Telluride - July 2014

Downtown Telluride

We had not yet been to Telluride so we decided to spend a long weekend there over July 4th.  The intent was to see the place when it was 'quieter' - meaning no major festivals.  However, July 4th weekend is not necessarily a quiet one to visit.  We still had a great time - it is probably one of the most beautiful CO mountain towns that we have been to.

Accommodations:

Springhill Suites (Grand Junction) - We stayed here one night on the way driving to Telluride.  New hotel.  Very clean.

Hotel Madeline (Telluride) - The hotel is located in Mountain Village.  Very nice place.  We got upgraded to a room with a better view.

Hotel Madeline

Activities:

We left on Wednesday after work and drove to Grand Junction.  We had intended on leaving earlier and grabbing a nice dinner in Grand Junction but we could not get away early so we arrived around 10:30pm.  We checked into the hotel and crashed almost immediately.

On Thursday morning, Keith had a little work to do before we headed out.  We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then drove into Telluride which is another 2.5 hours from Grand Junction.  The drive was beautiful.  We were able to check into our hotel early and after we got settled, we had lunch at one of the places adjacent to the hotel.  It started to rain while we finished up lunch so we napped and got massages at the spa (Shawna's massage was one of the best she has had in a long time).  After the relaxing afternoon, we went into town for dinner.  Our hotel was in Mountain Village.  We didn't realize that the town is separated from the ski mountain and you have to take a gondola (free) to get between the two.  We spent many trips on the gondola, going into town for hikes and dinners.

Box Canyon with Telluride in the Valley

On Friday, we slept in and grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbucks.  We then took the gondola into town (the line for the gondola took over an hour since it was July 4th) and bypassed all of the tourists watching the parade and instead hiked the Jed Weibe trail.  The hike is about 3 miles and provides great views of the town and valley.  After the hike, we grabbed a light lunch in town and then went back to our room to shower up and nap before dinner.  While napping, we were awakened by a knock on the door which we both proceeded to ignore.  A few seconds later, the phone in the room rang - Shawna answered and the woman at the front desk let her know that someone was at our door to deliver something.  Shawna said we didn't order anything and so the woman apologized and hung up.  A few seconds after that (and after we came out of our nap stupor), Keith realized that it may be a delivery from someone else for our anniversary so he went to the door.  Sure enough - it was a bottle of wine sent to us from John and Joanna.  So nice of them to think of us.  We had a glass in the room while getting ready for dinner and then took a roady on the gondola. Dinner was in town again but we were done before the fireworks started and before the mad crowds took over!

Jud Wiebe Trail

On Saturday, we intended on getting up early to start our hike early but slept in again.  After our usual breakfast at Starbucks, we took the gondola back into town and walked from town to Bridal Veil falls and then hiked up the road that leads to the top of the falls.  Once at the top, we continued further on a hiking trail that leads to a beautiful valley in the mountains.  We returned back the same way we hiked in, walking for over 6 miles.  We stopped in town for a quick snack of hummus and pita and then went back to our hotel to relax.  We were quite done with the gondola so we decided to cancel our reservation for dinner in town and opted to have dinner at the restaurant in our hotel.  Turns out it was a smart move b/c it rained that evening.

Bridal Veil Hike

On Sunday, we left the hotel around 9am to drive back to Denver.  We had thought we would stop by Crested Butte on the way home but we realized it would have been an hour out of our way so we decided to skip it.  Good thing we did because what should have been a 6 hour drive turned into an 8 hour drive as we hit crazy traffic about two hours outside of Denver.  The scenery was beautiful on the way home as we drove the scenic way home - it made up for it being a long drive!

Aahhh, the great outdoors!

Restaurants:

Smak Bar (Mountain Village) - Adjacent to our hotel. We had lunch and shared the Cobb salad and lamb sliders.  Sliders were tasty.

221 South Oak Bistro (Telluride) - Cute restaurant in a house.  We had dinner here and shared the kale salad and pork belly for appetizers and sea bass for entree.  We wanted the mussels for an appetizer and duck breast for entree but they were out of both!  The food was quite good! 

Rustico (Telluride) - This restaurant has a cute outside patio - although it was quite packed!  We had lunch here and shared two salads - arugula with shrimp and tomato with blue cheese.

La Marmotte (Telluride) - Cute place located in the old ice house.  We had dinner here and shared the pork belly and salmon tacos for appetizers, the lamb two ways for our entree and the molten chocolate cake for dessert.  The food was also quite good here as well.

Rev (Mountain Village) - Located in our hotel.  Food was tasty but service was not terrific.  We had dinner here and shared a caprese salad and cheese plate for appetizers and rack of lamb for dinner.