Western Slope
Archuleta County
22 Porch Notes tied to Archuleta County — the local details that change from one part of Colorado to the next.
Money and taxes (1)
Home and property (1)
Water and land (3)
Water and land
Navajo State Park is Archuleta County's big-water boating spot
Navajo State Park near Arboles is the county's large reservoir for boating and fishing, and like other Colorado waters it requires a park pass and a boat inspection for aquatic nuisance species.
Read note ->Water and land
Near the San Juan River, a well is its own kind of water question
Many rural Archuleta County properties rely on a well, and a well permit comes with limits that are separate from how close a parcel sits to the San Juan River.
Read note ->Water and land
Soaking above the world's deepest measured hot spring
Pagosa Springs sits above the Mother Spring, a geothermal spring so deep that the plumb line never found the bottom, and you can soak in the riverside pools it feeds.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire (8)
Outdoors and wildfire
Check the avalanche forecast before winter travel near Wolf Creek Pass
The high terrain around Wolf Creek Pass gets heavy snow and slides, and it falls within the Colorado Avalanche Information Center's Southern San Juan forecast zone, which winter backcountry users should read before heading out.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Chimney Rock National Monument is a seasonal, ancestral place
Chimney Rock National Monument protects an Ancestral Puebloan site between Pagosa Springs and Durango, and it is open only part of the year with rules that protect both the ruins and the living cultures tied to them.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
In Pagosa Springs bear country, trash is the real issue
Archuleta County is black bear country, and most human-bear conflicts trace back to unsecured trash and other attractants rather than to aggressive bears.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Piedra River fishing rules change by the stretch
Fishing rules on the Piedra River in Archuleta County can differ by segment under Colorado Parks and Wildlife's special regulations, so the rule that applies depends on exactly where you are standing.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
The South San Juan Wilderness is the county's remote high country
East of Pagosa Springs, the South San Juan Wilderness holds glacial peaks above 13,000 feet and long trails reached by Forest Service back roads, making it some of the most remote ground in the county.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
The Weminuche Wilderness has its own set of rules
Much of the high country above Pagosa Springs is designated wilderness, where camping and travel follow stricter rules than the rest of the San Juan National Forest.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Treasure Falls drops 105 feet on the climb up Wolf Creek Pass
Treasure Falls is a tall cascade on Fall Creek about 15 miles northeast of Pagosa Springs, just over the line in Mineral County, with a short but steep climb to its base off US 160.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Williams Creek Reservoir is a wildlife area, not a state park
Williams Creek Reservoir, reached up the Piedra Road country north of Pagosa Springs, sits just across the line in Hinsdale County and is a State Wildlife Area, so access follows hunting and fishing rules rather than state park rules.
Read note ->Cars and driving (1)
Local rules (1)
History and culture (7)
History and culture
How Archuleta County and Pagosa Springs got their names
The county carries a Hispanic family name from the San Luis Valley, while the town's name comes from a Ute word tied to its famous spring.
Read note ->History and culture
Pagosa's old waterworks is now its history museum
The San Juan Historical Museum in Pagosa Springs sits in the town's former waterworks building and keeps Archuleta County's local history.
Read note ->History and culture
The ancient sky-watchers of Chimney Rock
The ruins at Chimney Rock were a high-elevation Ancestral Puebloan village tied to the Chaco world, built where two stone spires frame events in the sky.
Read note ->History and culture
The first Fort Lewis stood at Pagosa Springs
A frontier Army post once guarded the Pagosa Springs area in the late 1870s, an early Fort Lewis that later moved west, shaping the town's beginnings.
Read note ->History and culture
The hot spring that gave Pagosa Springs its name
The geothermal spring at the center of Pagosa Springs has drawn people since long before the town existed, and its story includes Ute and earlier Native histories that deserve careful telling.
Read note ->History and culture
The railroad spur that ran on Pagosa Springs timber
A narrow-gauge line tied to the Denver and Rio Grande once reached Pagosa Springs, and the lumber it hauled out shaped the town's early economy.
Read note ->History and culture
This was Ute homeland, and it still is Ute country
Archuleta County lies within long-held Ute homeland, and the 1873 Brunot Agreement is part of the difficult history of how those lands changed hands.
Read note ->