Planning on doing a thru hike from Denver to Durango this summer. I’ve noticed that the Greyhound no longer services the Durango area. I just wanted to ask if anyone has any advice on a safe/affordable/quick way to get back to Denver.
My current plan is to hitch…are there any other buses/shuttles I could look into?
Thanks alot!
-SixString, SOBO '09
six-string
I rented a car a few years ago for that trip. The Greyhound was still running but it went through Grand Junction and took about 22 hours. The car cost about $100 plus gas. I also checked ride boards at Ft Lewis College, but no luck in mid-summer.
Garlic
http://www.blackhillsstagelines.com/schedules.asp
If you can get yourself to alamosa or gunnison here’s one possibility
Andrew M
Durango has an airport with regularly scheduled flights to Denver on Frontier and United.
One way fares are about $150
wandering bob
Just turn around and walk back, if you don’t have an extra month to spare then your not doing it right. :cheers
Guino
If you have the time, take this opportunity to knock out 165 more miles of the CDT southbound to NM. If you return to do the CDT in NM, you won’t have to worry about timing it to the snowpack in CO and can skip north quite a ways.
Rent a car in Durango. Drive to Wolf Creek Pass and put in a cache. Return the car in Durango, catch the Scenic RR to Silverton. You can either get off at the Elk Park stop and walk up to the CT, then 9 miles up to the CT/CDT split, or go into Silverton. There, get a commercial jeep tour up to the CT at Stoney Pass. Walk south on the CT 6 miles to the CT/CDT split. Stoney Pass involves a LOT less elevation gain to the split (1000 vs. 3800).
When you get the CO/NM border at Cumbres Pass, hitch into Chama. North Central Regional Transit bus from Chama to Espanola runs Tues and Thurs 2x/day. In Espanola, transfer to Espinos-Sante Fe bus. Take cab to Santa Fe airport.
Wandering Bob
I agree totally Guino. I figured I could take the 150 dollars worth of travel expense it’d probably cost to finagle my way back and/or pay a friend to come get me and pay for almost all of the food needed to walk back…
I’m doing a yo-yo this year for sure.
Nicholas
In Espanola, transfer to Espinos-Sante Fe bus. Take cab to Santa Fe airport.
Or, as suggested recently in the CDT forum, take the Railrunner on to ABQ for $7, then fly out of the big city for cheaper fare via Southwest.
To muse idly, would a Colorado Trail yo-yo have the same fun factor, challenge factor, and/or good ol’ sense of purpose that yo-yo’ing one of the truly long distance trails would offer? Part of the appeal to a traditional 2000+ mile yo-yo, beyond merely garnering the impressive accomplishment, is that such a trail is long enough to offer a truly different perspective on the return trip. The seasons change as you go along, and after a few hundred miles, it’s as if you’re in terra incognita, given the passage of time since you were last there. This sense of the trail being new and fresh on the return only becomes truer the longer into the return leg, and might start to kick in around the time a CT yo-yo’er arrived back in Denver.
Food for thought in terms of applying energies in a productive and rewarding way… or not. Just putting the idea out there.
blisterfree
^^ Wow that’s deep. I hope to one day I can set aside the time to yoyo one of the big three.
If you have the time, instead of yoyoing, you could just continue south on the CDT into new mexico and fly out of the ABQ airport. I’ve heard good things about that stretch of trail. Also there is rainbow hot springs close by which would be a chill stop
Andrew M
I thought the same thing, but the seasons change rather quick in the high country. The full hiking season of the CT is shorter than most of the long distance trails by quite a bit as well.
Also, the fall trip is definitely completely different (elks bugling, different fishing/bugs, temps/colors, etc). I also assume that the views would be completely different all around. You’d see the opposite side of every peak you pass on the way back.
I’ll let you know if it was the same trip x2 after I do it this summer 
Nicholas