Art & Culture Colorado Denver Four Corners Hotels & Lodging The Southwest Trip Planning: Denver Art Museum Goulding's Lodge Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Western Art Westerns
by maribeth
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The Western: An Epic in Art and Film
The Western: An Epic in Art and Film
Denver Art Museum Entrance
Love this Remington
A Great Synopsis of Westerns
Symbolism in Art
I love Westerns. I love the Denver Art Museum. I love the exhibition The Western: An Epic in Art and Film. Sorry for gushing but I think it’s wonderful!
I saw it in Denver a few weeks ago and I had a smile on my face as I walked through every room of this beautiful show–once again DAM has done a magnificent job with this installation, which creates a setting that makes you feel as though you just stepped into the wild, wild West.
Tune into KOTO.org at 6:30pm MST tonight to listen to my Travel Fun interview with Thomas Brent Smith, co-curator of the exhibition The Western: An Epic in Art and Film. Even if you’re not able to attend the show in Denver, which runs through September 10, you’ll learn much about Westerns and why we love films and artwork that depict the great American West. Thank you, Thomas, for such an eloquent and articulate conversation about the show and why Westerns conjure up such an array of emotions for so many.
Colorado Discovery Map Durango Four Corners Outdoor Adventures Telluride Festivals Travel: Colorado Discovery Map Durango Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Durango Blues Train lodging outdoor activities Restaurants Steve Gumble Telluride Blues & Brews Telluride Jazz
by maribeth
Comments Off on Top Reasons to Go to Durango, Colorado
Top Reasons to Go to Durango, Colorado
Durango: A Good ‘Ole Western Town
I’m back east now in upstate New York, trying to settle in after a whirlwind two-week trip to Colorado that was filled with lots of travel. During that time, I taped a few interviews for Travel Fun, my talk radio show on KOTO. I had the pleasure of doing one with Steve Gumble, founder of the renowned Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, which takes place every September. This time, however, we chatted about his new baby, the Telluride Jazz Festival, which kicks off tonight in Telluride and runs through Sunday. Had we had more time we would have talked about the Durango Blues Train, another big happening he created a handful of years ago. It is super fun and also one of my top reasons to visit Durango, Colorado. This year, the second Durango Blues Train of the season takes place August 18 & 19. Unfortunately these dates have sold out, too! You can, however, start planning for next year. (Fortunately tickets are still available for Telluride Blues & Brews and Jazz.)
Yee-Haw
Yippee Ki Yay
A Recent Respite at The Office Spiritorium at the Strater Hotel
And you can still take the train most days. It’s true–Durango is all about the train, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to be exact. Add some blues musicians to that and a bunch of fun-loving people and you have an instant party. Durango is also about historic hotels such as the Strater and the Rochester as well as a whole wagon full of other fabulous sites, establishments and activities that exude the vibrant spirit of the West.
I’ve recently started to write content for Discovery Map, the cheery, hand-drawn maps you can pick up at resort destinations across the United States. They’re developing their website, which is where my destination descriptions can be found. So click Colorado’s Wild Side and Hit the Streets of Durango to read about my top reasons to visit Durango, Colorado. And when you go to visit, be sure to pick up a Discovery Map to help you find your way around this historic gem in southwestern Colorado.
Click here to listen to a previous Travel Fun interview with Steve Gumble where he talks about Telluride Blues & Brews and the Durango Blues Train. You can also read more of my Telluride Blues & Brews stories here.
For more of my stories on Durango and the outlying area, click here.
The Historic Strater Hotel
Four Corners Outdoor Adventures The Rockies The Southwest Travel: America's national parks Black Canyon of the Gunnison camping Ken Burns Mesa Verde national parks anniversary southwest Colorado
by maribeth
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Celebrating 100 years of Our National Parks at Mesa Verde
Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling at Mesa Verde
Me Overlooking Spruce Tree House
Touring Mesa Verde National Park
You’ve probably heard that 2016 marks the one-hundred-year anniversary of the National Park Service. Often referred to as America’s Best Idea, there are more than four hundred parks within our beautiful country and I think fall is one of the best times to visit them. In celebration of this milestone, there’s one more entrance-free day left and I find it appropriate that this one takes place on Veteran’s Day, November 11.
To me, it feels like I’m living within a national park in my home of Telluride, Colorado. I believe that Ken Burns, renowned filmmaker of America’s National Park series and many other inspiring documentaries, feels similarly. Perhaps this is why he spends so much time in our little box canyon mountain town. I did an interview with him a while back on our national parks that is still very pertinent today. Do check it out here.
Even so, I love venturing out and exploring the real deal. Fortunately, we have a couple national parks in Colorado within about an hour-and-a-half drive of Telluride: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Mesa Verde National Park. (The latter is also a World Heritage Site.) I visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park with my parents six years ago toward the end of a big southwest tour that also showcased Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon. Click here to read Touring the Southwest with My Parents, which features those two world-renowned destinations. At the end of that trip, I also visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park with them and I highlight this amazing national park in Part Four of a series of stories I did about rafting in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. After you read about this little-known national park, check out Rafting and Roughing it on the Black Canyon of the Gunnison Part One, Part Two and Part Three–it was a big outdoor adventure that I hope to do again some day. You just might want to plan a similar trip there yourself.
Speaking of world famous sites, it always strikes me that at America’s National Parks I see an overwhelming number of foreigners. Sometimes I think they value what we have more than most of us. Possibly. In any event, I hope this story and the photos herein will prompt you to break out and savor what we are so blessed to behold within our nation’s borders. I also think it might be a great way to blow out some election overload!
Colorado Durango Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Mountain Living: Blue Lake Ranch charming country inn Colorado lodging Durango lodging Mesa Verde
by maribeth
Comments Off on Blue Lake Ranch: A Hidden Gem in Southwest Colorado
Blue Lake Ranch: A Hidden Gem in Southwest Colorado
Blue Lake Ranch
The Iconic Sleeping Ute Mountain in Southwest Colorado
I Love Sunflowers
I love living in southwest Colorado. Here in Telluride we’re in a high alpine world surrounded by 14,000-foot peaks, yet within an hour’s drive you find yourself in more arid, Western-looking landscapes sporting temperatures almost twenty degrees warmer. That’s a welcome relief this time of year when most people want to extend summer as much as possible.
Blue Lake Ranch
About this time last year I discovered a wonderful guest ranch that I didn’t know existed: Blue Lake Ranch. And what a discovery it was!
Colorado Durango Four Corners Mountain Living Outdoor Adventures Podcasts The Rockies: Colorado Durango Four Corners Mountain Living Outdoor Adventures Podcasts The Rockies
by maribeth
Comments Off on Embracing Colorado Wilderness with Over the Hill Outfitters
Embracing Colorado Wilderness with Over the Hill Outfitters
The Great Colorado Outdoors: Where Life is Best Experienced from a Horse
Spring has finally sprung—full-on—here in Colorado and despite the fact that it snowed about ten days ago, this week the thermometer has been registering summertime temps. Roadways over the highest mountain passes are being plowed for passage and outfitters of all sorts are preparing for the influx of summer visitors. There’s still some snow to be cleared from the steep mountain trails, however, with the warmth of our southwestern Colorado sun, all our glorious wilderness will soon be open to locals and vacationers alike.
My fellow ski instructor buddies have taken up their summer posts as guides, landscapers or in my case, as a full-time writer, to name a few. Mother nature and all of us fortunate enough to live in this beautiful country are transitioning nicely into summer. At the end of ski season, I sat down with Dennis Huis, a top ski instructor at Telluride Ski & Snowboard School, to hear about his flip side, the job he’s been doing every summer for about as long as he’s been in ski school world.
Dennis talks about his work as a guide on pack trips with Over the Hill Outfitters in Durango, Colorado in my Travel Fun interview below. Click on the play button to listen to what he has to say about life on the trail. People from all over the world learn about the true definition of “getting away from it all” on these five-day horse trips into the Weminuche Wilderness, the largest wilderness area in Colorado which encompasses a significant part of the rugged San Juan Mountains, some of the most spectacular peaks in the United States.
Podcast (bonjourcolorado): Play in new window | Download
Art & Culture Colorado Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Telluride The Southwest Travel Utah: Art & Culture Colorado Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Telluride The Southwest Travel Utah
by maribeth
Comments Off on The Lone Ranger Showcases Monument Valley, Southwest Colorado and More
The Lone Ranger Showcases Monument Valley, Southwest Colorado and More
The Lone Ranger and Tonto in Monument Valley
“Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!”
Such are the famous words shouted by the Lone Ranger as this masked man gallops off on Silver, his handsome white stallion, the same words shouted by kids throughout the decades as they head off on an adventure. Ever since the original radio show aired in 1933, through the popular TV series of the forties and fifties, across the pages of comic books and then highlighted in films, “Hi-Yo Silver!” has captured the excitement and dashing spirit of the West for the better part of a century.
Art & Culture Colorado Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Restaurants The Southwest Utah: Art & Culture Colorado Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Restaurants The Southwest Utah
by maribeth
Comments Off on On the Trail of Western Movie-Making in Utah and Colorado
On the Trail of Western Movie-Making in Utah and Colorado
Monument Valley: An Iconic Shot
I’m feeling a little sentimental these days. Lately this golden season has flooded me with memories of two significant trips I took in the West at this time of year. The first occurred eleven years ago when I discovered the penetrating red rock landscapes of Moab, Utah during a road trip with the goal of where to settle in the West. The second happened in Monument Valley when I accompanied my parents on a trip-of-a-lifetime through southern Utah and then down to the Grand Canyon. (Visiting the Canyon had always been a dream of father’s—little did he know he’d end up marveling at the awe-inspiring monuments of Monument Valley just as much.)
Red Cliffs Lodge in Moab
At each of these high desert destinations, I felt and continue to feel humbled by the panoramic vistas seemingly painted in every shade of red throughout this arid land. Here buttes, spires and pinnacles tower over you as though nature’s standing guard in what sometimes looks like one of America’s last great frontiers. It’s no wonder some of the most iconic images of our country may be found in Moab and Monument Valley, Utah. The greatest westerns ever made were filmed here, specifically at two lodges that continue to pay tribute to the rich history of movie-making that occurred around their properties: Red Cliffs Lodge in Moab and Goulding’s Lodge in Monument Valley. The landscapes at and surrounding these ranches have, in fact, been so well preserved that movies, TV shows and commercials continue to be filmed here today. (Johnnie Depp was just at Goulding’s last spring filming the new version of “The Lone Ranger.”)
Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Restaurants Travel Utah: Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Restaurants Travel Utah
by maribeth
Comments Off on Sweet Sorrel: A Wonderful Destination Resort in Moab
Sweet Sorrel: A Wonderful Destination Resort in Moab
A Glorious High-Desert Garden at Sorrel River Ranch
When most people think of Moab, Utah, they imagine red rock landscapes the likes of which you see in some of the best westerns. Indeed, many great movies, TV shows and commercials, featuring the rugged scenery of the great American West, have been and continue to be made here, It is the land of two wonderful national parks: Arches and Canyonlands. But those in-the- know—and especially those that have traveled to the sweetest spots of Moab along the banks of the Colorado River—are aware that there’s many an oasis within this russet-red land.
Surely one of the most lush, the greenest piece of well-irrigated earth—long ago homesteaded by adventuresome settlers—makes up the Sorrel River Ranch Resort & Spa, a veritable paradise where fine living meets the great outdoors. I first stayed here nearly eleven years ago, shortly after the ranch was transformed into an elegant resort and here I am happy to find myself once again. It’s the kind of place you want to settle into for an entire week, but sadly I’m just passing through. Who ever said the life of a travel writer is marked by long periods of rest and relaxation?
