Anniversary Trip to Telluride

As many of you know, this past weekend we decided to spend some time in Telluride (see map; zoom out on map to see where it is within Colorado - or here's a map of all of Colorado) to celebrate our 1st anniversary. We left on Friday afternoon and drove to Salida (see map) to make it about halfway to Telluride. We got to Salida around 7 PM and checked in with the B&B we were staying in for the night. Salida is not huge; in 2005, the population of Salida was 5,728. Scott needed a plaid shirt and cowboy hat to fit in a little better. Brian, we almost picked up a birthday cowboy hat for you before we realized how extremely pricey they are. Who knew. There was a nice river nearby and it was great to be there in time to have dinner and enjoy the hot tub at the B&B. As soon as we turned the hot tub on, a cat came running up to say hello - we found out the next morning that he was the B&B's outdoor cat and has been known to lick people on the back while they're in the hot tub. He didn't lick us but certainly enjoyed meowing at us.

The next morning we were on the road fairly early and headed west to Telluride. We made a few pit stops to take photos and stretch our legs.

We also made a detour to Ouray (see map) - it's prononced You-Ray - and got some ice cream and coffee there. This was an even tiny town than Salida - in 2003 there were less than 900 residents! The elevation was 7,811 feet as compared to about 5,400 feet in Boulder.

We arrived in Telluride around 3:30 PM on Saturday, giving us a fair amount of time to wander around the town. Telluride's population was about 2,300 in 2003 and its elevation is 8,793 feet. Here are some pics on the drive into town, which is well off the beaten path.

Sitting on the porch in our hotel room....

We took the free gondola up the mountain and enjoyed the views before exploring the town some more and heading out for an anniversary dinner. We also stopped and got a bottle of wine at a liquor store - what did we see as soon as we walked in? A Russian Gray cat sitting on top of some cases of beer. There are cats everywhere if you have your eyes open for them. Sorry we didn't take pics of the random cats!

On top of the mountain... And the coming back down again...
This morning we slept in a little and headed back home via Grand Junction - it was about a 7 hour drive not including a few stops for lunch, coffee, and gas.

All in all, a great trip but also a lot of driving. We are happy to be home with the cats (of course!) and looking forward to our next trip to the farm in Ohio to see Gores & Holladays.