{"id":24215,"date":"2024-12-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tourism-strong-at-purgatory-resort-durango-hot-springs-as-winter-arrives\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:50:09","slug":"tourism-strong-at-purgatory-resort-durango-hot-springs-as-winter-arrives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tourism-strong-at-purgatory-resort-durango-hot-springs-as-winter-arrives\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism strong at Purgatory Resort, Durango Hot Springs as winter arrives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The unofficial first chair of the ski season leaves the base on Saturday as Purgatory Resort opens for the weekend with bonus days thanks to recent storms and snowmaking. The resort officially opens Nov. 16. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Santa Claus brought a sliver of snow and strong business to the Durango area this holiday season, according to representatives of Durango Hot Springs and Purgatory Resort on Friday.<\/p>\n

Durango Hot Springs Operations Manager Mason Quick said the hot springs and Purgatory share many guests, who hit the slopes during the day and return to town to soak it up in the springs\u2019 therapeutic water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time of year, Durango has a very healthy economy, especially with hospitality and tourism,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s just something that we\u2019re all very happy about, the great visitation between Purgatory, the hot springs and the train,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Durango Hot Springs\u2019 spa proves popular during the holidays, particularly for new esthetician services such as facials, infrared light therapy and Animas River stone massages and therapy. Quick said the hot springs have been pushing holiday gift boxes, certificates and cards for the holidays, which visitors and locals alike have taken advantage of.<\/p>\n

Destination visitors and locals have made up most of the hot springs\u2019 market this holiday season, which has had a steady stream of visitors in line with previous Decembers, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocals like to bring in their family members that aren\u2019t from the area and\/or friends that have never seen this area or this side of Colorado before,\u201d Quick said.<\/p>\n

Most travelers to the hot springs are within the \u201cdrive market,\u201d meaning they are within driving distance of Durango. But, he said, it sees a fair amount of travelers from abroad, especially from European and Asian countries where hot springs and spas are highly valued.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango Hot Springs Operations Manager Mason Quick said many of the hot springs\u2019 guests this time of year arrive ready to soak after a day of riding the ski trails at Purgatory Resort. He said business is fairly steady this holiday season compared to previous years, with its primary clientele market consisting of locals and travelers within driving distance. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Purgatory Marketing Manager Matt Ericksen said skiers enjoyed 82 out of 107 trails serviced by 10 lifts on Friday after receiving 9 inches of fresh snow over Wednesday and Thursday and another 4 inches of snow Thursday night into Friday morning. More snow is on the way too, by the looks of the forecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like another couple of storms are coming in,\u201d he said, referencing a storm incoming Friday and another storm expected on Sunday. \u201c\u2026 Our snowmaking team has been hard at work to make the mountain what it is right now, which is in fantastic shape. And then with Mother Nature\u2019s help, obviously, the mountains have gotten even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he expects more trails to open by Sunday.<\/p>\n

Texas, New Mexico and Arizona license plates were abound in the ski resort\u2019s parking lot over the holiday, he said, and locals\u2019 pent-up demand for skiing is also evident.<\/p>\n

He attributed Purgatory\u2019s strong seasonal business, which he said may be the best the resort\u2019s had in recent years, to low ticket prices and crew work to prepare the mountain for the winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mountain ops crew had commented that even our sledding hill is (in) the best shape that it\u2019s been in, maybe ever,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve redesigned that hill and that approach to sledding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erickson added that the backside of the mountain is in good condition for backcountry skiing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mountain is in really good shape everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

visitors hit the slopes before taking a dip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,950,28,1753,712,2678,1187],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-holiday-or-vacation","tag-purgatory","tag-religious-festival-or-holiday","tag-tourism"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78443,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24215\/revisions\/78443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24215"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}