Exploring the Historic San Juan Triangle

Exploring the Historic San Juan Triangle is a guide to the heart of Colorado's San Juan Mountains. Our description calls it a revised and expanded version of Mountain Mysteries, which for thirty years was the primary guide to the San Juan Triangle. P. David Smith takes readers on a grand tour of the range.

A bookseller's listing adds detail we found worth passing on. The revision adds chapters on Telluride, Silverton, Ouray and Lake City, along with notes on small communities, some still living and some long abandoned. It covers hiking, jeep touring and auto touring routes, and the listing bills it as the number one jeeping guide of the San Juan Mountains.

The description promises rare photographs, specially drawn maps and new trips. For a backcountry book, that matters: a good map and an old photograph tell you what a ruined cabin used to be. It is a book to keep in the vehicle and to study at the kitchen table before you go. Because listings disagree on its edition details, we have left out the page count and publication year, and the retailer link on this page is the place to confirm them.

This is a book for people who go into the San Juans with a vehicle, boots or both. Jeepers will want the road tours, hikers will want the route notes, and history-minded visitors to Telluride, Silverton, Ouray and Lake City will want the town chapters. Owners of the earlier Mountain Mysteries can use it as the updated edition. It reads best as a companion to a map, and it also works as armchair reading for anyone planning a summer trip.

P. David Smith wrote this guide, a revision of his earlier Mountain Mysteries, and a later book in our catalogue takes the whole range as its subject. Personal details about Smith are scarce on the web, and we have not filled the gap with guesses. Go to his author page to see that later book and the others.

More about P. David Smith →

The San Juans are one of Colorado's great mountain ranges. According to Wikipedia, the highest point is Uncompahgre Peak at 14,321 feet, and the range holds dozens of summits above 12,000 feet. Much of it lies within the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests, and the Weminuche Wilderness covers 499,771 acres.

The range is also part of the Colorado Mineral Belt, which explains why people came. Wikipedia says prospectors trespassing on the Ute reservation found silver in 1869, and the Brunot Agreement, ratified by Congress on April 24, 1874, forced the Utes to cede the San Juan Mountains. Camp Bird and Smuggler Union became famous mines between Telluride and Ouray.

Travelers today follow the 236-mile San Juan Skyway through the same country. The Idarado Mine on Red Mountain Pass closed in the 1970s, and Telluride Airport, at 9,070 feet, is listed as the highest in the United States with regularly scheduled commercial service.

Source: Wikipedia, San Juan Mountains