Taking it Easy in Telluride and Montrose
Colorado Travelog #26
Montrose, CO - Wednesday, 6 Jul 2022, 10pm
This evening we're in Montrose, Colorado, holing up at a Holiday Inn Express. There's not much to say about Montrose.... It's a crossroads town in western Colorado... with a Holiday Inn Express. 🤣
After finishing our hike to Bear Creek Falls this afternoon we grabbed a late lunch in Telluride. We were too tired and hungry to plan much else so we went to literally the closest restaurant, a brew-pub 1½ blocks from the end of the trail. It was pretty good. I had a chimichurri steak with a small sampler of beer then a pint of the beer I liked best. The beers were surprisingly high in alcohol content, like 8-9%. I passed the car keys to Hawk after 2 pints.
While we were dining the sky, which had been gray off and on for much the day, opened up and began pouring rain. We had chosen to dine on the patio, as the weather was nice outside until then. For a few minutes we huddled together under the patio umbrellas. Then we determined the rain wasn't going to let up so we asked to be seated inside. We were the last of at least half a dozen groups who braved the weather outside.
The drive from Telluride to Montrose was barely 70 miles and took about an hour and a half. It seemed like it took 2 hours, though. I blame the rain for slowing things down.
On our way around 14,000+' Mt. Sniffles, crossing over the Dallas Pass at about 9,000', we saw snow on the road side. It didn't snow on us (temps never dropped below 46° F / 8° C according to our truck's air thermometer) but snow had fallen at that level not too much earlier in the day. And Mt. Sniffles was streaked with snow in all of its crevices. I don't know why Coloradans gave this 14,000+' mountain a lame name like Sniffles. With its broad shoulders and angular crown, a mountain like that in, say, the Trinity Alps of California would be named Odin's Throne or Mt. Storm King. But here it's Mt. Sniffles.
The weather cleared up this afternoon in Montrose. It probably kept raining in the high mountains around Telluride, but here in Montrose we're in terrain more closely matching high desert. We soaked for a while in the hot tub before going back out to rustle up some dinner. Montrose being... well, basically nowhere... stuff was closing down at 8. We ended up going through a McDonald's drive thru (they closed the dining room at 8 but ran the drive through later) and eating our food on a picnic table in front of the restaurant at dusk.
Back here at the room, now, we're taking it easy for the rest of the evening. I'm catching up a bit on my blog backlog, and Hawk is doing some work. Ugh. I'm glad my time off from work is actually time off from work.
Tomorrow's going to be a long day. We'll do a bunch of short hikes at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, which is about 30 minutes from here, then drive on to Glenwood Springs a few hours away. It'll be a full day.
Update: I forgot to mention we score a sweet suite upgrade at the hotel due to my Platinum Elite status. See a walkthrough of our suite in my next blog!
Montrose, CO - Wednesday, 6 Jul 2022, 10pm
This evening we're in Montrose, Colorado, holing up at a Holiday Inn Express. There's not much to say about Montrose.... It's a crossroads town in western Colorado... with a Holiday Inn Express. 🤣
After finishing our hike to Bear Creek Falls this afternoon we grabbed a late lunch in Telluride. We were too tired and hungry to plan much else so we went to literally the closest restaurant, a brew-pub 1½ blocks from the end of the trail. It was pretty good. I had a chimichurri steak with a small sampler of beer then a pint of the beer I liked best. The beers were surprisingly high in alcohol content, like 8-9%. I passed the car keys to Hawk after 2 pints.
While we were dining the sky, which had been gray off and on for much the day, opened up and began pouring rain. We had chosen to dine on the patio, as the weather was nice outside until then. For a few minutes we huddled together under the patio umbrellas. Then we determined the rain wasn't going to let up so we asked to be seated inside. We were the last of at least half a dozen groups who braved the weather outside.
The drive from Telluride to Montrose was barely 70 miles and took about an hour and a half. It seemed like it took 2 hours, though. I blame the rain for slowing things down.
On our way around 14,000+' Mt. Sniffles, crossing over the Dallas Pass at about 9,000', we saw snow on the road side. It didn't snow on us (temps never dropped below 46° F / 8° C according to our truck's air thermometer) but snow had fallen at that level not too much earlier in the day. And Mt. Sniffles was streaked with snow in all of its crevices. I don't know why Coloradans gave this 14,000+' mountain a lame name like Sniffles. With its broad shoulders and angular crown, a mountain like that in, say, the Trinity Alps of California would be named Odin's Throne or Mt. Storm King. But here it's Mt. Sniffles.
The weather cleared up this afternoon in Montrose. It probably kept raining in the high mountains around Telluride, but here in Montrose we're in terrain more closely matching high desert. We soaked for a while in the hot tub before going back out to rustle up some dinner. Montrose being... well, basically nowhere... stuff was closing down at 8. We ended up going through a McDonald's drive thru (they closed the dining room at 8 but ran the drive through later) and eating our food on a picnic table in front of the restaurant at dusk.
Back here at the room, now, we're taking it easy for the rest of the evening. I'm catching up a bit on my blog backlog, and Hawk is doing some work. Ugh. I'm glad my time off from work is actually time off from work.
Tomorrow's going to be a long day. We'll do a bunch of short hikes at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, which is about 30 minutes from here, then drive on to Glenwood Springs a few hours away. It'll be a full day.
Update: I forgot to mention we score a sweet suite upgrade at the hotel due to my Platinum Elite status. See a walkthrough of our suite in my next blog!