Animas City Mountain, 8,180', Out The Back Door

Essence: Given its ready access and pleasant uphill grade, Animas City Mountain is a multi-use favorite for locals. Enjoy scenic views of Durango, the Animas River Valley, and two mountain ranges. The lower flanks of the mountain are city open space. The upper mountain is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. A three-year makeover of the trail system concluded in the summer of 2024, expanding choices for hikers and mountain bikers. The BLM, in partnership with Durango Trails and a host of volunteers crafted an array of five new trails, and rerouted and decommissioned others. All trails are named and signed--wayfinding is simple. Please stay on sanctioned trails and do not blow open new ones. This post introduces you to a seven-mile loop circumnavigating the backslope of the mountain. Hike up, over, and around the cuesta on the Lupine Trail. BLM staff gets credit for this brilliant concept. You will be introduced to every trail as we do the circuit. The trails of Animas City Mountain offer a peaceful interlude, interrupted only by the train whistle in the valley and wind in the pines.

Travel: For the West 4th Ave. Trailhead, from Main, turn west on 32nd Street. Drive three blocks and turn right on West 4th Ave. The dirt parking lot is two blocks ahead. It fills on weekends so arrive early. For the Birket and Dalla Mountain Park trailheads, from Main, drive west on 25th Street which transitions to Junction Street. For Birket (limited parking) drive 0.7 mile and turn right on Birket Lane. For Dalla, continue another 0.2 mile and park on the right. This lot fills on weekends.  All trailheads are well marked.
Distance and Elevation Gain: The Lupine circuit is 7.0 miles, 1,600 feet. During the peregrine falcon closure, the truncated loop is 6.0 miles, 1,400 feet. Mileages for all trails are included.
Total Time: 2:00 to 3:30
Difficulty: Class 1 trails; navigation easy; no exposure.
Maps: Durango East; Durango West, Colorado 7.5' USGS Quads. Durango Trails Interactive Map
Seasonal Wildlife Closure: The upper mountain is closed to human travel from December 1 to April 15. The mountain is a refuge for animals who have migrated from the high country to their winter rangeland. Green gates are pulled and locked. In addition, the summit and La Plata Mountains Vista is closed until August 1 to protect nesting peregrine falcons. Seasonal closures are enforced. Winter recreation options on the lower mountain are discussed.

Quote: Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way. Dr. Seuss
 

Animas City Mountain presides over town, watching the morning train head out to Silverton, listening to the frolicking Animas River, and greeting a friend standing on the Rim at Fort Lewis College.

 
Route: I built this map using tracks gathered on hikes in the summer of 2024 after new trails were hardened and some old trails decommissioned. The Lupine circumnavigation is shown with a blue line. Begin from the West 4th Ave. Trailhead and spin counterclockwise starting out on the east side of the cuesta. At the San Juan Mountains Overlook, the trail bears northwest and crosses over the summit. It pivots south at the La Plata Mountains Vista and descends on the far western edge of the mountain before bearing southeast back to the start. I will talk about all of the interior trails, as well as Dalla Mountain Park links, as the circuit unfolds. Once you get your bearings, I recommend doing the Lupine circuit clockwise to take best advantage of the views.

West 4th Avenue Trailhead

Elevation at the "Main Animas Trailhead" is 6,700 feet. Please note, all trails on the mountain and in Dalla Mountain Park are non-motorized. "No e-bikes, no pedal assist." Doggie bags are available. Thank you for cleaning up after your dog.

 

A maze of trails congregates at the base of the mountain. Just past the LPEA substation the trail out of the parking lot splits. The left branch is the quickest way to Dalla Mountain Park and west side trails. Our route goes straight ahead, bearing northeast. At 0.3 mile, stay to the right. 

Cross out of city open space and into BLM property at 0.4 mile. 

The rocky treadway, edged with yucca, prickly pear, and orange globemallow, ascends through a piñon-juniper woodland. Given the mountain's proximity to town, in the last two decades there have been two Urban Interface Fuels Mitigation projects. In 2010, crews were on the mountain thinning brush by hand. In May of 2023, the BLM hosted a controlled burn to reduce wildfire hazard. Evidence of the fire is apparent from the trail. The overall impression is park-like.

There are three green gates on the lower mountain that are pulled and locked during seasonal closure. Turn right and pass through the open gate at 0.7 mile, 7,100 feet. 

All sanctioned trail junctions are signed. The maps were a collaborative effort between the City of Durango, Durango Trails, and BLM.

The old and rocky trail is the principle pathway up the east side of the mountain. At one mile, leave the track and follow a social trail a few steps to the right. Sandstone slabs overhang a mild precipice. This vantage point overlooking the city offers a startling contrast between ever-so-straight Main Avenue and the sinuous Animas River. 

There are four entrances to singletracks between the first overlook and the Ollos Trail. The smooth dirt trails are designated by carsonite markers with arrows. They go into the mountain's interior and climb gently up the back slope with sweeping broad turns ideal for bikes.

 

Pass a venerable log with a tightly spiraled trunk. Wildlife sightings in this area include cougars, bobcats, and bears. Mountain lions are alive and well on this mountain. I have seen multiple cougar tracks on the same hike and have heard many reports of sightings over the years. Keep your children near and your pets under voice control. 

Ollos

The Ollos Trail, 1.9 miles, 7,720 feet, splits west and ends at the Cone Zone in 0.6 mile. It is the first of five new trails designed and built by a partnership between the BLM, Durango Trails, and an army of volunteers over three years. The BLM came up with the concept of circumnavigating the mountain on Lupine and the two cross-mountain trails, Ollos and Aquila. Durango Trails helped with designing the downhill flow trails, Upper Merve and Swerve. Machines were used to dig out the tracks. Finishing work was done by hand. 

 

Old growth ponderosa pines are featured on Ollos. The pines like their space and the controlled burn enhanced their living quarters.

For the circuit, stay straight. Durango is in the Rocky Mountain and Utah juniper overlap zone. The Rocky Mountain variety are the trees with feathery, droopy leaves. They have a blue-green cast and abundant blue berries. They grow straight up from a central trunk. There is a particularly ancient forest on the northeast slope of this mountain with trees upwards of 2,000 years. Utah juniper are a darker yellow-green and the foliage is stiffer. It branches out from the base into a broad spreading tree that can be as wide as it is tall, up to 20 feet. The magnificent Utah juniper seen below is just east of the trail as it closes in on the San Juan Mountains Overlook.

 

This gigantic piñon pine is getting along very nicely with the junipers. In fact, they need each other. Piñon and juniper trees often grow together because they protect one another's seedlings from sun and drought. This relationship is called nurse plant protection

San Juan Mountains Overlook 

At 2.5 miles, 8,000 feet, arrive at the San Juan Mountains Overlook, unmistakably marked by a stately, bygone piñon tree. (Chris Blackshear, photo)

If your timing is right, you can see and hear the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad chuffing alongside US 550. The San Juan view wedge spans Engineer Mountain, the Twilights, and Mountain View Crest. The Animas River Valley was sculpted by a glacier during the Pleistocene epoch, the last period of the Ice Age. Pictured in late October, first snow ices the peaks, the colors of autumn have faded, and the river pulses lazily through oxbows and fills abandoned meanders.

Missionary Ridge defines the valley's eastern boundary, shown below. A prominent rockfall occurred in 1997 and has been widening ever since (and wreaking havoc on CR 250). I was here with geologist John Bregar and we lingered for a geology lesson. Animas City Mountain is a classic cuesta, an asymmetrical ridge with an escarpment on three sides, and a long and gentle backslope that conforms to the tilted beds of resistant sedimentary strata. Dalla Mountain Park is located at the southern base of the "dipslope."

The geology of Missionary Ridge mirrors that of our mountain. The upper cliff band is Dakota Sandstone. The same formation holds this mountain up. The next layer is Junction Creek Sandstone, the formation at X Rock, a favored climber's crag with an the array of slab, crack, top rope, and bouldering options. Underlying Junction Creek is Entrada Sandstone, distinctly smooth and light gray--the window building formation at Arches National Park.

 

Morrison Formation, a soft greenish gray shale and mudstone mix is found around the base of the dipslope. Look for green rocks embedded in the trail. The Morrison harbors dinosaur fossils elsewhere in Colorado.

Lupine turns northwest and tracks along the edge of the cuesta ascending gently to the crest. Just as the snow melts, the ground is covered with nodding glacier lily and delicate spring beauty. By mid-June sunshine-yellow mule's ears are gloriously abundant. Make a point to visit them at peak bloom. (Thomas Holt Ward, photo)

 

Aquila (Peregrine Closure) 

Aquila branches to the left at 2.7 miles, 8,080 feet. This new trail bears west, crosses Cone Zone, Swerve, and Upper Merve before dead-ending at Lupine in 1.3 miles as it comes down the far west side of the cuesta. The summit and La Plata Mountains Vista is open to human travel only between August 1 and December 1. For the rest of the year the top of the mountain is closed to protect a peregrine falcon nesting area. 

 

Aquila maintains a slight downhill grade. Lazy turns with beautiful soft arcs are intoxicating for mountain bikers. 

Summit, 8,180'

The highpoint of Animas City Mountain is pretty subtle and yet it has an impressive prominence of 1,200 feet. Typically, a cairn marks the location at three miles. I will admit to rebuilding the peak cairn many times over the years. A few limber pines, scattered white fir, and quite a number of Douglas fir live on the summit. Below, Mount Eolus, 14,087', rises above Mountain View Crest.

Give up 80 feet before ascending to the marked point on the topographical map, Point 8,161'. If this mountain is out the back door, the La Plata Mountains are in our backyard. The commanding view of the range is generous payback for the effort expended. The trail splits as you tip over to the far side of the cuesta. The trail to the left is the traditional path. Both are rocky. The footpath straight ahead is trenched and eroded. Hiker's choice.

La Plata Mountains Vista

Lupine passes by the vista overlooking the La Plata range at 3.5 miles, 8,080 feet. Dominating the eastern block of the range are Silver and Lewis mountains. There's something both imponderable and deeply personal about this local horizon, our home ground.

Perching rocks overhang the hamlet of Turtle Lake. Hidden Valley with its array of popular trails is image-center. The forces of erosion have loosened some of the slabs. Stay well back from the edge while taking your break.   

Animas Mountain/Cone Zone

Two trails leave from the vista and head south down-mountain. While this circuit stays on Lupine, the Cone Zone is actually the most direct pathway back to the start. It's 1.8 miles down an old rocky, rather steep, two-track to the junction with Lupine. Whereas Lupine takes an additional meandering mile to arrive at the same location. Until recently, the nameless Cone Zone was the only trail running down the center of the mountain. It was as far west as you could go on-trail.

For many years City Parks and Recreation sponsored the Mug Run. This was back in the day when the local running club was called Durango Motorless Transit. We flew down the Cone Zone at top speed.

The Cone Zone levels briefly and is reduced to a soft, dirt singletrack while crossing a meadow. This might be the biggest clearing on the mountain so check it out some time.

In contrast, Lupine is a smooth, dirt singletrack for the entire distance. It works south on the far west side of the cuesta. Perins Peak and North Perins are in the view corridor for the distance. 

Look down on Chapman (Turtle) Lake, the Turtle Lake Bouldering Garden, and CR 205.

 

With the return of spring the forest floor is enlivened with thousands of exquisite white sego lilies. (THW, photo)

Pass by the west end of Aquila at 4.2 miles. Mountain bikers ride uphill on Lupine to this junction. They either continue up the mountain or ride east on Aquila to the top of the downhill flow trails, Upper Merve and Swerve.

 

High Link to Dalla Mountain Park

If you have a hankering to do some bouldering, the first opportunity to dive off the west rim into Dalla is indicated with a carsonite arrow at 4.5 miles. I've given the scrappy, secondary trail the informal name, "High Link to Dalla." The next seven images will give you a sense for what this diversion affords. Then I'll come back to Lupine where we left off.

The floor of the trail has been lined with flat sandstone sheets, great fun for hikers. The path is steep and rocky for 120 feet of vertical as it drops to the base of the Dakota Sandstone cliffs.

This is a tour through bigness. The trees are big. The boulders are big. The trail is premier because it winds through gigantic blocks fallen from the escarpment. Look closely at the highly textured rock and you will see cross-bedding, even some conglomerate. Dakota Sandstone was deposited in the Mid-Cretaceous opening of the Western Interior Seaway. It is a vast formation running all the way to South Dakota.

These raspy behemoths are just waiting and wanting to be climbed.  

A couple of accomplished technical climbers talk over how they would mount this highly featured, beckoning beauty right beside the trail.

The trail intersects Lower Merve at The Cube, a wildly popular climbing destination in Dalla Mountain Park. I'll talk about the lower link from Lupine to Dalla in just a bit. Meanwhile, the High Link trail has merged with the Ponderosa Trail. Follow it southeast and it will take you back to the West 4th Ave. Trailhead.

The front of the block is fenced off to protect petroglyphs. No climbing, no touching. One of the glyphs can be seen in this image to the right of the little piñon. 

Back on  the Lupine circuit, the broad backslope has a satisfying ponderosa and Gambel oak sameness. Pictured, a biker is going uphill on Lupine.

Upon reaching the Merve Connection, 4.6 miles, bear right to stay on Lupine. Merve Connection is a shortcut to the downhill flow trail. Lupine is as far west as you can get on this mountain without sliding off the edge. Be psyched to climb 80 feet as you approach the next junction.

At 5.8 miles, Lupine comes to a junction with Upper and Lower Merve. I want to mention both trails before moving on with Lupine. Take a look at the sign below for reference. I have some friends who are confused by all of these intertwining trails but get out there often enough and it all becomes clear. This is another seasonal closure point.

This image was shot from the junction. The Lupine Uphill sign is primarily for bikers. It is the only uphill trail west of the Cone Zone and is designed to be a friendly ride up the mountain.

 

Upper Merve (Downhill Flow)

Upper Merve is a downhill flow trail for bikes starting at Aquila and ending one mile downhill at this junction. The Downhill Exit sign, shown, is intended to keep people from riding uphill.

Upper Merve has a super smooth dirt surface. It's a well crafted, curvaceous track with banked turns. I hiked it uphill with some friends to get a track for this post but hikers are advised to forego this trail. Bikes are ripping so be ready to hop off the trail.

Lower Merve

Lower Merve is a secondary trail that drops 250 feet into Dalla, arriving at the Ponderosa Trail in 0.35 mile. For those familiar with the bouldering park, Lower Merve is located a few steps east of the biggest and finest block of them all, The Cube. Be sure to step off the trail and climb the backside. Scramblers should explore around because there is an ultra cool downclimb from the block that you have to look for.

The top of The Cube is a vantage point overlooking town.

Past the Lower Merve turnoff, Lupine is pointed southeast. The trail skims along the edge of the cliffs at the foot of the dipslope. This area is well known to adrenaline junkies who get off on messing around on the rock sentinels. For the rest of us, there is something aesthetically appealing about a line of standing rocks cleaved from their wall of origin. These hikers are traveling clockwise on Lupine taking advantage of better views all along the circuit.

Swerve (Downhill Flow)

Lupine passes by the bottom of Swerve at 6.1 miles. The elevation change is 600 feet over 1.2 miles for bikers screaming down from the upper end at Aquila. Hikers are not prohibited from walking up Swerve but heads up. It is designated for mountain bikers and they have the right-of-way. Be prepared to leap off the track. It is safer to walk uphill against the traffic. Swerve is a sweet, fun, beautifully crafted smooth-dirt downhill ride with whoop-de-doos, tight, banked turns, jumps, and moguls.

At 6.3 miles, Cone Zone merges into Lupine from the left. This image was shot looking uphill. Lupine is the single track on the left and Cone Zone is the two-track straight ahead.

 

Turn right and pass another seasonal closure gate. Lupine ends here upon crossing into city open space. If you wish, you may turn left and close the circuit in just a few feet at your upcoming trail. Stay straight for the shortest route back to the trailhead. This image looks up at the green gate marking the boundary between City and BLM property.

I'd like to say a word about wildflowers. Western hawksbeard is an uncommon, early summer bloomer restricted to this part of the mountain. In the spring, lupine, penstemon, and Indian paintbrush practically take over. Additional flowering plants include orange globe mallow, golden banner, chokecherry, penstemon, senecio, larkspur, and whiplash daisy. Golden eye is abundant in autumn.

It is common for locals to spin loops on the lower mountain during seasonal closure. Even at this relatively low elevation there are inspiring viewpoints. 

The trail makes a sharp left at 6.4 miles. For those going in the opposite direction this is a woohoo! breakout moment. Perins Peak, North Perins, Junction Creek, the La Platas--they are all there all at once. 

"Powerline Junction"  

Six trails converge under the powerlines at 6.6 miles. 

 

Study the sign. Two paths head northwest into Dalla Mountain Park's world of boulders. During seasonal closure, I frequently begin at the West 4th Ave. Trailhead and go west into Dalla with its five miles of interlaced, relatively level trails. You are sure to run into hikers, bikers, and climbers playing around on the lower mountain.

 

Tanque Verde heads south to the town's green water tank and into a neighborhood with no parking. For Birket Trailhead, take 20 steps on the water tank trail and then veer off to the right. 

 

Two trails bear east and two return to the West 4th Ave. Trailhead. The first is slightly longer and more gradual.

 

To complete the circuit, go under the power lines and take the second trail on the left. It dives sharply down a steep and slick hardscrabble hill terminating at the trailhead in 7.0 miles. 

 

Dalla Mountain Park Trailhead

Dalla Mountain Park was acquired by the City from Jerry and Antoinette Dalla with support of community residents and a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado in 2005. The City partners with La Plata Open Space Conservancy to preserve the land with a conservation easement, and Durango Trails to build and maintain the trail system. For the shortest path (0.8 mile) to The Cube and Lower Merve take the single track going north out of the parking lot. 

A brilliantly hued, highly textured Dakota boulder in Dalla was sculpted over time by our most patient artisan, Nature.

Birket Trailhead

The Birket Trailhead offers access to the trail system from a residential neighborhood with limited parking. There are two opportunities to leave the Birket Trail and go west into Dalla. Stay to the right at both splits and you will be at Powerline Junction in just over half a mile. From there, I think we've pretty well established the possibilities are endless. Along the way you will pass by the brightest and biggest Morrison boulder I've seen anywhere on the mountain.

Durango Trails  

Current trail conditions may be found on the Durango Trails website. Durango Trails has an agreement with both the BLM and City of Durango to build, maintain, and facilitate the multi-use trail system on the mountain. Since the early 1980s the volunteer-based advocacy group has focused on providing access and connectivity inside town and out into wild places. There are 300 miles of trails within 30 minutes of downtown Durango.

 

Be Kind To The Animals  

By December, ungulates have migrated from the high country to winter rangeland where they take refuge until food is once again available in higher elevations. Over winter, deer and elk lose 30 to 40 percent of their body weight. The animals are vulnerable, hiding places scant. You may not see the game but they see you and flee, burning calories that are not replenished. Be kind to the animals and honor the closure. Don't travel beyond the green gates.

 

It seems just right that Historic Durango is concentrated between Animas City Mountain on the north and Smelter Mountain on the south. This image was shot from Smelter during a blissfully quiet time in November of 2024.