Moving on from Wolf Creek Pass, we continued West through Pagosa Springs. This was my first time through Pagosa Springs. It seemed like an almost out of place resort town in a somewhat flat valley in the mountains. It was very nice, and although we didn’t stop, it was easy to see why many people vacation there. There were boutique resorts and spas everywhere it seemed. Oh well, moving onward!
Next we got to the ‘select-a-quest’ portion of our beautiful state. That is, we made it to Durango, where one much choose to either go directly North on highway 550 (the Million Dollar Highway) which leads to Silverton and then to Ouray, or do you keep going West through Durango towards Cortez, where you then turn North and go up highway 145 to Telluride. About 12 years ago, we took a family road trip around Colorado, and we went through Ouray. I absolutely loved it. Affectionately called the Switzerland of America, this secluded town is a gorgeous oasis. However, even though Ouray and Telluride must be 10 miles or less apart, there is no quick access between the two. It takes about 4 hours to drive around the mountain range to access the other side. That is unless you have a Jeep Wrangler, are clinically insane, and you drive over Black Bear Pass. Look that up on YouTube. That is a beautiful yet incredibly dangerous pass that can really only be traversed by Jeep Wranglers. Actually, I can’t believe this pass is still open. But I digress.
So we continued West towards Cortez, which honestly is a terrible place. It’s dry, dusty, boring, and I just have these vivid memories from the previously mentioned family trip when we stayed in the shadiest hotel in Cortez. So I didn’t hesitate to take us on a shortcut to bypass Cortez and join up with Highway 145.
On that route, you go over Ophir Pass, which you can see in the picture above. It was beautiful. This is the first time on the trip where we were seeing huge areas of turning aspens. It was beautiful. We ventured off the highway East to the actual town (that is being generous) of Ophir. Wikipedia says the population of Ophir is 113. That might be a bit high from what we saw. This tiny hillside town was very quiet, and I don’t think the locals really liked the photo tourists like us driving through their hidden town. In just the few ‘blocks’ in this place, there were many huge homemade speed bumps in the roads, with 15 mpg speed limit signs, and accompanying signs that threatened speeders. Nothing to see here, so we returned to Highway 145 and kept heading to Telluride.
Finally, we arrived in Telluride, the promised land. We drove through the valley into town just as the sun was setting, which was beautiful. We had a little trouble actually finding our hotel, since the sign for it was almost hidden, and the parking lot for it was a tiny entrance to an underground parking garage. But we made it. We checked in, went out and got a great pizza dinner at a restaurant in town and then called it a night.
I have to say, even though our time there was brief, I fell in love with Telluride. It is absolutely gorgeous from every angle. To me it really epitomizes Colorado. The downsides, of course, are the distance from Home (probably about a 6 hour drive), and the prices. Real estate there is sky high, mostly because the rich Hollywood folks found out about it, and the town has a nice little airport which can handle those private jets. I think Oprah has two different mansions on the mountain, and I think Tom Cruise has one as well. Maybe one day when I am rich and famous, I will be able to afford a small house in Telluride and spend a bunch of time there.
More to come…