Durango is the county seat and the most populous municipality of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 19,071 in 2020. Durango draws thousands of tourists year-round for the myriad outdoor recreational activities and scenic beauty.

The city's biggest tourist draw is a nine-hour historic train ride pulled by a vintage steam locomotive. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, was built in the 1880s. It was built to transport gold and silver ore from the more than 4,000 mining claims in and around Silverton, Colorado, to the smelters and mills in Durango, 45 miles to the south. Today it takes tourists for a 47-mile journey through mountains and forests, crosses the Animas River five times, passes abandoned mines on its' way to historic Silverton and then chugging back at no more than 20 miles per hour..

There are lots of other fun things to do for ountain bikers, rafters, kayakers, horseback riders, rock climbers, hikers, campers, hunters and fishermen. They are drawn to the two-million acre San Juan National Forest and to the San Juan mountains, the largest range in the Rockies. Skiers flock to the Durango Mountain Resort in winter.