The town of Telluride is a beautiful, short hour's drive from Ridgway State Park. We spent the better part of a day there and enjoyed every moment.
The highlight of the day for the kids was the gondola ride. The gondolas are in perpetual motion everyday from 7 AM to midnight, and the ride is free. We hopped in our 8-passenger gondola in Telluride, rode up the mountain to the summit and down into Mountain Village before boarding again for the ride back to Telluride.
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| Heading up! |
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| Excited faces. |
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| Sean busied himself with pointing at anything and everything that caught his eye. |
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| Almost to the top! |
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| The view of Telluride from the summit. |
We rode down into Mountain Village, but we didn't spend a lot of time there. It's a pretty place, but it's also a very ritzy resort town - not the best place to take six kids!
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A view of Mountain Village. In the distance, between the second and third cables (from the left),
is the Tellruide/Mountain Village airstrip. |
Lunch was another highlight. We ate at Esperanza's, a superb Mexican restaurant in the basement of a tourist shop.
After lunch we visited the Telluride Museum, which used to be the Telluride hospital. There is a wealth of history in this old mining town!
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| The view from the museum. No matter where you are in Telluride, the scenery is breath-taking. |
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After the museum, we spent a little time strolling around town before heading back to camp.
Leah and Will took turns with the camera. |
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| Can you make out the strip of waterfall in the center of this photo? |
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| I mentioned that drive is gorgeous, too, didn't I? |
The last vacation photos I have to share are photos from our day in Ouray. I'll save those for next time!
