Drive up the San Juan Skyway to Telluride

With Pache getting a little better and Buddy not hissing at him anymore, we decided to drive to Telluride, and glitzy town about 65 miles north east of Dolores, and we traveled on the San Juan Skyway Route 145.  Very pretty.  Spring has come to the area we are in, the trees are in bloom, but as we started our climb up, you could see where spring has not come - no buds on trees yet and there was quite a bit of snow left.

Starting out from the campground - very green and lush

Followed the west branch of the Dolores River

First glimpse of our destination 

Spring has not arrived yet

Rico, Colorado

Coming into Lizard Head Pass

Trout Lake still frozen over

The wind was howling here - and it was freeeezzzinnnggg!

The West Branch of the Dolores River raged by us, very brown and quite high from the snow melt.  No animals were around but then we left the campground by mid morning, animals usually come out near dusk.  Passed a number of campgrounds that were still closed for the season - their last snow storm was a week ago.  Drove through the small mining town of Rico, very old buildings, but we could see homes with cars in the driveways and people milling about.  Very cold - 48 - and lots of snow still on the ground.

Continued on, passed Trout Lake and the resort, very snowed/iced in.  Stopped at the Ophir Pass where a railroad pass/tressel was built over the San Miguel River for the Rio Grande Southern Railroad.  Steep narrow gorge, you could almost hear the engines of the train grinding to get over the pass.  Today the railroad no longer comes through, but to build it must have been quite a feat.

Started our decent to Telluride

Destination straight ahead - Telluride
See switchbacks on mountain?  That's trail to Bridal Veil Falls

Some very old buildings

As we dropped down Lizard Head Pass, we came into the San Miguel Valley where Telluride rests.  A big valley surrounded by the towering mountains.  Turned towards the mountains and the town, passed a herd of elk grazing along the snow melt of the mountains, then came into the town.  Have to have a lot of money to live there, the property values sky rocketed once Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, Ralph Lauren, Jerry Seinfeld, and other personalities found this town back in the 90's.  I talked with a store manager in one store who has lived in the area all her life - she said people cannot afford to ski here, instead they come in the summer months for all the festivals - there is one every week and sometimes you have to wait 2 hours just to get into a restaurant. Not our idea of fun.  Glad we saw it when we did.

Bridal Veil Falls

And a number of water falls all over

I was intrigued by this one

Abandoned mine building - Telluride got famous from silver strikes in the 1860s

These little flowers were abundant

Look to left of the falls - see building?

It is a power plant - if we hiked trail, would have come to it

If you did not want to hike it, take your 4X4 car there

Old abandoned sluice from silver mine

There is a Bridal Veil waterfall just out of town, against the mountains, so we decided to try our luck.  A 1 1/2 mile trek to the waterfall, but considered difficult due to the altitude and the switchbacks you have to maneuver.  We could see the waterfall from the parking lot, decided to walk as far as we could, then call it a day.  Did not even get close - the altitude got us.  When we turned around to head back, the altitude was 9,832 feet.  We could really feel it - headache, dizzy, disorientated.

We figured about 10 to 15 feet of snow at Lizard Head Pass

Back through Lizard Head Pass area 

And back through Rico

Remnant of mine on display

Magpie birds are everywhere

Got back to the car, drove into Telluride again, got a coffee to go, cruised the streets to see how the folks live, then headed back.  Stopped again at Lizard Head Pass to take pictures, and then again in Rico, and got back to the campground by 3:30.  Some people drive the entire San Juan Skyway loop which requires about 7 hours - non stop - and the loop swings up and over the mountains and down through Ouray to Silverton to Durango.  We have done the Silverton to Durango part so decided not to do the entire loop.