INDEX

A complete hiking and climbing guide to the La Plata Mountains of Southwest Colorado. You will also find San Juan Mountain favorites as well as selections from around the Southwest. Link to the region you desire where you will find an alphabetical list of the hikes.

Thomas Holt Ward, Photo

Feature Hike: Hovenweep National Monument is located on the border of Utah and Colorado within the ancestral homeland of 26 Indigenous Tribes and Nations. The monument is distinctive for the stonemasonry towers built on isolated and irregular boulders in the mid-1200s.

La Plata Mountains, Colorado 

San Juan Mountains, Rocky Mountains, Colorado 

Durango, Colorado and Locations Nearby

New Mexico and Texas

National Parks and Monuments

Southern Utah, Northern Arizona 

Southern Arizona

Sierra Nevada Mountains, Basin and Range Province

 

Debra's Message to Earthline Readers: In early September, 2025, I suffered an injury that has compromised my ability to hike. I am scheduled for surgery in February, 2026 and will recover over the next six months. I miss our mountains grievously and I miss recording my marvel for you to read. Don't give up hope!

  

Field Guide!  Debra and her partner Tomás have published a hiking guide to the La Plata Mountains. Buy it at our local bookshop, Maria's in Durango, CO, or use this link:

About Debra and this blog.

Special thanks to CalTopo for the web tools used in constructing the maps on this blog.

 

An important message from author Steve Allen about tithing for wilderness.

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. Tennessee Williams

Debra Van Winegarden (Thomas Holt Ward, photo)