Telluride PhotosPhotos of Telluride Ski Area, Snowboarding, Hiking

I took a counter-clockwise hike on the Deep Creek to the Eider Creek trail loop.  I can’t remember how long it took, but it was about 2-3 hours and I took my time … actually traveling up the ridge line for 10 minutes past the junction where the Sneffels Highline and Deep Creek Trail head converge to get a view up and over the canopy of trees. The shot below was taken from this vantage point, where you can see the Telluride Ski Area on the right (lift 9 area):

Below is a macro shot of a cool looking mountain wild flower I came across. You might want to click on the photo and then go to the actual album and look at the largest size to really see the detail of this flower … which is truly amazing.

Below is a photo taken in macro mode of an Osha plant in Waterfall Canyon near Ophir, Colorado which has flowered recently.   It seems we’re pretty much in the peak season with respect to mountain wild flowers in the high country.

The roots of the Osha plant are often harvested for medicinal purposes; in particular treating upper respiratory cold and flu symptoms.

Osha is the term used for “bear root” by the Ute’s who apparently witnessed bears seeking out and consuming Osha root after hibernation or when sick or wounded.

Cow parsnip flower looks very similar to that of Osha, but normally has much broader leaves.

Here’s a shot of the Steep Canyon Rangers playing at the Sunset Mountain Concert Series in the Telluride Mountain Village on July 7, 2010.  The concert venue is located in the Heritage Plaza in the TMV and offers free weekly music during the summer.  The Steep Canyon Rangers are pretty much a traditional Bluegrass band which sometimes features the actor/musician Steve Martin on the banjo … although he did not appear at this show.

Located in the Telluride Mountain Village, The Peaks one of the area’s largest hotels which offers a full spa.

Includes an item titled “9. Bear Creek & New Lift“, with subtext and question as follows:

Delta Chair Lift
This would expand the ski area, offering new intermediate, advanced, and expert terrain above tree line.

1. Should we add a lift in upper Bear Creek?

The survey question provide the following selection options:

Choose the level of importance to you:

Comments (with an input box)

First off, I need to say that this survey’s questions are probably not setup to solicit the most accurate responses. For those survey takers who are simply checking off selections and DO NOT enter comments, the questions are not posed in such a way as to ask whether or not the survey taker actually “approves” of the particular item, but rather asks about the “importance” of this lift. A beginner level skier who might be taking the survey might feel an expansion with a lift into Bear Creek is simply not relevant to him or her, since the respective terrain might be beyond their ability level. In which case, they might check off “Not Important” or “Indifferent”.

However, if the question were posed to be something along the lines of “Do you support an expansion of the existing ski area boundary to include a lift in to upper Bear Creek?”, it would be an entirely different question and might invoke an entirely different set of results … since there might be a significant population who opposes such an expansion, yet considers the actual terrain as not having ANY significant relevance to their particular world in so far as suitable accessible terrain.

The question also asks “Should we add a lift in upper Bear Creek?” … which essentially jumps ahead of itself in so far as not first inquiring: “Should we seek an expansion to our existing boundary to add more terrain?” … which of course is the sticky wicket question.

Other items in the survey I found somewhat disturbing:

Plans to add a tram to Palmyra Peak from the top of Gold Hill Chute 3. WTF? Talk about a MAJOR EYESOR OF THE MILLIONTH DEGREE!!! Apparently, there is a surface lift currently being constructed atop the Gold Hill ridgeline which will provide access to the tram. Hellooooooo …. not sure if they realize how darn windy it gets on the Gold Hill ridge and the top of Palmyra Peak?!?!!!!!! … let alone the cost to bring this system on line?!!!!!!? I can only imagine the engineering & construction costs of what would almost certainly require a line which is completely suspended in the air (minus the two grounded terminals). Yet, this tram might not be used very much … especially during sparse snow years … given the nature of the exposure of the terrain underneath. Let’s keep the cost of lift access down to what is actually necessary so as the greatest number of U.S. citizens can have a reasonable opportunity to afford access to the lift system which serves the ski resort; the vast majority of resides on National Forest Service (i.e. public) lands.

I almost wonder if this tram idea is a “foil” or “decoy” to divert attention away from a lift in Bear Creek? It’s just THAT hair brained … in my opinion.

There’s also an item for a Palmyra Basin lift which is apparently already approved byt he USFS. By the map on the Telski survey, it appears to start near the base of Gold Hill Chute 2 & traverses high up into the Palmyra Basin just below the cliffs. In additional to selecting the “level of importance”, there’s a secondary question which asks:

2. This lift could be considered an alternate to the Delta Lift in Bear Creek. What option do you prefer (choose one only):

-Build both Delta Lift and Palmyra Basin Lift
-Build neither lift
-Build only the Delta Lift
-Build only the Palmyra Basin Lift

Gee … where do I begin?!? (I selected (build niether lift”)

Wow, it keeps getting better, here’s the next question:

In lieu of a chairlift in upper Bear Creek, a tunnel would be built from the bottom of the proposed Delta Lift to the bottom of Gold Hill Express (14).

… again, it’s a “choose the level of importance to you” question.

and “better”:

1. Should we add a lift from Gorrono Ranch to the top of Gold Hill?

… looks like they’re raising the possibility of summer use for this lift too

Again, they’ve just totally missed the mark on how they’re asking questions. Here’s another:

“Should we upgrade Plunge (9) to a high-speed quad in the same alignment?”

… yet were’re supposed select the level of importance without any indication of whether we’re FOR or AGAINST such a measure.

This survey just gets more and more off the charts … beyond the scope of “Save Bear Creek” … it should be “Save the San Juans” … lifts to Ophir & Silverton are apparently on the table.

and it goes on:

“Chairlift connection to Red Mountain Pass
Three chairlifts would connect Telluride to HWY 550 at Red Mountain Pass. A shuttle bus would connect the existing ski area to the first lift at the end of the valley.”
.

Below is a short clip of the finale of the 4th of July fireworks show in Telluride taken from Tomboy road looking down on Town Park. I really liked the large shells (can be heard at the very end) which send off a booming sound which reverberates a big bass sound throughout the entire box canyon.

While I’ve always known the 4th of July celebration in Telluride is one of the larger events of the summer and draws a large number of people, I seem to forget that it apparently brings in more people in their cars and trucks than any other festival. It was major gridlock getting out of town last evening with police stationed on mainstreet at the major intersections. Even the alleys were jam packed. It’s interesting, because there are probably more people in town for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival; however, most of them are staying overnight at either a local Telluride hotel or will be camping …. where as many folks visiting town for the 4th are driving back to Durango, Farmington, Cortez, Grand Junction, etc. that night.

I went on a hike on the North side of the Ophir valley yesterday and tried to reach an old mine / tram station up near the Ophir Needles (few hundred yards to the east), but of course took the wrong path and overshot it to the west and underneath in terms of elevation. I believe I made it as far as St. Louis Gulch where I turned around due to not wanting to deal with a goat track on a very steep cliff wall. It would be much easier to traverse through this gulch at either a higher or lower elevation.

So, I backtracked slightly upwards & spotted the clearing of what I believe to be a shack which resides immediately adjacent to the mine I originally was looking to make it too … but it was good 300 vertical feet higher than where I was currently positioned and was too tired to go higher.

So, I opted to simply continue the bushwacking back east and try and locate the main trail in order to find the proper route the next time around. The general rule of thumb for hiking on northern side of Ophir is that you can generally find SOME sort of trail, be it: a full on jeep road, old miner’s trail, or a well defined Elk / animal route … if you simply bushwack it up or down in elevation. Of course, it is important to realize there are many rock outcroppings, cliffs, and other natural features of the terrain which might not allow direct egress. Below is a shot taken from the choke of what is referred to as the West Badger slide path:

I scrambled straight down through the choke … which is basically a narrowing or bottleneck of the gulch by rock formations. Chokes on ski runs are often scraped off and rocky, since most skiers and snowboarders have very little room to manuever in order to pass through & typically scrape off the existing snowbase.

Back to the hike at hand: I realized that after years of snowboarding, I’m now very conditioned to look at what is actually steep terrain below me as almost being flat!!! It’s a sort of trick of the eye. It normally serves me well snowboarding; however, in the context of hiking, it is much more difficult to negotiated a decent down a steep path avalanche path vs. what would otherwise be a few quick turns on my board.

Once I did make it below the choke, I accidently stumbled upon/near a nest of Gunnison Sage Grouse which was on the ground and very well camouflaged. Luckily I didn’t step on any of the little chicks (or whatever they’re called), but did scare away mom … who I’m sure she returned shortly after I left the nest.

Below the choke, I quickly picked up one of the jeep switchbacks and continued downward, on a very rocky pathway, but ultimately figured out where I initially took the wrong turn at the beginning … so next time, I’ll be fairly certain about the route.

The Fouth of July in Telluride is always a traditional sort of celebration with a parade, bbq, hokey games, and of course fireworks. There was supposed to be a flyover this morning at 10:40, but being in Ophir and not going to town until later, I can’t say for sure if it happened and/or whether they were jets. I’ve seen old war relic prop planes before, but the jet formation is definitely a spectacular sight to see … where they fly information very low through the mouth of the box canyon, then pull up into a rapid climb at the very last second before approaching Ajax.