TELLURIDE

SUNDAY, 29th MAY.

Telluride is a ski resort in the San Juan Mountains in the south west of Colorado and is about 65 miles from Montrose.  We set off late this morning in bright sunshine and in shorts and t-shirts but once on the road, could see grey sky lurking in the distance.  It's a very pretty drive from here, lots of winding, tree lined roads that go up and down and on one down section, a truck coming uphill towards us was suddenly engulfed in heavy smoke which billowed all around us  too, making visibility nil for a few moments.  The stench of the truck's burnt out engine was awful, making it necessary to leave windows down to let the very cold air in to chase the stench out.  We came to a viewpoint shortly after and were blasted by a bitterly cold wind when we opened the car doors, so we scurried back into the car for warm jackets to don while admiring and photographing the view, then continued on to our destination.  This was the Town of Mountain Village, a relativity new town with golf course, resort hotels, expensive restaurants etc., etc. but...a free cable car which took us up the mountain to the 10,500 ft level from where we took another (free) cable car ride down the other side of the mountain to Telluride.  Telluride is a much older town with a bit of history, many old buildings in the old part of town, lots of colour and currently lots of students celebrating graduation.  While there is still a lot of snow about, there's not enough for skiers so the ski lifts are not operating but there are plenty of mountain bikes being hooked on to the cable cars going up, to be ridden back down the mountain.  After our 'tour de town', we returned to Mountain Village, collected the car from the free car park, drove a little way to a pretty picnic spot by Elk Pond and devoured our lunch, we were ravenous.
On our way back to Montrose we stopped at Ridgway for coffee at the True Grit Cafe, built in 1987 in memory of John Wayne.  Many scenes from the film "True Grit", as well as from TV shows such as "Gunsmoke" were filmed in the town which is small and very friendly.  Along the highway just past the town,
is the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park which we'd noticed on the way into Montrose on Friday, so stopped in to have a look.  It's just off the  highway, a small, simple park by the river, dedicated to the memory of Dennis Weaver, a resident and environmentalist of Ridgway and boasts an enormous (2800 lbs with a 21foot wingspan) bronze sculpture of a bald eagle...impressive.
We were back in the sunshine then, had left the bitter cold and drizzle behind in the mountains and once back in Montrose, enjoyed evening drinks on the verandah in the suburbs.