Bonjour Colorado

Telluride Ski Resort is Tantamount to Fun

Lowering the Goods

Not long after I returned home from my month of travels back east, I tuned in to the constant comings and goings of a helicopter whirring in the skies near my little slopeside apartment.  There was so much activity, in fact, that I said a prayer for the people involved since choppers in the mountains typically mean a search and rescue mission.  My concern swelled until someone enlightened me, informing me that the copter operation concerned the ski area; these workhorses of the sky had been engaged to deliver lift shacks, towers and other materials to an elevation of over 12,000 feet for the installation of the new Revelation Lift.  Oh, of course, I thought to myself and my mood quickly changed from one of dread to elation.

I chatted about Revelation Lift and more with Dave Riley, CEO of Telluride Ski and Golf, during a recent Travel Fun interview.  Entering his second year on the job, Dave has a lot to be proud of at Telluride Ski Resort.  He has been instrumental in opening up a bunch of new terrain including Palmyra Peak, Black Iron Bowl, Gold Hill Chutes 6-10 and now Revelation Bowl which will be ready to go with the start of this new ski season.  

Veteran Ski Patrolman Surveys the Terrain

“I have to give the ski patrol a lot of credit for most of these openings,” Dave said during our interview.  Much avalanche control work was required to pave the way for the public and ski patrol did double time with this last winter, particularly since it was a banner snow year.  It seems that almost as a reward to them, Dave went ahead and leased some fancy Howitzers from the U.S. Army; these 105 mm artillery weapons certainly pack enough punch to trigger slides far out on the peaks and couloirs.  New snowcats have also been acquired, high-performing mountain monsters that will be winched up on at least a couple of the trails off of the Revelation Lift to guarantee some nice corduroy for those of us looking to take a break from the bumps.  

I was thrilled to learn that most of the runs off of Revelation—the highest lift on the mountain which also happens to be above tree line—are single black diamonds.  (Oh, what did you think I was hardcore?)  “It’s like a high alpine, European bowl,” Dave says.  “It’s a great snow catcher and the views are extraordinary.”

Virgin Revelation Bowl

The scenery here is probably what best sets Telluride apart from most other mountain resorts in the country.  “We have the largest concentration of 13,000 to 14,000-foot peaks here,” Dave points out.  “It’s like the Swiss Alps of America.”  We both agree, too, that the combination of the old mining town of Telluride (a National Historic District) with Mountain Village, a more recent European-styled assortment of buildings and homes works well together to suit the needs of both residents and visitors.  Both are connected by a gondola, providing free transportation and outstanding views to all that ride it from the wee hours of the morning until midnight.

Dave Riley Atop Palmyra Peak

Dave, an incredibly passionate skier that has worked in many top destinations throughout the West, travels to four to six different ski areas a season.  Sure, he’s a little biased but I can tell he’s sincere when he talks about how Telluride offers an unparalleled ski experience in North America.  “Telluride is consistently good,” he emphasizes.  “There are no lift lines here, there’s good sunny weather and the snow is great.”  

At this point, I tap into the ski instructor within me and mention that we enjoy great teaching terrain in Telluride as well.  “There’s a good balance for beginner, intermediate, expert and even extreme skiers and boarders,” I add.  

“Our Ski and Snowboard School is unmatched,” Dave volleys back.  “The instructors provide great instruction with a real personalized touch.”  

Fabuleux!  I scored one for the home team.  I almost added that we all try really hard as well but I didn’t want to blur the line too much between radio interviewer/travel writer and ski instructor, especially with my boss.  One thing’s for sure:  We all share an immense enthusiasm for the mountain and that passion is conveyed to every person we encounter.  Dave exudes it as well which is probably partly why he’s been able to improve so much on an already darn good thing.

Telluride Ski Resort, 970-728-6900, www.tellurideskiresort.com; be sure to check out Dave’s blog at that site.

Dave’s Book Pick

“Ski the 14ers:  A Visual Tribute to Colorado’s 14,000-foot Peaks from the Eyes of a Ski Mountaineer,” by Chris Davenport.  Ski mountaineering is one of Dave Riley’s personal passions.  

Now Warm Up that Baby---Ski Season is Almost Here!

The Perils of Mountain Living

They're So Cute!

Last week was Bear Awareness Week here in Telluride.  A number of events such as a parade, a kid’s movie and seminars were held to help people become more aware of this mountain community’s bear activity and more importantly, how to respond to it.  I didn’t attend a single one, mostly because I’ve been chained to my desk.  Also I guess I felt like I didn’t need to raise my bear awareness any more:  It was already on high alert.  I’ve been increasingly coyote conscious as well, especially since I have two kitties that love to play outside where the bears and coyotes roam.  (What can I say?  They get fat and depressed if I sequester them in my little apartment.)

Even the Little Ones Know How to Dumpster Dive for Dinner

I remarked to myself how odd it looked in New York City on my recent visit when I saw basic trash bags and cans lined up along the street awaiting the next morning’s pick up.  That seemed so foreign to me since I had become accustomed to seeing all forms of garbage in full lockdown mode since I moved to Colorado well over six years ago.  (I was partly wondering why the garbage wasn’t hidden from NYC’s rodent population, I guess.)  A bear could make many tasty meals off of our garbage, so we lock off everything from street-side trash receptacles to big waste bins outside of homes and buildings.  Still, though, the bears know they can find more to feast on in Telluride and the outlying area than in the woods.  (There’s, of course, always a tourist that stupidly plops out a bag of garbage, a virtual ursine offering that greatly comprises all of our community efforts.)  It’s true, you’re more likely to encounter a bear lumbering through the alleyways of T-ride at 3 a.m. than on a camping expedition along the Continental Divide.

It’s easy for me to stay clear of the backstreets, but walks home at night have recently been riddled with fear.  (I rarely drive here since the gondola is my primary form of transportation and I live about a ten-minute walk from the station.  More on the gondola later.)  I’ve seen many bears since I’ve been out here and each sighting has been thrilling, mostly in the happy sense because I’ve been at a safe enough distance from them not to feel any threat.  I’m just a little concerned about coming up against one and having us both—errrrrrrrr—surprise each other.  I read in a Living with Wildlife in Bear Country pamphlet that it’s best to run downhill.  Well, that’s not always an option.  Plus I’d hate to count on me outrunning a bear.  It’s recommended to sing.  So I’ve taken to singing if I come home at dark.  Since I’m such an awful singer, my vocalizations frittered into more of a la-dee-dah-dee-dah.  Then they transgressed into whistling, which I’m thinking might be a little too ear piercing for the bear.  God only knows, maybe my bizarre sounds would throw a bear into some kind of a crazed state.  

To make matters worse, I have to walk past this upturned tree stump on my way home.  It never fails.  Its dark, craggy roots look like a big black bear on its hind legs about to lunge for me.  I shudder and cringe as I scurry by this silhouette and not surprisingly my whistling at this point sounds more like a cockatoo on the verge of hyperventilation. That darn thing gets me every time.

Maybe I’ve become too hypersensitive all around.  I’ve also taken to sniffing the air.  You don’t have to possess an acute olfactory awareness to smell bear.  I’ve smelled bear before and it was at a distance of at least one hundred feet.  It’s strong!  The problem with this mode is that if you happen to get a whiff of let’s say some doggy do, it’s apt to send you into a tailspin.  This very thing happened to me the other day when I was hiking, but I’m still thinking that I was picking up the scent of a bear.

O.K., Maybe He's a Little Young for Me

Bears are most active now since they’re preparing for hibernation.  The females bed down toward the end of October; the males early November.  Lately I’ve been thinking maybe this is not a good time of year to be single.  I’ve envisioned myself walking arm and arm with a handsome man until that dreaded moment when he’s required to fend off our Ursus americanus.  We encounter the beast crouched before us, flashing incisors, paw raised and ready to tear us to shreds.  Then ever so valiantly, my lover forces the bear to cower with nothing but a fierce shout and the bear skulks off into the underbrush.  Oh, my great protector, my ever-so brave, prince charming.

I’m fine once I enter my humble abode.  That is unless one of my kitties is still out.  That one is typically Clara and I’ve had to sneak out many nights and call her, forever fearful that there might be a bear hiding in the shadows.  It was midnight the other night and she still hadn’t come home.  I was worried sick and even after two Tylenol PM, I only half slept.  Then at two-thirty a.m. I was awakened by the howls of coyotes.  Those blood curdling yelps that sound half human, half beast.  I bolted out of bed, desperately searching for my pajamas and glasses and then was finally able to fly out the door.  I quietly and pleadingly called, “Claraaaa, Claraaaa,” so as not to awake the neighbors.  The whole while my heart raced wildly—so much so, in fact, that I was sure I could chase off both a bear and a coyote if such a situation presented itself to me.  Clarie was nowhere to be found.  The coyotes’ wretched sounds finally abated and only the trickling of the nearby ravine could be heard.

My Nemesis

I returned home not knowing if my little cat was dead or alive.  Five minutes later I heard her cry at the door.  She strolled in like she had just spent the afternoon in the park.

I read the following in our local paper the other day under the COP SHOP: MEMO TO MOUNTAIN VILLAGE RESIDENTS:  You live in a place called Mountain Village.  It’s a village in the mountains.  This is why bears and coyotes come near where people live.  (Or, better said, some people build houses near where bears and coyotes live.)  There’s no need to call the cops on every bear, raccoon or coyote you see, is there?

Calling the police about the wildlife would be the last thing I’d do.  In fact, even if a bear entered my Mountain Village apartment (which is possible since the entrance door is on the ground level), I’d do my best to find a way not to call the police.  I’d be afraid the poor thing would be shot.

But that doesn’t mean I’m any less fearful of bumping into one.  Maybe I do need that big strapping guy in my life after all. 

Colorado Division of Wildlife, 303-297-1192, www.wildlife.state.co.us; you’ll find lots of information here about how to live with wildlife.

P.S.  Just days after I initially wrote this, Clara spent an entire night out, I’m convinced I saw a bobcat chase Leo, my other kitty, and my neighbor told me a mountain lion was recently spotted in the vicinity.  Maybe the perils of the concrete jungle are more manageable.  I can’t wait until the cold weather sets in so that most of the critters—especially my own—tuck themselves into their dens for many snow-blanketed days of slumber.

King of the Mountain

Daryl Hannah on Green Living

Daryl on the Mesa Outside of T-ride

The breakdown of Daryl’s biodiesel car left her nearly stranded in Montrose, the largest city in the region situated about an hour and a half from Telluride.  Clearly she was not going to make it to the KOTO studios in time to do a Travel Fun interview with me, so we chatted on the phone together instead.  (Daryl was actually holed up inside one of the teepees at the Ute Indian Museum, an interesting place that I have yet to visit.)

A few technical difficulties challenged me back at the studio.  I was pulling together a live program—a rarity in the almost five years I’ve been doing radio—and my button pushing faltered somewhat, particularly at one point when I forgot to turn off the DJ mike during the musical break.  Half of my phone conversation with another caller was broadcasted on the airwaves.  Fortunately I wasn’t chatting about anything too private!  I continued with more music from the “Kill Bill,” soundtrack for the second musical break, overlooking a cut that requires keen censorship.  A few F-words later, I said a big “ooops” and hoped that the FCC wasn’t tuned in.  Daryl was more than gracious throughout the whole interview, particularly during my assorted goof ups.  Thankfully, she clearly has a tender attachment to KOTO, Telluride’s own community radio station.

In addition to her memorable performances in the original “Blade Runner,” “Splash,” “Wall Street,” and more recently the “Kill Bill” series, Daryl has been busy championing causes and spreading the word about green living.  She is a keen environmentalist.  And this is not so new because Daryl has been a vegetarian since the age of eleven.  

Actually Daryl is turned off by the green word.  Just like with organic and sustainable, she thinks those words are overused.  “They really don’t take into account the social connectedness of things,” Daryl emphasizes.  “You need to consider the social aspect of everything.”

Daryl practices what she preaches when she can.  “I’m trying to get off of fossil fuels and the grid as much as possible,” she says.  In addition to zipping around the mountains in her not-so new—but souped up—biodiesel car, Daryl lives in a one-bedroom home out here on a mesa, a simple house built from an old barn that was going to be torn down.  “It’s solar powered, nontoxic and as sustainable as possible,” she says.  Many organic elements have been incorporated into the interior and exterior design including a “couch” made from locally gathered, moss-covered rocks.  “I just pull off the cushions and spray wash it down every once in a while,” Daryl chuckles.

Blonde Beauty Modeling a Chain Mail Purse Made from Soda Pop Pull Tab Tops by a Womens' Artisan Co-Op in Brazil

I imagine Daryl’s Telluride home to be fairly minimalist.  “I subscribe to the church of stop shopping,” she revealed.  She thinks people are better off wearing old clothes and making them cool by stenciling them.  She’s also an advocate of consignment stores.  “Growing cotton for one T-shirt requires much too much water for that to be a sustainable product,” she explains.  I unfortunately didn’t have a chance to tell her that I believe in buying quality products that you treasure forever.  That’s the French way.  Buying in quantity is more of an American addiction.

Daryl Chillin' with DHLoveLife.com

Daryl’s Web site is a good place to go to inform yourself about living less conspicuously on this planet.  It’s also fun and the best way to get to know the real Daryl Hannah.  You can shop there for some of her hand-chosen products such as an aluminum water bottle and a travel essential bag filled with most of her favorite travel must-haves including a safe sunscreen (most are carcinogenic), arnica (good for sore muscles), Super Salve, an ultra-rich balm that’s great for lubricating nostrils and such before, during and after airplane travel and more along with other terrific products.  (Daryl also likes to bring sage from the mesa with her on her travels, but you’ll have to round up some of that on your own.)

Ecotourism is a term that Daryl feels is getting overused as well.  She encourages people to look closely at places that promise to be green.  For her, it’s important that ecoresorts exhibit a real connectedness with the local community.  Hotelito Desconocido in Mexico and Al Karm and Babata, two ecolodges in Egypt, all destinations that Daryl features on her video blogs, are resorts committed to fostering a mutually beneficial relationship with their environs.  

Daryl also encourages people to go to our National Parks more “cause nobody uses them.”  She cited the Channel Islands, off the coast of California, as an example of a rare site little known to people.  Her “Natural Wonder” video blog on her Web site documents this unique place and its habitat.  

She’s also done a number of video blogs on people that have inspired her, people that she considers to be her heroes.  In one of the video blogs, Daryl visits with Richard Branson, a well-known English business magnate, but also one of the world’s leading investors in renewable energy and resource efficiency technology.

At this year’s Telluride Film Festival, Daryl met Paul Watson, a tireless environmentalist dedicated to the protection of animal rights.  He was here showing his film, “Pirates of the Sea.”  Daryl plans to join up with Paul soon on his ship, and from the way she talked, I suspect he’ll soon be featured as one of her “heroes,” too.  

For now, however, Daryl is in London filming “Blind Man’s Bluff” with the English actor Tom Conti.

Ute Indian Museum, Montrose, Colorado, 970-249-3098, www.coloradohistory.org/hist_sites/UteIndian/Ute_indian

Daryl’s Web site is www.dhlovelife.com

Al Karm Ecolodge, Mount Sinai, Egypt, www.awayaway-sinai.net/main/st.%20katherine_sub/al_karm

Babata Ecolodge; I’m working on finding a link!

Hotelito Desconocido, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 800-013-1313, www.hotelito.com

National Park Service, Channel Islands, www.nps.gov/chis

Daryl’s Book Picks

Anything by Michael Pollan.  “I think they should be mandatory reading for everyone,” Daryl says.  She particularly recommends “The Omnivore’s Dilemma:  A Natural History of Four Meals” and his recent book, “In Defense of Food:  An Eater’s Manifesto.”

Daryl also enjoys reading books that tell the story of the people and the place she’s visiting.  “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for example, is her suggestion for travels to South America.

Telluride Film Festival: Moviegoers’ Lovefest

Alpenglow Over Telluride During Filmfest

We have one little movie theatre here in Telluride, a one-screen wonder called The Nugget.  It’s a rare gem housed in an historic building of the same name and it keeps Telluride moviegoers content year-round.  (The Nugget Building once boasted a bank, the very place where Butch Cassidy pulled off his first heist.)

For one long weekend of the year, however, we become Cinephile Central.  This has been occurring every Labor Day Weekend for the past thirty-five years.  This is when the Telluride Film Festival takes over our mountain town and transforms it into a center for the appreciation of the motion picture arts.  More than six hundred people—volunteers and paid staff—work before, during and after the festival to make Telluride the film capital of the world this first weekend of September.  Nine very different movie screening venues are created so that film lovers from Sweden to West Africa to Hollywood can come and watch movies for over three days in optimal conditions—that’s to say in spaces where the sound and picture are nothing less than fantastic.

Masons Hall Cinema in Her Glory

For some of the venues, the conversion into a first-rate movie theater occurs without many obvious changes; other locales require a near total overhaul.  Take the Galaxy, for example, here the Elementary School Gym is morphed into a stunning 500-seat cinema reminiscent of the dramatic décor of renowned motion picture landmarks such as the historic Fox Theater in Detroit and The Egyptian in Los Angeles.  At the Masons Hall Cinema, the 150-seat Grande Dame where I have worked the past three years, we buff and polish her and adorn her with artwork and flowers until she becomes the welcoming old friend that festival goers have come to know and love over the years.  

The Abel Gance Open Air Cinema in Elks Park offers a moviegoing experience unlike any I’ve ever known.  And I’m sure most people that have attended a showing here would say the same.  Imagine viewing “Into the Wild” in a small park in the center of Telluride, one of the West’s most awe-inspiring destinations.  You can see the shadow of the mountains behind the screen during some of the brighter scenes and even make out a good number of the mighty pines that line the slopes.  As the weather turns foul in the film, so it does in the park.  This being Telluride, most of these outdoorsy people are well prepared.  But then it really begins to pour and slowly but surely the moviegoers disperse until only the heartiest remain, hunkered down on their nylon camping tarps, wrapped from head to toe in their super high-tech outer gear that could just as easily be used to climb some of the tallest peaks of the Rockies.  The wind howls and the rain comes down in sheets, yet the picture and sound remain far superior to any you’d find in your neighborhood multiplex.  This is the real deal and this is exactly what happened here last year.  I saw “Being Julia” with my mom, wrapped in down coats, donned with hats and mittens, seated on our lawn chairs, at this open air cinema many years ago, and even then our movie going moment was greatly enhanced by the setting.

"Happy Go Lucky" Showing in Elks Park

The movies at the Abel Gance are free as are many others throughout the festival. Some you can attend for $20. both during the festival and in the post festival line up that is presented as double features the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday following the actual festival.  It’s true that passholders—many of whom pay exorbitant amounts of money to become part of the laminati (rhymes with glitterati and refers to the festival goers that can easily be spotted by their laminates dangling casually around their necks)—do have priority in the often city-block long queues that form for some of the films.  But there are still many opportunities for your average person to catch a flick at this world renowned festival.  Heck, you can even meet some really famous people up close and personal.  (If that’s what floats your boat!)  I became a bit of a stargazer myself at this year’s festival when I chatted up Jeff Goldblum at the Opening Night Feed, a huge dinner party of sorts that’s put on on the main street of Telluride on the Friday night of the festival.  You have to be a passholder to attend this fiesta but you could always find an opportunity to get chummy with the celebs at one of the engrossing seminars that take place at noon every day throughout the festival.  Or you might even just encounter a famous person on the street.  (I often pass Ralph and Ricki Lauren on the sidewalk during the festival.)

Jeff Goldblum and Me!

Tellluride is so low-key that well-known people can move about freely here during the Film Festival or any other time of the year.  Nobody really cares in Telluride and any star ogling is frowned upon mightily.  (Paparazzi of any kind is nonexistent in T-ride and you never see any mention or photos in the papers of a star sighting in town.)  Unlike Cannes, the Telluride Film Festival is not about the stars even though many famous people have been invited here for this event.  TFF is devoted to the movies themselves, old and new, long and short, foreign and domestic, animated or not.  Also unlike Cannes, it is not a working festival but instead it provides the opportunity for filmmaker and film enthusiast to come together to discover and pay homage to a great variety of works.  The film “Lola Montès,” is one such example from this year’s program.  It is a lovingly restored French film from 1955 about a female Don Quixote that I absolutely adored.  (She was a countess, too!)

Many blockbuster films also première in Telluride but you’re apt to read about them débuting in Toronto (at their festival which takes place the weekend following Telluride’s).  I’m not sure what the reason is for that, but I’d once again chalk this up to T-ride’s low profile.

Seminar in Town Park

As I write this, I’m hearing about films such as “Happy Go Lucky” and “Slumdog Millionaire” being released in the U.S. this fall.  Both created quite a buzz here in Telluride during this year’s festival.  They were written up in The Wall Street Journal—along with many others—by Joe Morgenstern, a gentleman I happened to be seated next to at this year’s Labor Day Picnic, another great tradition of the Telluride Film Festival.  That’s something else that’s wonderful about TFF—you never know who you’ll be rubbing elbows with in line or at another place or happening during the weekend.  The one thing you can be sure of is that everyone will be talking film.

After many days of moviegoing, I’m more than happy to just take in an occasional movie at The Nugget, one of the more historic venues of the festival that remains ours every day of the year.

The Nugget, 970-728-3030, www.nuggettheatre.com

Film Festival, 510-665-9464, www.telluridefilmfestival.org

For Those With a Lot of Time but Perhaps a Smaller Budget

Volunteering for the Telluride Film Festival is a great gig and people come from all over the country to work it and get in on the fun.  It’s best to plan to come here for a week to fulfill your required hours, take in a good amount of films and maybe even head out for a hike.  Housing can be an issue, however, and lodging is somewhat scarce and expensive during this time.  The TFF office may be able to help out, but I also suggest you put an ad in one of the local papers (The Daily Planet or The Telluride Watch) or place an announcement (for free) on the housing line of KOTO (970-728-4334), our beloved community radio station.

Jordan and Millar Working the Door at the Masons

Thank you to Nancy Millar Hobbs for most of the above photos that she took on her iPhone.  I know Nancy, her husband, Kimbale, and their daughter, Jordan, from my little job at the Masons.  They are lovely people and devoted film enthusiasts that have been very much involved with the Masons Cinema for over two decades.  In their real lives, Millar and Kimbale are architects and owners of Hobbs Design.

Thank you also to my neighbor, Mike Oard, for capturing me on his cell phone in the arms of Jeff Goldblum. I’m still wondering if Jeff might call some day?

Redstone Rendez-Vous

Redstone Inn: One of Colorado's Best-Kept Secrets

After having been away a month, I couldn’t wait to get back to Telluride.  I just wanted to sleep in my own bed with my two kitties and bury myself into the quiet of my little mountain nest.  The drive from Denver to T-ride is about seven hours and since I’m not much of a car person, I like to break it up with a stop at my brother David’s house.  He and his wife, Geri, live in Redstone, Colorado, a charming little town very much at the halfway point of my Denver/Telluride journey.  Normally I would stay overnight, giving us plenty of time to catch up; but the three of us were rather pressed for time, so they suggested we lunch at the Redstone Inn instead.

This historic inn anchors the village of Redstone, a National Historic District, situated in the Crystal River Valley, less than an hour from Aspen and Glenwood Springs.  Built over one-hundred years ago by John C. Osgood, a coal tycoon, the inn is actually currently owned by the former owner of the Hotel Jerome in Aspen.  The accommodations exude the feel of a beloved mountain inn where couples and families have been coming “to get away from it all” for generations.  And the food is exceptional!  This is a great place for exploring Pitkin County, its wonderful shops, restaurants and outdoor life.  There’s actually a lovely little artists’ community in Redstone and you can discover most of their works in the galleries and shops lined up along the main street.  For those looking to delve more into the history of the town, erected by one of America’s foremost industrialists, visit Redstone Castle to learn about the fascinating tale of Mr. Osgood’s fortune and his many wives.

Redstone Castle

Winter activities in the area include sleigh riding, dog sledding, ice climbing, cross country skiing and snowshoeing.  In the summer, it’s hiking, biking, rafting, kayaking and fly fishing or just relaxing poolside.

That’s exactly what I did with Dave and Geri on the patio of the inn over some tasty sandwiches and iced teas.  We talked some about The Adirondacks, a region they also hold dear to their heart.  But in the end, we all concurred that we were happy to be living in two very special places in the Rocky Mountains.  I gave them hugs goodbye and embarked upon the homestretch.  

I drove through this most picturesque valley along the winding road that borders the Crystal River, the first part of the West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway along Route 133.  Towering sandstone cliffs dwarf this craggy couloir south of Redstone, yet I still slowed to see if I might spot a big horn sheep. I had caught  glimpses of a few perched on the rocks above in the past; but no luck today.  The valley widened again and I soon passed the sign for Marble, Colorado, another quaint village some ten miles off the road where most of the marble for our nation’s great monuments has been harvested.  From here, I embarked upon the ascent to the summit of McClure Pass, one of the most scenic mountain passes in Colorado.  I was grateful it was summer and there was no fear of avalanches.  I pressed down on the gas to give Misty Dawn (the manufacturer’s name for the color and yes, it is also the name of a porn star), my old Subaru, a little oomph.  The odometer registered just over 213,000 miles and I knew I was already slightly overdue for a tune up, so I said a little prayer and urged her on.  We sailed down the ascent into Paonia and Hotchkiss, bombed through Delta and Montrose and were thankfully later delivered home safely.  

Upon arriving in Telluride, I remarked the same thing to myself that I say every time I return from travels as I gaze up at that quintessential Telluride view of our boxed canyon framed by majestic peaks.  This is truly one of the most magnificent places on earth.  Boy, am I glad to be home.

Redstone Inn, 970-963-2526, www.redstoneinn.com

Redstone Castle, 970-963-9656, www.redstonecastle.us