It is. It’s also a great place to spend a summer weekend. Last June marked the 40th Telluride Bluegrass Festival and September brings the 40th Telluride Film Festival. In between, the town of less than 3,000 now annually hosts an average of 25 different types of festivals— from chamber music to wine to mushrooms to yoga to “nothing”—a “festival” during which locals fete not having a festival by riding naked down the town’s main drag, Colorado Avenue. Telluride rolls in natural beauty of a different kind. Serrated peaks slice the sky in almost every direction, while russet, vermillion and sienna rock formations wall the town, their rugged configurations inviting hikers, mountain bikers, climbers and four-wheelers. (“People here don’t work out,” a local tells me. “They train.”) At the eastern end of Colorado Avenue,

stone fruit-glazed Colorado rack of lamb. Complement it with a Super Tuscan and cap it with a sticky toffee cake. Stomachs full and senses alive, we float on the gondola above a mountainside bathed in alpenglow. The setting sun silhouettes the LaSalle Mountains in faraway Utah as the Mountain Village comes into view. The private hot tub and plush room await. And tomorrow will bring another shot at eagle on No. 7. Cag Jon Rizzi is editor of Colorado AvidGolfer. For more on Telluride and Mountain Village, visit tellurideskiresort.com; 800-778-8581.

GOING ,GOING, GONDOLA: Telluride’s main ride.

PHOTOGRAPH © DICK DURRANCE II

SHOT AND A SPLASH: No. 16

Ingram Falls tumbles 280 feet in three steps from a basin some 2,000 feet above the town. The two prongs of nearby Bridal Veil Falls plummet a memorable 365 feet. Designated a National Historic Landmark District, the town has preserved the clapboard buildings, brick storefronts and quaint wooden Victorian-era homes and filled them with boutiques, galleries and gourmet restaurants. The town where Butch and Sundance robbed their first bank now lightens the wallets of wellheeled Texans, Californians, and other flatlanders with superb eateries like La Marmotte, Cosmopolitan, Flavor Telluride and the Sheridan Chop House—all of which wine and dine us during the Art + Architecture Weekend. The go-to dining experience is Allred’s, located at the Station St. Sophia gondola stop. It serves only Telluride Ski and Golf members during winter, but opens to everyone during summer. Dinner comes with postcard views of the peaks, piedmont and the town below. Allred’s truffle deviled egg appetizer pleases even ovophobes; the pan-roasted alaskan halibut arrives with beans, chorizo, roasted red pepper and marinated fennel; and the only thing better than the beef tenderloin with lobster risotto is the sweet-and-sour co l o r a d o a v i d g o l f e r. c o m

August 2013 | Colorado AvidGolfer

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