Hermosa is a backyard treasure

By Ty Churchwell Just eight miles from Durango’s city limits is the 107,000-acre Hermosa Creek Special Management Area and Wilderness. Enacted in 2014, the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act is the result of a community coming together for a favorite backyard playground for locals and a destination for America’s public land visitors who flock to the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado each year.    Prior to the passage of the…

Living off the land

A woman picks berries in the Colorado high country.

In the summer, I think I could live off the land — with a bit more education. Wild raspberries and strawberries, wildflowers, wild trout, some wild onions, mushrooms and cattails would make a smorgasbord. The trout tend to come easily in the high-mountain streams I frequent, but too bad I’m a vegetarian as they would be the only filling menu item. I guess I have more learning to do.…