Telluride was perhaps the raunchiest Colorado boom town. I stayed a few miles south of town at Skyline Guest Ranch. In the heart of summer, Skyline accepts only weeklong stays. The best alternative in town is the Ice House, with its big balconies and Navajo rugs and lots of common area for kids to run wild. The next morning, I headed over Lizard Head Pass, named for the odd rock snout poking into the air, and down Highway 145 in one long swoop out of the mountains.
Kids can stone-grind corn, weave a blanket or examine bone awls and pot shards under a microscope.
Sixteen miles farther on, I entered Mesa Verde National Park to see the mysterious cliff dwellings where 10,000 people lived in the 12th century, only to vanish in the 13th. The cliff dwellings themselves are strangely affecting, their towers and tiny doorways untouched by time, as if their inhabitants had only just departed. By the time I arrived in Durango, its several stoplights seemed positively urban. In Louis L'Amour's hometown is one of Colorado's better bookstores. Maria's on Main Street features regional literature, including a shelf full of photocopied volumes of cowboy poetry, dropped off by authors passing through.