2019 Marks Family Vacation, Part V: Telluride / Mountain Village, Colorado (Updated)

At San Sophia Overlook on The Mountain overlooking Telluride.

UPDATE: Here are Toby's pics. They are spectacular!

Day 8 continued with us leaving Arches and Moab, Utah, and heading into Colorado via a very pretty, scenic route that took us past the La Sal Mountains and Paradox Valley. We'd never heard of Paradox Valley, but it really caught our eye. Just this week, Toby found an article about it on Atlas Obscura (which has been a wealth of information for us for our travels and future ideas).

Our destination was Telluride / Mountain Village, Colorado. This was Toby's idea as he wanted a new place to investigate in Colorado that was not quite so far out of our way where we'd spend less time on the road and more in the mountains. He also follows a food critic from the Dallas Morning News who seems to visit Telluride every month or so and posts great pics. I've spent a good bit of time in Colorado as I used to go almost every six months for a while with my parents as a teenager. This was our third trip as a family there. We've visited Breckenridge and Winter Park the last two summers as well as other places. But I think we're looking for a place to maybe base out of and visit more frequently for lower key vacations where we are mostly in one place and focused less on seeing new sights and road-tripping and being in nature for more extended periods of time. I think we might have found it. 

Ironically, while Telluride was our destination, when it came to finding lodging, I could not really find any there that was not quite expensive and more resort than I wanted for a family trip. Using Expedia, as we often do, I found a condo for rent, but it was in Mountain Village. We rented a condo for our Breckenridge trip and it worked out quite well. We booked it immediately. Then we read the reviews. They were not super. Had we made an expensive, non-refundable mistake? Not at all! 

Our condo was in Mountain Village in the heart of the ski resort. The two towns, as you read in the link above, are really the same town. MV is a sort of suburb of Telluride. And, they are connected by Gondola! In fact, there are a series of Gondolas and Chondolas (a Gondola / ski chair lift combo used in the winter) that is how you get around - especially from parking to your condo. In terms of location, it did not get any better than where we stayed. We were walking distance (as in less than 5 minutes) from the Gondolas, restaurants, shopping (which we actually never did here). The Gondola was a 13-minute ride to San Sophia where we ate at Allred's our last night there (more on that below), a really high end restaurant, and accessed several trails. We never actually got into Telluride itself. I suspect we'll be going back a good bit. We met a fellow Texan on the Gondola one morning who told us that there is a saying in Telluride, "There would be no Telluride without Texans." Haha. 

Except for a parking snafu (because of some very badly written instructions from the condo company) where my car almost got towed, all was well. You did have to hoof it a great distance from the temporary "closer" parking to the condo to unload and load your luggage and at that elevation - we were now at 9,500 feet - you were feeling it. But other than that, there was a lot of built in convenience. I do like walking places and think that Dallas is about as pedestrian unfriendly as it gets. After unloading the car, we drove it to the public parking garage, bought a few groceries at the Market, then headed back to our condo via Gondola. It was quite neat to me. 

We got settled in and our condo was just fabulous. We had a private master bedroom, a loft, and plenty of bedding in the living room for the younger two. There was no A/C, but wonderful mountain air and fans in the windows. We had a balcony overlooking a common area in the resort where there was something of a family "night life" that ended about 9 each night. 

Next, we found a place for dinner. The pizza place under our condo was about as gluten unfriendly as possible. They basically had a sign that said get the...out of here with your food allergies. Oh, well. We found a great place - a mere 5 minute walk away - called Black Iron and they more than catered to our food allergies and did not mind doing it. They had a great bar as well. Our seating was outside with a fire pit in our table. The ambiance, to say the least, was just wonderful. We had ample Aspen trees all around us and it really did feel like we were in a Swiss village - or what I imagine that would feel like. It was a great start.

Day 9 began with a continental breakfast and coffee in our condo. Then we took the other Gondola to the San Sophia Overlook and chose a trail to hike based on some recommendations from a friendly resort staff member who gave us pointers. As a family, we hiked the Coonskin Loop. We were told that it was only a 100 foot elevation change, but I suspect that was up and down, so a 200 foot net change. Now that I've read that link, it was actually closer to 200 feet, at 170. It was 1.3 miles, so not all that far, but with the hikes up and down and the altitude, it was a bit challenging. The kids in particular were feeling it. I did, too, but I was also loving it. And, without further ado, here are the pics from that part of the day.

We took off for our first hike of the day as a family. It was nice and cool, but the potential for rain was around us. We packed our rain coats, water, hats, and sunscreen, just in case. 

There were more Aspen trees than I'd ever seen in one place and they were huge.

Nature is incredible. How things came to be as we know them is really something to marvel at. 

Telluride in the valley. There's a trail you could have taken to hike to it as well.

The trails were marked pretty well. 

Would the rain follow us to Telluride?

Making our way along the trail.

It's interesting to see the signs for the various ski slopes when it's summer and the only snow is inaccessibly high. This place would look completely different in the winter. I'd love to see it in the fall with the golden yellow leaves of the Aspens.

There are a number of rather spectacular water falls around Telluride. We were not sure which one this was. That's another adventure we could have at some point - finding and photographing them.

Toby's really zooming in on that waterfall.

Many of the Aspens were not only large, but bent.

There were many and varied flowers on the mountain as well.

Mosses and tender vegetation near a spring.

I liked the appearance of meadow here along with the trees and mountains. 

Another local water fall. This may be Bridal Veil Falls?

And then there's this - explosives? It took me a moment to fathom why....avalanche mitigation. I remember seeing signs about this along the way to Winter Park last year.

After this walk, the younger two were done. Augie was sick of the mosquitos. We feel that if it's cool and mountainous, there should be no mosquitos. Nature feels differently. He took the younger two back to the condo via the Gondola and an ice cream shop. They were happy to play games and Augie could catch up on social media stuff. 

Toby and I, however, were going to hike down the mountain to get back. Now I'd really be in Aspen trees and experience some deep woods nature. We did get rained on but I absolutely did not mind. I was in my element and only regretted that my cell phone would not stop going off about a work emergency (due to someone else's failure to plan; boy, was I annoyed and struggling a bit to not lose it as I was trying to commune with nature) and that this was our only opportunity to hike like this. 

We got some great pics. Eventually, Toby had to put his rig away because of its sensitivity to moisture. But I could not help but pull my trusty iPhone out to take pics here and there. 

This was the beginning of our trail. Another couple started out about the same time we did, so we let them pass us up and waited a bit. We wanted to be basically alone for pics and talking.

I'm not sure I've seen any of Toby's pics from our hike. I'm eager to do so.

A vertical pano that's a bit distorted, but you get an idea of how tall these Aspens were.

Wildflowers outside the restaurant where we'd eat dinner. I could not really capture them in any detail, but they were colorful.

Back on the trail, this is the biggest dandelion I've ever seen. It was larger than my hand! 

This is around the time I took the pic that's at the top of this post. 

I love signs like this. 

Ferns! And Aspen leaves!

This is the trail we took, Ridge Trail, which was 2 miles and an elevation change of 1,000 feet. We went down the mountain, but someday, I'd like to try to hike up a mountain when I've got more time to get acclimated. 

After my experience at Arches, I was glad to see signs like this. The trail was not always obvious. 

It's rustic!

Having such a great time. Look at the size of the trunks of those Aspens! 

The terrain became quite rocky at times. I was glad to have on my hiking sandals which have a nice sole on them to help with traction and uneven terrain like this. I have boots as well, but I was tired of wearing them. 

So much gear! He loves it. ❤️

Rocky trail and tall, white, majestic Aspens.

I like to take pics that are framed by something, especially trees or rocks. You can see other mountains here and trails. 

We'd stop at each overlook. It never got old. 

The rain was coming for us.

We were prepared for it.

Happy as a clam.

Very happy for the clarification. Later we'd wish it had been even clearer. Also, note the lichen on those rocks. 

Little delicate, green moss.

Now the terrain was changing again. We'd left the rocks for what was becoming mud and there was more green ground cover of grass and not just ferns and moss.

Still some moss, though.

Such a dense Aspen forest. 

Delicate purplish blue flowers.

He was always ahead of me. Periodically he'd turn back and just look at me and smile or take my picture. He knew I was so happy and contented to be here. 

The rain was not going to leave us any time soon. Indeed, it would rain until sunset that day. It was fine with me. It was not impacting anything we were planning to do. 

Now we were getting into trees that were like Christmas trees along with the Aspen. 

Toby was well ahead of me, but I knew he'd love this. This was my first attempt to shoot this mushroom, but it didn't come out as I wanted. 

My second attempt to shoot it, I got even lower on the wet, muddy ground and turned my camera upward just a bit. I did not really have visibility of what I was shooting, but hoped I could get it to capture some light. I did. I caught up with Toby and he was just thrilled with this shot. He said we're going to print it and display it. It was the "money shot" of the day for me. Never mind the mountains. I caught that mushroom just right. And near mosses and ferns, too. 

Still more ferns! 

But they were not like the other mushroom. 

A wrong turn. 

Our path was righted and we found our way back. Another sign a bit further up might help, but we made it back.

I was happy I had my hooded raincoat. Despite the hikes that totaled 3.3 miles, I was not all that tired. But it was a steep descent in places and put pressure on our knees and quads. We are determined to workout more and be in better shape for hiking very soon. We have in mind a really big hike in the not too terribly distant future if we can get trained for it. 

I have to say, I enjoyed this very much and felt very much in my element. The greenery all around me, the white barked Aspens, the evergreens, even the rain, with mountains and cool air was just what I needed. 

We went back to the condo to rest a bit and shower, then it was time to take the Gondola back up to Allred's and have a bit of fine dining. The views were spectacular. I was running a tad late, so Toby and the kids went ahead of me and I grabbed a Gondola of my own. That a dog had messed up. Really, dog owners? Come on now. Have some consideration. But I got there and had a nice pre-dinner cocktail and some very fine wine with my steak. 

It was still raining as I headed to dinner.

The Gondolas briefly paused while I was on my way as they had when Toby and the kids were going up. I suspect to help someone that needed more time to get on or off. They seem extremely well-maintained and safe to me. And trust me, I look for defects. 

Art at the entrance of the restaurant. I LOVE these three panel pieces. I want Toby to have some of our photographs done this way. 

This was the view from our table. Familiar by this time, but what a great place for a restaurant between the two-towns-in-one.

This had elderflower liqueur in it. We've seen that on every drink menu all summer. I finally tried it. It seemed like blackberry to me. It was pleasant. 

Toby and I had to go to the parking garage where the car was to get some extra blankets for Anthony and Lucy who were freezing the night before. The sun began to come out by then. 

It's not much, but we did get something of a mountain sunset. It was a pretty ending to a perfect day. 

We got back to the condo and turned in very satisfied with our day. 

Day 10 was upon us. We packed up our stuff and lugged it back and forth to the car. Unfortunately, my car had been scraped by someone in the parking garage, but he was nice enough to leave a note. I was not happy with the inconvenience that it would require upon our return, but it was not the worst thing to hit us upon arriving home. As we mentioned, our dog, Frank, died. We had a few other inconveniences hit us upon our return and Toby immediately had to leave for a business trip to Austin for a training / seminar. The first week back was rather tough after a great trip otherwise, but one from which we needed time to rest and catch up on life. Only this past week and this weekend does it feel like things are normalizing. 

Anyway, we headed to Santa Fe where we'd see an art exhibit that we'd seen the year before. It was a sort of trippy interactive thing. They'd made some changes and I did not like it. Frankly, I wasn't fond of it last year, but this year was terrible. I don't think any of us really enjoyed it and that's all I'll say about that. 

We had dinner at a very popular Mexican restaurant but a rainstorm messed up their patio seating and they were scrambling. I'm sure both the service and food would have been better under more normal circumstances. Our hotel room was super nice, however. We were upgraded to a "Casita" at the Homewood Suites by Hilton and had a very large 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom suite. 

Day 11 began in a stressful way, but we had an interesting breakfast at the hotel and started our 10 hour or so drive home. We got home at the relatively reasonable hour of 9 p.m. We unloaded the car, got showered and to bed, in order to face our rough week ahead. 

The way the trip ended and our rough re-entry into life here at home, plus the Anniversary I'd been dreading, had left me less focused on all the fun we had. It was fun writing this series of posts that highlighted all the really great times we had, the new experiences, and the future things we'd like to see and do, and reliving things through the photographs we took. I am grateful we were able to do all of this. It's an important reminder: We can't ignore the bad things. We must deal with them, grieve if need be, but we have to heal. The bad times can't be allowed to permanently distort reality. This was a helpful exercise in many ways. It was fun, too. 

Thanks for reading!