The Town, The Legend: Telluride!

Riding up to the top of ski lift 10.
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Telluride, Colorado is a town of 2,000 - but much more than a town, Telluride is a legend.

In 1858, gold was discovered in Telluride, and the town never looked back. Gold put Telluride on the map, isolated though it was. In fact, it was hard to be more isolated than Telluride was back then, hemmed in by mountains on all sides, with dangerous passes the only way in or out. So the town stayed tiny, the gold going out on mules. But gold will find a way out, and eventually there was a road, and the road brought wagons and people. One of the people attracted to Telluride was Butch Cassidy, who put himself on the map there with his first major crime, robbing the local bank of $25,000.

... an old friend

Pausing for rest during snowshoe hiking.
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Oddly enough, there was never any tellurium in Telluride, even though the town is named after that very rare element.

Today, Telluride is known for summer film and music festivals, and, of course, for its winter snow. I visited Telluride for the snow, and I must say, I was not disappointed.

The road into Telluride from either direction is an attraction all its own -- Colorado State Road 145, the famous San Juan Skyway.  We came in from the west, past places like Slaughterhouse Gulch, Placerville, Sawpit, and Vanadium.  The road winds through a slot in the mountains, and hugs the river on one side and the mountain face on the other.  The entire San Juan Skyway makes a 236 mile loop, passing through Durango, Silverton, Ouray, and Ridgway on its way to Telluride and back down to Cortez.  A more scenic road cannot exist.

The view from the top.
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We arrived in Telluride around 10 a.m.  Telluride is essentially a small town, despite the great numbers of skiers on its slopes. The main street, Colorado Avenue, goes straight through town, with two or three parallel streets on either side.  The mountains rise steeply skyward at the edge of those last streets, and the town sits under the tall shadows of the mountains.

Not being a skier, I had decided to try my hand at snowshoe hiking. The Telluride ski resort had an orientation snowshoe-hiking package, and I had convinced my son Rory to accompany me for the three-hour tour. From Telluride, we took the town’s free public gondola up to a meeting place at Mountain village. http://www.telluride.com/telluride/the-gondola.html

The entire town of Telluride, viewed from the public gondola that whisks visitors up, up and away.
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Then, two ski lifts later, we found ourselves literally on top of the world.

I didn’t know what to expect from snowshoes; the only ones I had ever seen were in old films about fur traders, and those looked much like wooden tennis racquets. Not so today – the snowshoes we used were thoroughly modern, with high-tech frames, snow-shedding “decking” and a full crampon system.

Snowshoes look like large duck feet. You strap them onto your feet, but you can wear normal hiking boots instead of special ski boots. Once your snowshoes are on properly, you just set off walking.

The gondolas are quite roomy, with ski and snowboard racks on the outside.
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Our hiking group numbered seven including our guide Duffy, who made sure we had our snowshoes on properly and didn’t get lost on the trails. Pretty soon we were walking up and down through quiet alpine forests, far, far away from the activity of the ski runs. The snowshoes kept us on top of the four- or five-foot snow pack, only sinking about 10 inches into the new snow. We saw animal tracks that Duffy identified as snow hare, mouse, and lynx. Since the snowshoes allowed us to tread softly, we kept our eyes open for the animals that had made those tracks. But they all stayed hidden from our view.

Rory enjoying the ski lift ride.
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Hiking up hills is hard enough on land, but hiking uphill in snowshoes used some muscles I didn’t know I had. Days later I could still feel it in my upper thighs. Daily snowshoe hikes of a couple miles would be great for toning, forget about the gym all together!  And falling while on snowshoes is a soft fall, unlike the spills and falls I watched skiers take.  We got the knack of snowshoeing pretty quickly, essentially you just pick up your feet and "walk."  The "tail" of the snowshoes falls back off the heel of your boot, so the snow slides off as you walk.  An ingenious contraption, for sure.

Great way to travel!
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The nice thing about using muscles and energy while hiking is that it almost doesn't matter what you eat or drink afterwards.  I learned that last summer in a month of hiking across Spain -- I lost weight even while drinking the customary half-bottle of wine every day.  So, after our rigorous few hours of snowshoe hiking in the mountains, we were more than ready for a hearty meal, which we ate with gusto and accompanied with beer.

Leaving Telluride was like leaving an old friend, even though we had only spent the day there.  I could easily understand why there are so many songs about the town.  I'll come back to Telluride.  (That even sounds like a song!)