Monday, June 01, 2015

Telluride

My wife and I recognized our tenth wedding anniversary by taking a trip out to Telluride, Colorado.  With my parents in town, it was a good opportunity to take a trip without the kids.  We did talk about them a lot, especially in terms of we couldn’t do this with the kids or they would have loved this.

Accommodations

Camel's Garden Hotel - Nice little hotel at the base of the gondola in Telluride.  They offer a free light breakfast and a bar and grill called Oak, located in the hotel, is pretty popular.  The whole building smells like BBQ.  They also have a hot tub and free on site parking.

Dining

Brown Dog Pizza - Famous for its Detroit style pizza, this is a pretty hopping little sports bar.  With the hockey finals going on, people were getting pretty excited.

Allred's - Fine dining at the top of the gondola.  We enjoyed the view from the bar and had drinks.  Very friendly staff and great atmosphere.

Caravan Middle Eastern Foods - We tried the falafel from this permanent food truck type location.  They were OK, but the meals looked pretty good.

Baked in Telluride - They offer bagels, sandwiches, cookies, desserts along with a pretty broad menu.  We tried the egg and cheese pastry and it was OK.

Siam - Of the few Asian joints in Telluride we opted for Siam based on the Trip Adviser reviews.  We were not disappointed, great service, great food, reasonable atmosphere and not terribly expensive.  They had a very extensive menu.  The Panang curry was a little spicy for my wife, but the lobster tempura was awesome for me.

Cosmopolitan - Fine dining at the base of the gondola.  We stopped here for dessert and had an incredible Italian Almond Lemon Cake with lemon curd, lemon sauce, and strawberries.  Great atmosphere and service.  It is a little pricey.  The dessert we split was $10.

Attractions

Jed Wiebe Trail - We expected a short hike, but ended up being on the trail for a little over 2 hours, plus another 30 minutes getting to the trail head and back from the hotel.  It does offer spectacular views and a well traveled trail to make navigating a breeze.

Box Canyon Falls - (Ouray) - Nice short hike and a unique slice of geologic interest.

Ouray County Historical Museum - This was really impressive and is housed in the doctor’s office from the 1800’s.  The displays are broken up into 29 themed rooms including an operating suite, recovery room, kids toy display, post office, general store, railroad exhibit, mining exhibit, gaming exhibit and many others.  If it had not started raining, we might have missed this gem.

Wiesbaden Hots Springs - (Ouray) - This is a lodge with a spa and hot springs.  The hot springs is underground in a cave which in addition to 108 degree mineral water provides vapor that is a pretty unique experience.  As I was overheating, I headed to the outdoor spring which was around the mid 80’s.  

Getting There

We took I-70 through Glenwood Springs on the way out and took the scenic route through Gunnison on the way back.  Overall it was 714 miles and 13:10 of windshield time.



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