To drive from Durango to Telluride and back pretty much kills a day. Especially if you do it the way I do. Checking out the campgrounds, taking some side roads, poking around on a dirt track for a bit, checking historical markers, you get the picture.
When you’re traveling in the mountains, your eye is naturally drawn to the peaks and the beauty of the canyons with full stream ahead. But I love as much the ranch land valleys. With clusters of ranch buildings, corrals, grazing cattle and horses, and the occasional elk, they are tranquility for the eyes. On a trip to Telluride you are treated to several such feasts.
If Silverton is 3.2 beer, then Telluride is a nice cabernet. What was once hippie heaven is now gentrified and new school. There are no dirt streets in Telluride. What was once just “the road that went up to the ski hill”, is now a town. The lower sections of the runs are lined with villas. There is no parking on any street in Mountain Village. Park in designated areas only.
Many mountain towns over in this part of Colorado can trace their story back to somewhere around 1850 to 1890. Telluride is like that. So is, Delores, Stoner, and Rico on the route up here in the Delores River Canyon/Valley. In 1889 The Sundance Kid robbed the San Miguel Bank in Telluride making off with over $24,000. It is marked as the “first major crime” of young Sundance’s criminal career. Later publications noted as early as the following year, that there were already rumors that Robert Redford would play Sundance in the film version.
When you leave Telluride in one direction, the road ends. At least this time of year it ends, and maybe most of it. This is what you see.
In town you can see this, the local used and recycled bikes center. 🙂
The Delores River Valley is cool. The Delores River flows SW out of these mountains, down to the town of Delores where it makes a right turn to the NNW and begins a long gradual descent to the Colorado River over in Utah.
There are numerous river areas with beaver lodges and dams all down this valley. No critters moving though. I feel like today I could have taken a lot of pictures that would have been a lot like yesterday.
No pics from the best moment of the day. I stopped about 20 minutes to watch a herd of elk grazing in the valley. There were about 30 or so across the river from me. Even from 300 yards away almost all of them took note of my stopping. They took the requisite time to establish I wasn’t a threat, and went back to their grazing. I could see them pretty well with my binocs. I’m not overly versed in the language of elk, but I believe this would be a group of cows of different ages, and one and two year old calves. And some of the cows would be pregnant?? Is that right, I’m not sure. Somebody out there might know, so feel free. Anyway, the bulls are all off doing bull things.
Twelve weeks ago today I left St. Paul.