{"id":26514,"date":"2024-07-23T23:12:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T23:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-million-dollar-guided-trek-in-the-san-juan-mountains\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:41:00","slug":"a-million-dollar-guided-trek-in-the-san-juan-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-million-dollar-guided-trek-in-the-san-juan-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u2018Million Dollar\u2019 guided trek in the San Juan Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Descending
Descending from a high pass in the San Juan Mountains (Courtesy of Patrick Ormond)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Million Dollar Trek \u2013 named after the famed Million Dollar Highway that connects Ouray and Silverton \u2013 is a five-day, four-night guided trip in the San Juan Mountains, where trekkers travel lightly, carrying nothing more than a daypack.<\/p>\n

You may be wondering, \u201cHow can hikers possibly go so long with so little gear?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because they\u2019ll be hiking between huts where they\u2019ll sleep and eat two meals a day, eliminating the need for heavy packs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s packs are fairly light, so it allows us to cover ground a little more easily than if we were loaded down with full backpacking packs,\u201d said Patrick Ormond, a guide with the San Juan Mountain Guides for 15 years.<\/p>\n

In the daypacks, all trekkers need to bring is food for the day and clothing layers, Ormond said.<\/p>\n

The rest of the gear will be waiting for them each night at one of the three backcountry huts nestled in the San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The range spans 12,000 square miles and is regularly celebrated for its striking beauty. It falls along the Continental Divide and Mineral Belt, where people have historically mined for silver, gold and other minerals.<\/p>\n

Ormond said its rich mining history is part of what makes the trek possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re connecting it all, these three huts, with a variety of different trails and old mining trails \u2026 so it\u2019s an amazing path that links up all these different high alpine basins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anyone can book spaces and take a four-wheel drive up to the privately owned huts. There\u2019s also a lot of different mountain huts in the state and around America.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at most of those huts \u2026 you\u2019re self-supported. \u2026 You\u2019re bringing a sleeping bag, a pad and you might have to bring a stove, you\u2019re bringing your food and you\u2019re cooking,\u201d said Ormond. \u201cThe more European Alp style, like what we\u2019re doing, you don\u2019t really find it anywhere else in the U.S. It\u2019s a pretty cool thing to have right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each day, trekkers travel 6 to 11 miles, while gaining between 2,000 and 4,500 feet in elevation on terrain that\u2019s sometimes steep and loose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not all on manicured trails \u2026 so it does take a little bit of knowledge of the terrain,\u201d said Ormond. \u201cI think a lot of folks want to do it with a guide, to have that comfort of mind while they\u2019re out there to make sure they\u2019re going the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up until the very end of the last day, the trek is above the tree line, at altitudes upward of 11,000 feet. Even when it\u2019s hot down in the valley in the summers, it\u2019s always cool and more comfortable up there, Ormond said.<\/p>\n

But because of this high elevation, Ormond recommends that people coming from sea level arrive at least a few days in advance to allow their body to adjust.<\/p>\n

Though this marks the second summer of the Million Dollar Trek, the guiding company has hosted a similar trip and on a similar route, but on skis for about four years now, in early spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast summer, we said, \u2018Why don\u2019t we do this in the summer, let\u2019s give this a try\u2019 and so we put some dates out and people jumped on it. They pretty much all filled up,\u201d Ormond said.<\/p>\n

This summer, there are eight guided treks. They\u2019ll go into early October to see peak Aspen colors. The trip costs $2,199, and if you\u2019re interested you can sign up at bit.ly\/MillionDollarTrek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since the early 1990s, the San Juan Mountain Guides have been guiding in the range. It\u2019s mostly been climbing-centric for that time, whether it be scaling the more technical 13ers and 14ers or ice climbing.<\/p>\n

They also offer a lot of backcountry skiing in the winter, and wilderness trekking too.<\/p>\n

The Million Dollar Trek is just a new addition to what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in the zone for a long time, we know these mountains well. We\u2019re psyched to get out with people and show them what\u2019s here,\u201d said Ormond. \u201cHuman-powered activity up in the mountains, it\u2019s highly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

marks the second year of hut-to-hut-to-hut backcountry trekking trips led by the San Juan Mountain Guides <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2967,28,658,29,976,1309],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-guide","tag-headlines","tag-hiking","tag-newsletter","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-san-juan-mountains"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26514","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=26514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79381,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26514\/revisions\/79381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26514"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}