- by Ashley Blackmore
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Living in Tamarron: What It’s Actually Like 18 Miles North of Durango
Living in Tamarron: What It’s Actually Like 18 Miles North of Durango
The elk show up first.
Late October, early morning, and there’s a herd standing in the fairway below Highpoint like they pay dues. Somebody’s scraping frost off a Subaru in the parking lot. The Hermosa Cliffs are catching the first light and going that orange they only go for about twenty minutes. Then the sun clears the ridge and it’s over.
That’s Tamarron on a good day, and there are a lot of good days. But people buy here for the mornings and then live with the drive, so let’s talk about both.
Where it is, and why the number matters
Tamarron sits roughly 18 miles north of Durango and about 9 miles south of Purgatory, just east of US Highway 550 (Tamarron Association of Condominium Owners). The whole property covers around 3,000 acres inside the San Juan National Forest, positioned between downtown Durango and the ski area (The Glacier Club).
Eighteen miles. In July that’s twenty-five minutes and a pretty drive. In February it’s a different conversation, and I’ll get to that.
The thing almost every buyer gets confused about
Tamarron and the Glacier Club are not the same thing, and if you’re shopping here you need to understand the difference before you write an offer.
The Glacier Club is the private club. Golf, the clubhouse, the amenities, membership. It also has its own residential real estate, custom homes and homesites scattered across the property.
Tamarron is the condominium community, governed by the Tamarron Association of Condominium Owners, which everybody calls TACO. It’s made up of four buildings: The Lodge with 139 units across five floors and elevator access, Highpoint with 69 deeded units at the north end, Gamble Oak with 99 units at the south end, and Pinecone with 73 units in the middle (TACO). Cliffside Bar and Grille sits on the ground floor of The Lodge.
Here’s the part that trips people up. Buying a Tamarron condo does not automatically make you a Glacier Club member. Club membership is a separate arrangement with its own structure and cost. Some buyers assume the golf comes with the deed. It doesn’t. Ask specifically, in writing, what your unit conveys and what it doesn’t, because the answer changes what you’re actually paying for.
What the place used to be
This matters more than it sounds like it should.
The property was originally developed in the early 1970s as a collection of hotels, a convention center, meeting facilities, and a ski area. It got reimagined in 2001 and turned into the private club residential community it is now (The Glacier Club).
So the bones are resort bones. That’s why The Lodge has an elevator and a restaurant downstairs and hallways that feel like a hotel, because for a long stretch it was one. Some buyers love that. It means you lock the door, walk away for six weeks, and nothing happens. No driveway to plow, no lawn, no gutters.
Other buyers walk in and feel like they’re checking into a room. That reaction is worth paying attention to before you buy, not after.
What you actually get
Zero exterior maintenance
This is the whole pitch, and it’s a good one. Condo ownership at Tamarron means the snow, the roof, the siding, the grounds, all of it is somebody else’s job. For a second home that sits empty half the year, that’s not a convenience. That’s the difference between owning it and dreading it.
Compare that to a place on five acres up Florida Road where you’re paying somebody to plow a quarter-mile driveway every storm whether you’re there or not.
Ski access without ski town prices
Nine miles to Purgatory. That’s a fifteen minute drive on a normal winter morning, which means you’re skiing by nine and home for lunch if you want. You get proximity to the mountain without buying at the base area, and the price difference is real.
The rental angle
Tamarron has been a vacation rental market for decades. That history is a genuine asset, because the infrastructure exists, the demand pattern is known, and you’re not pioneering anything.
Important distinction: Tamarron is in unincorporated La Plata County, not inside Durango city limits. The City’s vacation rental permit system, with its zone caps and street segment rules and waitlists, does not apply out here. County rules govern instead. That’s a meaningfully easier path than trying to short-term rent inside town, where most capped zones have been full for a while. Verify the current county requirements and your HOA’s own rental rules before you build a pro forma, because both can change and the HOA restrictions are sometimes stricter than the county’s.
You’re inside a national forest
Three thousand acres surrounded by San Juan National Forest. Trails out the door. Dark sky that makes people who grew up in cities stand in the parking lot with their heads back. In September the aspens on the Hermosa Cliffs side turn and the whole drive down 550 is ridiculous for about two weeks.
What you’re trading away
The 550 drive, honestly
Twenty-five minutes to Durango in good conditions. That’s not bad. But run the math on real life instead of a spreadsheet.
School, groceries, the dentist, a dinner reservation, a kid’s practice. If two adults and a kid all have reasons to be in town on a Tuesday, you’re looking at multiple round trips and most of an hour in the car each time. People who move here full time with school-age kids tend to feel that by the second winter.
Winter adds the rest of it. The stretch of 550 through the Hermosa Cliffs ices up in shade pockets. Deer and elk cross at dusk and dawn, which is exactly when you’re driving. CDOT keeps 550 open because it’s a state highway and a priority route, so you’re not getting snowed in. You’re just driving a mountain highway in the dark more often than you thought you would.
Fire response and what it does to insurance
Durango Fire and Rescue runs stations up the 550 corridor, including addresses at 44301 Highway 550 and 49816 US-550 N (Durango Fire Protection District station list). That’s real coverage, and it’s better than a lot of the county gets.
But the district rates properties within five road miles of a fire station at ISO 4 and properties outside that mark at ISO 10 (Durango Fire and Rescue). Ten is the bottom of the scale, and carriers price off it. Five road miles, not straight-line miles.
Get an insurance quote on the specific unit during your inspection period. Not an estimate, a quote, from a carrier, before your objection deadline. This is the single most skipped step in mountain property purchases and the one that most often blows up a closing.
HOA dues are the real monthly number
Condo dues at a property with a restaurant, elevators, aging resort infrastructure, and a lot of shared exterior are not small. They’re also not the whole story. Ask for the reserve study, the last three years of budgets, and any special assessment history. A building from the early 1970s has systems that reach end of life on a schedule, and reserve funding is what determines whether that arrives as a line item or a surprise.
If a seller’s agent can’t produce a reserve study, treat that as information.
You don’t own land
Obvious, but worth saying. No shop, no horse, no garden, no room to park a trailer. If what you actually want is acreage, this is the wrong end of the county and you should be looking at the west side or out toward Florida Mesa instead.
A year up here
The seasons at Tamarron run on a different clock than town, and it’s mostly about elevation.
Winter is the main event. Purgatory opens and the whole corridor wakes up. Weekends get busy, the rental units fill, and 550 carries a lot more traffic than it does in October. If you’re here to ski, this is the payoff and it’s a good one. If you’re here for quiet, December through March is the stretch you’ll share.
Spring comes late. Town is green in April while you’re still looking at dirty snowbanks in the shade. Mud season runs longer up here, and there’s a genuine lull where the mountain closes, the rentals empty, and Cliffside gets quiet.
Summer is underrated and always has been. Seventy-five degrees when Durango is pushing ninety. Afternoon thunderstorms roll through most days in July and August, which sounds like a downside until you’ve sat on a deck and watched one come up the valley. Trails are dry by June most years and you can ride or hike from the property.
Fall is the short perfect one. Aspens on the Hermosa Cliffs go around the last week of September into early October, and the drive down 550 gets stupid in the best way. Elk bugle. Nights drop into the thirties. It lasts about two weeks and then it’s over.
What resale looks like here
Worth thinking about before you buy, not after.
Tamarron condos have a defined buyer pool: second-home buyers who want ski proximity without ski town prices, and investors buying into an established rental market. That’s a real pool and it’s been reliable for a long time. It is not the same as the pool for a three bedroom in town.
What moves the needle on resale out here tends to be building, floor, view, and condition, in roughly that order, plus whatever club access conveys. A renovated unit with a view sells differently than an original-finishes unit on a lower floor looking at the parking lot, even in the same building.
The HOA’s financial health matters to resale too, and buyers are getting savvier about it. A property carrying deferred maintenance and thin reserves will show up in your buyer’s lender review and in their agent’s questions. That cuts both ways: it’s a reason to read the reserve study when you buy, and a reason to care about it while you own.
Who this works for
Pretty much three people, in my experience.
The ski second-home buyer who wants a lock-and-leave within fifteen minutes of Purgatory and doesn’t want to think about the property between visits. Tamarron is close to purpose-built for this.
The investor buying a rental in a market with a long operating history and county rather than city short-term rental rules.
The remote worker or retiree with no daily reason to be in town, who wants forest and quiet and none of the maintenance. This one works beautifully right up until somebody develops a daily reason to be in town.
Who it doesn’t work for
Families with kids in Durango schools who are honest about the driving. Anybody who wants a shop or livestock or a garden. And people who want a house that feels like a house rather than a unit in a building, because no amount of remodeling changes the hallway.
Frequently asked questions
How far is Tamarron from Durango?
About 18 miles north of Durango and roughly 9 miles south of Purgatory, just east of US Highway 550 (Tamarron Association of Condominium Owners). Call it twenty-five minutes to downtown in good conditions, longer in winter or when 550 is busy.
Does buying a Tamarron condo make me a Glacier Club member?
No. Tamarron is the condominium community governed by TACO. The Glacier Club is a separate private club with its own membership structure and its own residential real estate. Confirm in writing what your specific unit conveys before you go under contract, because buyers assume the golf comes with the deed and it does not.
How many condos are there at Tamarron?
Four buildings: The Lodge with 139 units, Highpoint with 69 deeded units, Gamble Oak with 99, and Pinecone with 73 (TACO). The Lodge has five floors and elevator access, and Cliffside Bar and Grille is on its ground floor.
Can I short-term rent a Tamarron condo?
Tamarron sits in unincorporated La Plata County, so the City of Durango’s vacation rental permit caps and street segment rules do not apply. County rules govern, and the HOA has its own rental restrictions on top of that. Both can be revised, so verify current county requirements and current HOA rules before you count on rental income.
What was Tamarron before it was the Glacier Club?
It was developed in the early 1970s as hotels, a convention center, meeting facilities, and a ski area, then reimagined in 2001 into the private club residential community it is today (The Glacier Club). The resort origins are why The Lodge reads more like a hotel than a condo building.
What should I ask for during due diligence?
The reserve study, three years of HOA budgets, special assessment history, exactly what club membership your unit conveys, the HOA’s short-term rental rules in writing, and an actual insurance quote on that unit. The reserve study is the one people skip and the one that costs them.
Is Tamarron a good full-time home?
For some households, yes. For anyone with a daily reason to be in Durango, and especially for families with kids in 9-R schools, the drive compounds in a way that’s hard to appreciate in July. Spend a February weekend here before you commit to it year round.
One last thought
Tamarron is one of the few places around Durango where you can own something in the middle of a national forest and still not own a snow shovel. That combination is rare and it’s the reason the place has held its identity for fifty years.
Just buy it for what it is. A condo in a former resort, eighteen miles up a mountain highway, with excellent mornings and a real commute. People who understand that going in tend to love it. People who thought they were buying a mountain house with land tend not to.
If you want somebody who’s walked these buildings and read these HOA documents to look at a specific unit with you, that’s the sort of thing we do at Blackmore Group Realty.
Related reading: Living in Hermosa, Colorado covers the stretch of the Animas Valley between Durango and Tamarron. Living In Town vs Out of Town in Durango walks through the broader tradeoff in detail.
Sources: Tamarron Association of Condominium Owners; The Glacier Club, Our Story; Durango Fire & Rescue, ISO Rating; Durango Fire Protection District station list. Rules, dues and requirements change. Verify current details with the relevant association or agency before relying on them.