This trail was definitely tough for my husband and I, but the views at the very top are worth it. The trail was very rocky & steep with some snow here & there but manageable. I would recommend poles to anyone going but overall a great fall hike.

Did 1.6 miles of this and it was great. The town is pretty active so you have a lot of people jogging, running, walking. A school borders it as well so a lot of kids use the trail after school. There are multiple places to park and then loop around. Very scenic and beautiful! Water level is very low right now.

There really isn’t a Haviland Lake Trail. There is a whole trail system East of Haviland Lake which is what this loop is apart of. Technically, the route shown here is Haviland Veiw > Cowboy Cutoff > Waterfog trot > Wagon > Miners trace. This route clocks more like 5.5 miles too. I’ve uploaded a photo of the whole trail system if anyone is interested since the trails system is not shown on the app for some reason. As others have mentioned, lots of trails interconnect. Trails are poorly marked and without the app, one could easily spend more time than planned. Lots of horse poop. As for the day, Not a big pay off view to be found, but a nice Late fall day hike. Parts were covered in packed snow. Elberts creek is raging due to the lake being drained. I took the log across the creek. My partner went barefoot through it. The waterfall and creek crossing were the highlights. Compared to many hikes in the area, this is one of the easier ones for sure.

We enjoyed the views at the top looking down on Durango. Fair amount of snowpack but not icy. Steep and steady at the end.

Pretty views of Durango, surrounding mountains and Lake Nighthorse. Lots of radio/ cellphone towers up top.

10/30/19 Wonderful hike. Love, love it! I too think it should be labeled as moderate. Crunchy snow covered trail in many places, but was not too slippery.

Really fun scenic hike. The switchbacks at the end are very long so they are pretty easy. I did not think trail was that busy or very rocky. Overall the most challenging part is the distance.

Fun trail - It is pretty much as straight, steep climb up from the bottom and not many flat areas if you need rest. The trail can get a little rocky/pebbly at times. The top of the trail is kinda strange and not really appealing to just walk through radio towers

Very nice trail through meadows of conifers, aspens and scrub oak. Going clockwise there is a fairly steep climb at about 2 miles. Otherwise mostly flat with few rocks or obstacles. Going down has nice long switchbacks so is neither hard nor technical. Trailhead and junction markers are inadequate. Multiple poorly marked choices. I highly recommend the All Trails record function to confirm position and direction. Otherwise you could wind up far from your starting point.

Parked in the area before the single lane bridge. Took the East Fork up, There is a 2nd waterfall, but you have to keep going further than the map route shows on here and bushwhack a bit to get there. Waterfall was simply stunning with the frozen sections of the walls, the floating pool of ice below. Water had shades of blue that is mesmerizing. Took the West Fork back down which was a nice switch up. Little muddy and icy in spots. Had to put sandals on for both crossings of the creek. Totaled a little over 12 miles. Long hike. Loved it.

Definitely dog friendly and an easy scenic hike. But what goes down must come up! Very nice hike!

great trail. loved the views. a little rocky at the base but cleared pretty quickly.

Great afternoon hike. It’ll get your heart rate up. Awesome views of Durango from the top. I could go without the hiking on the service road.

Great hike on a multi-use trail. Lots of mountain bike tracks but we didn’t see any but we did see lots of dogs

Great quick hike! Beautiful setting trough the woods along a creek with water falls.

Nice evening hike. Trails going every which direction and not clearly marked. Never lost coverage so I was able to stay on track.

Outstanding! Definitely worth the butt kicking for the views from the top.

This trail is wonderful. We are beginners and had an easy time. It is about 70% shade. There is one part of the trail where the creek has overrun the path but we got across by balancing on a log. The water was about 2 feet deep, or we would’ve just walked through. The only downside to the hike is that there is horse poop the entire way. People really need to have a bag behind their horses. It’s a shame. It borders on littering.