Dunton Hot Springs travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises, spa and resorts

Tucked away in the San Juan Mountains, this romantic old mining town turned resort offers a refreshingly new tourist experience. Although the town where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are rumored to have hidden after robbing a bank in Telluride in 1889 may appear sleepy, nothing could be further from the truth. There is abundance of activities to satisfy even the most hyper vacationer.

Take a horse into the terrain to discover thunderous waterfalls and silent lakes, go desert hiking, heli-skiing, or snowmobiling in virgin powder, get your adrenaline pumping with river rafting, or enjoy a gentle afternoon’s fly fishing on the Wet Dolores. 

Stay in finely furnished hand-hewn log cabins, dine on delicious local organic cuisine in an old saloon, enjoy reviving holistic Elemis treatments in a tepee. Plus of course you can soak in the town’s natural, therapeutic hot springs, as the Ute Indians did thousands of years ago. 

An array of fascinating sites lies just a short distance away, including haunting Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly in the Navajo Reservation, and the town’s own vineyard in McElmo Canyon. And how about having the whole town to yourself? Dunton Hot Springs can be reserved exclusively for private use for up to forty-two people, making it ideal for weddings and family celebrations. 

Location: Colorado, USA. Photos by: JARED VINCENT