Telluride

Telluride is about 1½ hours drive from Cortez along the San Juan National Byway. The drive takes you along the Dolores River valley and over Lizard Head Pass with some beautiful views along the way.
Telluride is nestled in a valley created by glaciers. We found the free parking lot and walked along the river to the Gondolas that travel up to Station St Sophia and Mountain Village.

Station St Sophia is a stop for hikers and mountain bikers to either go up or down the mountains.

Telluride from St Sophia.

We took the next gondola down to Mountain Village it looks just like a Swiss village as you arrive.

Mountain Village is a ski resort and was pretty quiet on a hot July day.

Telluride was the town where Butch Cassidy was involved in his first bank robbery, the bank burnt down and was replaced by another building years ago.

We had a great day and plan to go back to do some hiking soon.

Have fun, we are!