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River of Lost Souls: Rafting the Upper Animas River

The Needleton Section: Needleton Stop to the Tacoma Power Station
Average CFS – Silverton: 290 / Durango: 870
Saturday & Sunday, June 6-7, 2026

Last November during their annual Black Friday sale, Jackson and I had booked a day trip for this Saturday on the Upper Piedra River near Pagosa Springs with Mild to Wild Rafting, but after the dismal winter we’ve had here in the San Juan Mountains there just wasn’t enough water for the trip this year, so last weekend we were contacted by the company to see about switching to the Upper Animas River which thankfully did have enough water, albeit for a brief season anyways. Since the Upper Animas is one of the trips we were planning to do eventually and they gave us such a great deal to switch, we couldn’t say no! As an added bonus, since the only way to reach the put-in at Needleton, other than hiking in, is by train, I would finally be able to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which is something I’ve wanted to do for over two decades but never really made a priority. So, despite all the last minute changes to our plans, we were both looking forward to our first rafting trip down the River of Lost Souls!

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Weminuche Wanderings: Lime Mesa to Overlook Point

Mountain View Crest of the Weminuche Wilderness
Friday – Saturday, August 26-27, 2022

Since I was going to be leaving after work on Monday afternoon for a weeklong trip into northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, I wanted to be home on Sunday to make sure that I was prepped and packed for the trip, so that left me with only one day this weekend to get out hiking. My plans for last weekend had been thwarted by stormy weather in the high country, so I decided to retry part of those plans with a short hike into the Weminuche Wilderness from the end of the road on Lime Mesa between Silverton and Durango. As usual, I left right from work on Friday afternoon and headed south on the Million Dollar Highway and was able to watch the most recent storm system clearing out as I drove over Red Mountain Pass, Molas Pass and Coal Bank Pass through the heart of the San Juan Mountains. After reaching the very northern tip of the Animas River Valley I headed up the Missionary Ridge Road in search of a campsite to spend the night.

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