Being the wild and spontaneous roadtrippers that we are, it should come as zero surprise that we decided to change up the original itinerary and head to Telluride instead of Arches National Park in Moab, UT for a few days. Wait, rewind!
That was complete sarcasm as we are three overtly type-A project managers who have one of the most intense Google spreadsheets with the trip mapped out in extreme detail. It’s so intense that we know at least 3 other folks who have used the spreadsheet as the basis for their own vacations. You know who you are. #madlovetotype-atravelers
Getting to Telluride meant passing through the Four Corners area where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet. Katie’s family had denied her of visiting this tourist trap in the past and she’s long carried unresolved childhood issues as a result. Emmie and I were determined to help her overcome this difficult memory and promised we’d stop there on the road. Until we saw it was a legit tourist trap and charged more than we thought was appropriate. She was so determined that she offered to pay for our tickets so we rolled our eyes as expected and said sure. We then discovered they only accepted cash.
We did stop to let her take a picture by the sign but the issues remain. Can someone help her out in the future?
We’ve seen some beautiful places around the country over the past two months and have become a bit skeptical when someone recommends “the most beautiful drive in the country” as an alternative route. If they’re all right, there are 21 most beautiful drives in the western US and Canada. I got carsick on approximately all of them at some point. #whydidn’tIremembercarsicknessbeforethetripbegan? I’d say that nearly all were worth it…McGuckin family, I only include Trinity road in Napa on this list as it led to excellent Mexican food. #crazydrivers
However, Mike Franklin was right on when he suggested we drive up Million Dollar Highway on the way to Telluride – this 60 mile drive is absolutely stunning and worth the entire trip nearly by itself. After 9,000 miles we learned the secret to mountain drives is for me to drive and Katie to ohh and ahh at the scenery. I’m not sure what Emmie’s thing is during these drives, but she’s there too. J
Map of Million Dollar Highway from Durango, CO north towards Ouray, CO through the San Juan National Forest
Million dollar highway originally thought to be aptly named because of the stunning views. However, we later learned from Katie’s dad that this was because the cost of the highway ended up being close to a million dollars. Apparently, silver ore wasn’t in high demand when construction began and the value was not realized immediately. Good factoid if the state of CO ever goes broke and needs to find some money in the ground. Literally.
A few of the 1,000 pics Katie took during the drive. They turned out so amazing and are great compositions with the quickly fading light and angles. Thanks for the camera lessons Mike!
We got caught in a pretty massive thunderstorm and slowed to a crawl at one point, looking perilously at each other. Thoughts running through our minds at this point included:
- So, we’re in the middle of nowhere...with no cell service…what are our chances of getting help if we go off the edge?
- There are old mine shafts around here, maybe one of those will save us?
- Agggghh, it happens again on another “beautiful drive” – I’m not falling for this again!
- Aggh, Tiny Tanks has to pee! (Katie is now lovingly referred to as Tiny Tanks...she's only thankful Emmie didn't share this nickname earlier in the trip. Or sad at the amount of joy it could've brought to us all at her gracious expense)
Arriving in Telluride around 11pm we were pretty wiped and looking forward to finding a quick and easy place to crash for the night. Telluride is small and home to boutique hotels and resorts only…not the 24 hour, flashing lights, open vacancies, cheap deals we assumed would be available. As we drove through the 5 stoplight town seeing “no vacancy” sign after sign, we started to get a bit anxious. The trusty iPhones competed with each other to find the next hotel nearby and we eventually found a reasonable price at a resort in the adjacent Mountain Village up the way from Telluride.
Some tense bargaining and suspected duping occurred when we arrived at the resort to find the quoted price was for a room with two twin beds. I can vouch for the fact that Emmie told the guy on the phone that we had three people and wanted two queen beds. Not once or twice, but three times she confirmed this on the phone. Oooh, she was a force to be reckoned with when we arrived. I almost thought she was going to make us sleep in the car out of principle, but we conceded on account of being exhausted and now midnight and upgraded to the suite. The room was bomb and all was kumbaya once we crashed.
Walking to the Gondola stop with our snazzy resort and stunning view behind us. Emmie is being too cool for Telluride at this moment with her 12th pair of stunna shades.
View of our hotel nestled cozily in the valley.
Our sweet patio at the hotel
The most hiking we did in Telluride - yeah, we soaked in that whole 'vacation' thing
Telluride by the numbers:
- 2,200 times the song “Telluride” by Tim McGraw was played
- 4 free rides on the Gondola connecting Mountain Village to Telluride (the only free public transportation system of this type in the world)
- 31 minutes spent lying in a hammock staring at the mountains while contemplating life instead of going for a run. No major breakthroughs on the meaning of life to report.
- 17 postcards mailed from the Telluride post office (catch up time!)
- 9 cups of coffee consumed between Emmie & me in a single day (did you see the number of postcards we wrote?)
- 1.25 episodes of the Bachelorette watched. We’re all rooting for JP. Or for Ben so we can all fight over JP after the show ends.
- 1 major smackdown laid by Katie on the hotel. More details to come.
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We spent the next day exploring the town of Telluride, vegging at a coffee shop planning out our lives, window shopping at some exquisite boutiques and contemplating going for a hike. As we’d were all on the upswing of getting over whatever we’d caught the week before we decided not to chance it and relish in some R&R. An amazing last dinner of pasta and wine with just the three of us rounded out the evening in our suite and we decided to head to Denver in the morning to see our Madison/Flagstaff transplant friends.
Lunch in Telluride - we decided at 12 that it was 5 o'clock somewhere and supported the fine company of Blue Moon
Important lessons learned on the Gondola
Emmie in downtown Telluride working on her Bounty Hunter skills - a suitable backup if the whole public health thing doesn't work out.
Gondola photo shoot:
…and that’s where the smack down started. We’d changed hotel rooms at the resort earlier in the day when we decided to stay an extra day and had been under the impression that this room also had a pullout couch. As you can imagine however, we didn’t actually check the couch when we got to the room and a puzzled Katie said, “Emmie, can you come look at this couch?” as she was ready to go to sleep at 1 am. No secret bed compartment could be found.
dun dun dunnnnnn...
Our sweet, gregarious, bubbly and smiling Katie was gone and replaced with a focused and determined guest voicing her needs. The situation then snowballed as no one answered the phone, the desk clerk didn’t have a key to the room with cots, it was too late to change rooms, etc.. A nice woman brought some extra sheets and pillows and we made up a palate on the floor.
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