Durango Mountain Resort

I want to start off by saying I haven’t skied here, and I didn’t take lodgings here, but I did wander around up the mountain behind the lodge this summer. It is beautiful even though it was early summer. While I was up there I ran into the sweetest employee/​master electrician I believe, Craig Butler. He is so knowledgeable of this area and I got to see some great views and scenes I would not otherwise have seen. Thank you so much to him for the mini tour and the info to see other great sites in this area.

I live in Phoenix and my family has a home in Engineer Village at DMR. Earlier in the year, I got engaged and my (now) husband and I knew that we wanted to do a destination wedding in Durango. We toured a few venues in the area and even though we did not choose to have our wedding at Purgatory Resort, we enlisted in their help to cater our rehearsal dinner earlier this month and to shuttle our guests from their lodging at the mountain to our venue which was over an hour away.
I have to say, the main reason I sought out their assistance was their Wedding & Event Manager Sara Bath. This girl is A-​M-​A-​Z-​I-​N-​G!!! She was so friendly, helped answer our questions in a timely manner and was BY far the most professional person I met during my venue interviewing process in Durango. Our rehearsal barbecue went off without a hitch and the staff was so professional and friendly to our guests. Sara introduced be to Matt Nesbit who also helped with our transportation needs throughout the week. This guy was awesome to work with too!
I am so happy with my experience with the staff of Purgatory Resort. It will be a place that I continue to visit throughout the years, but I have to say… it was so nice to work with people who were both pleasant and professional. I want to especially thank Sara, Matt and the staff who catered our BBQ– you all truly made our wedding weekend special and I will never forget you guys!

Our room is in the Kendall building at Durango Mountain Resort. It is spacious and definitely a great value. Granite kitchen, one of our two bathrooms was recently updated, and there are two separate patios. The washer and dryer in the suite is a big bonus. I would imagine that rooms vary widely based on individual owner and we got lucky with this one.
We did many of the tourist activities today and they are literally right outside the hotel. Standard resort pricing, not too out of control and lots of fun for the kids.
The pool, spa and workout facilities are above average and the pool has a fun little water slide, all with amazing mountain views.

Can’t say anything about the hotel or ancillary businesses, well, except the deli, which was fine, but the summer activities were a blast! Loved the alpine slide and loved the scenic chair lift (with deer and marmots to accompany the breathtaking views). Had it not been muddy and our son perhaps a little young, we would have also loved to try the mountain biking. The staff was friendly, in a crunchy way, and they seemed to be enjoying their time on the mountain, too. The waits weren’t too bad, except when a bit of rain crept in. It was totally worth the three trips over from Pagosa Springs it took to catch a (mostly) clear bit of weather. In fact, the interference of the frequent precipitation above Durango was the only (slight) drag, but you can’t blame the place for the weather that in the winter is its reason for existence. All in all, it was a highlight of a trip to a pretty great area, if you have a youngish kid, especially.

Was in need of a simple repair to my handicapped granddaughters bike today. After hearing excuses at a competing store three miles down the road, we took the bike here and met Donald. After explaining the situation to Donald, he replied «no problem «. Within five minutes, he had the bike repaired at no charge. Thanks to Donald, my granddaughter is all smiles. Kudos to Donald and the smart person who hired him.

I only came here once when a group of friends rented a house for a random weekend so I can’t say how good the snow is here normally, but the weekend I came up, they were having a snow storm and the slopes were absolutely amazing! The lift tickets were around $ 70, and for having a epic value pass, I was almost reluctant to come here but it is worth every dollar.
They have a separate area of the mountain where it looks like they have the ski and snowboard lessons, as well as many new beginners falling down the mountain in this area. This was nice because I didn’t have to maneuver around beginners and worry about someone running into me like I do with many of the other mountains because we do not share the same runs.
This convenience would have already made me rate this resort with 5 starts, but the cheery on top was the huge, open runs and the gorgeous rolling hills this mountain had. It was not crowded, and I just had a very enjoyable experience. The mountain was powdery in every run we took and as a snowboarder, I had one of my best days riding at this resort.
I would HIGHLY recommend coming here on a day they get a lot of snow, and I hope to come back soon.

Really having a good time skiing here. My youngest is having a blast in his second day of ski school and has progressed very well for a first timer. I was real impressed with his instructor and how well he interacted with my ten year old. I hadn’t skied in 30 years and took a refresher class for a half day. Julie was a great instructor.
It is spring break and pretty crowded, but there are so many runs that most are not crowded at all and the lift lines are very short.

Seems to be a big variance in reviews from those who stay here in summer vs the winter guests. So for your info — our family stayed here for winter.
We absolutely loved the resort! Everyone was super friendly and helpful from start to finish: the reservation process before we arrived was so smooth and accommodating, front desk was very helpful, and the equipment rental experience was so refreshingly organized. This is such a pleasant surprise, as I am usually used to such chaos during rentals (especially with children in tow). Every thing is so convenient, it makes it perfect for families;the lodge, rentals, ski school and child care are all close by.
Some of the lodge rooms are more updated than others, so keep that in mind. We stayed in an older building, and found it very suitable for our needs. But we did notice the «swankier» condos while exploring the resort (ha).
Skiing experience was good. I did notice a curious lack of snow boarders… Not sure if it was an anomaly or a local thing or what. In any case, my family skies, so that is my focus. I am more of a casual bunny hill skier, and was happy with my options. My husband skis more aggressive blacks and was very happy with the runs as well. There is plenty here to make anyone happy. And the resort is an exceptional value.
Bonus: The city of Durango is only 20 – 30 minutes south of the resort, which is convenient for groceries and more restaurant options.

We absolutely hate crowds, so we make it a point of NEVER skiing or traveling period during a notoriously busy holiday season IF we can help it. This year things were different. We found ourselves in the town of Durango during Christmas week as part of a long road trip from Austin and wanted to at least get one day of skiing in. Bracing for the worst, we prepared ourselves mentally for the long lift lines and crowded runs and headed up the mountain on December 26. Here is the breakdown of our experience:
PROS:
— NO lift lines and NO crowds. Not once that day! Anywhere! During the busiest ski week of the year!
— Lots of wide, really well groomed blues and greens (even after 5 days with no fresh powder) and EMPTY!
— Friendly, patient staff, including the kid’s ski school.
CONS:
— Poor trail signage at times. You would start on one run and then hit a fork in the road and not know where to go. Just a bit frustrating.
— Not much by way of on mountain food options or apres ski.
— 45 minutes to rent equipment. This was the one snafu. Always better to just rent off mountain.
On a side note, we did put our son into the group ski school for the day and were disappointed in his progress at the end of the day. As a beginner, he had taken lessons a couple of times before elsewhere and did really well, but this time he seemed very cautious and apprehensive even after being up on the mountain for several hours. I’m guessing they did an okay job of reinforcing the basics, but the next day we decided to save our money and take him to Kendall Mountain out in Silverton just to practice with us (and for less than a fourth of the cost of Durango!) and he greatly improved.
All in all, 3.5 stars for a really good intermediate skiing experience but without some of the amenities you may want and expect from a larger resort.

Mountain was fine. My review is for the customer service. When you charge $ 9-​$ 12 for a locker, the least you can do is have guest services available to open it if it jams up. We took the last lift up at 3:59pm and had pizza in the restaurant below the lockers. Bad idea. By the time we were done at 5:30 and realized the locker was stuck, NO ONE WAS AVAILABLE TO HELP US. Not even the help line listed on top of the lockers. Unacceptable for a decent sized resort. Truck keys, clothes, wallets were all inside. No thank you DMR. We will drive to Wolf Creek next time. Total crap.

For a summertime vacation spot, I’d give the resort itself few stars. The staff was unprofessional. Often times I received the response of «whatever» or «I don’t know.» They also charged the wrong credit card after they told me they wouldn’t. When I called the front desk to correct this error, they were really nice about changing it. I expected that level of courtesy throughout the weekend.
Also, the first night we slept in a room that butted up against another room, and we could hear every word the people in the room next to ours said. We stayed in the Village Center Hotel and when we brought the problem to the front desk, they switched our rooms. They put us in a room with no neighbors, which was a welcome relief. I would have really appreciated a room upgrade to make up for the lack of sleep the night before.
The bright side:
Loved lounging out by the pool. They have this neat water slide that leads into the pool and they’re really easy going about you taking food into the pool area and eating as you sit out. It’s also gorgeous up there.
It’s a kick ass ski mountain. Looking forward to skiing there this winter.

Second summer back and always a great family experince. The Alpine slide is always a blast, and Purgy’s always serves up some great libations!

I’m giving Durango Mountain Resort the benefit of the doubt. I felt like my experience here was more like 3 stars, but our visit took place during the summer and the lack of a crowd meant a lack of energy and a lack of open facilities. I’m sure that had we planned our visit during ski season (which this resort clearly is meant for) our experience would have been nothing less than worthy of four stars.
One thing that’s different about this ski resort is that it is not actually located in the town of Durango or in any kind of town at all. It’s actually about 20 miles or so outside of Durango (one of the loveliest and most outdoorsy towns of Colorado) in its own little village. Actually, I don’t know if I’d call it a village, but there are a few shops and restaurants located right at the base of the mountain. Unfortunately, the shops and restaurants were closed when we needed them most during our visit. I believe most places close around 5pm during the summer which is not the most convenient to those of us checking in around 8pm. Luckily, someone was able to direct us to a local pizza joint three miles down the road where we could order some take-​out.
We stayed in one of the two bedroom condos with some friends of ours on a Saturday night (yep, everything was completely closed down even on a Saturday evening). We paid $ 272 for our night there which I thought was pretty damn expensive for one night at a small ski resort in the summer. Granted, our room was really nice and had everything we could have needed (except food!). It was very spacious with two bedrooms, two full baths, an open kitchen, and a comfy living room. There was a large dining table and plenty of seating at the countertop bar. The bedrooms were pretty large (especially the master!) and the bathrooms were great. I loved the oversized shower… especially after two nights of tent camping.
I would be happy to return to Durango Mountain Resort… especially because the town of Durango seemed to have so much to offer… but would prefer to check out the mountain during the winter. It really is beautiful here! This is the perfect mountain for families and those looking for something a little less glamorous. It doesn’t compare to your Breckenridge or Vail ski towns, but really has its own unique feel. There were a ton of summer activities for families to choose from (also not cheap, but not totally unreasonable either): sled slide, bungee trampoline, scenic chair lift ride, mini golf, frisbee golf, zip lining (from a building), and more.
Have fun!

We stayed at Durango Mountain Resort in a condo available through VRBO (
) on the East Rim. Via the condo we had full access to the Resort, including to the Members Only Club which included a gym and pool — which were fantastic! We were traveling with our toddler and there was plenty of room for him to run around without having to worry about traffic, which was great. We had easy access to the highway and also to amazing hiking on the backside of Purgatory, which was a simple car ride over well maintained roads. There are TONS of summer activities for kids — I’d say maybe 5-​year-​olds and up. Our toddler enjoyed watching the Alpine slide and miniature golf and the trampolines and mountain bikes. He’s a little too young to participate, but also too young to be too frustrated that he couldn’t join in.
The only reason I’m not giving five stars is that every time we had to interact with staff at the resort they seemed a little annoyed and not very in synch. I’m guessing the winter time is different, but the summer staff didn’t seem very engaged. At one point I heard a girl at the front desk say she was over it and just wrote us a parking pass and gave us keys to the club without fully checking our reservation — which wasn’t included on the «updated» sheet. Easy for us, but a little sloppy.
We’ll definitely go back to Durango Mountain Resort and highly recommend it for a vacation with kids — from toddlers to teens!

BEST VACATION EVER!!! as spoken by my kids. They ranked it above Disney World or the beach.
We arrived to our 3 bedroom unit in the Purgatory Lodge and I was amazed. I’m guessing 2500 square feet of luxury. My wife and I commented more than once that it was big enough for us to just live in. The property was great, from the pool, exercise rooms, club house to all the activities. The older kids rented mountain bikes, we did the alpine sleds, bungee jumping, etc. The staff made sure that we were well taken care of. It is on our list to return one winter for skiing.

FUN! That’s really what this mountain is about.
For a destination ski vacation in mid to late February and March, definitely put Purgatory at the top of the list. A group of us split time between here and Wolf Creek mid Feb ’07. What impressed us the most was the amount of fun we were all having. Having gone on many group trips, it has always been hard to keep the group together because of ability ranges — not at this mountain. Black and blue runs are nicely paired for everyone to ride the same lift time and again.
Purgatory is not know for its snowfall, so it may be a little hit or miss getting fresh tracks and a deep base. From talking to the locals, mid to late February and March is really the time to ski this place. Spring snows in April would be even better, but since the resort is on Forest Service land their permit requires shutting down at the end of March.
A little on the smaller side and geared toward the family, this resort is growing rapidly and is in the process of adding on. You can expect modern facilities, fast lifts, and plenty of shops at the base village.