Travelogue Durango 2004
Last update 10/11/2004
Itinerary:
10/10/04: Drive from
10/11/04: Telluride, CO
10/11/04 –
10/13/04:
10/13/04 : Drive from
Drive from
The drive in on SR62 and SR145 was mind numbingly gorgeous in the evening light. The aspens are still changing colors. With the low sunset light the peaks of the mountains were lit up with streaks of gold from the aspens, dark red of the iron-rich mountain soils, and dark green of the fir trees. I had to stop several times for photographs.
Stay at the lovely
Dinner at the New Sheridan Chop House at
the New Sheridan hotel (
Monday October 11,
2004
Got up to a beautiful, crisp fall morning.
Breakfast (included) would have been a joy for a carbo-eating person. For those of us on an Atkins style diet, it wasn’t so appealing.
Checked out, left car in the hotel’s parking lot.
The hotel is just a block from the ski area’s gondola. Nice. Took the gondola up – spectacular views. Had to invent new terms for how mind
bogglingly beautiful it was. Finally I came up with “stupid beautiful”; its so beautiful
that it makes you stupid just looking at it.
Sharply peaked snow capped mountains, hills covered with aspens turning
gold and red, deep green fir trees. Sheer magnificence.
I thought of the tour guide in
Virtually nothing up at the ski area village was open. Being past summer season but before ski season, there was a coffee shop, a gallery, and one or two restaurants; the rest was shut up tight.
Back down to down. The gondola ride down was equally enthralling.
Wandered around town, looked in every shop on the main drag. A cute, pleasant mountain/ski area town. I appear to have been just a bit too late for the end of summer sales. Many places I walked into were busily putting up winter inventory, a couple looked like a blizzard had hit with torn down displays and aisles filled with winter gloves, hats and parkas. I suspect that just one or two weeks earlier there would probably have been some amazing bargains on summer sports equipment and apparel.
Lunch at Cuchina
de Luz (?
Just starting to rain as I left town
Drove up to the end of box canyon, continued up jeep road towards falls. Road was in really bad shape, very slow going. Eventually found a place with spectacular views of falls and valley, turned around. Had the weather been better I would have continued, but not worth it.
Drive to
Dinner at