A Day in Dog Friendly Telluride, CO

Ouray, CO
Thistledown CG, Natl. Forest

It still amazes me how dog friendly Colorado is.  Every town we've been in has been this way and Telluride is no different.

 

Telluride, a former Victorian mining town in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains sits at 8750 feet elevation.  It is set in a box canyon surrounded by forested peaks at the base of a popular ski-and-golf resort.  We came to spend the day at the Mushroom Festival and geocache on the way up.

 

 

One of my favorites is geocaching at cemeteries, especially old, historic ones.  I've been to many around the country and have seen this type of grave marker several times.  It's very ornate.  Usually a tree trunk that is 4 - 5 feet tall.

 

 

Joseph Cullen Root originally founded the group, Modern Woodmen of America, because he wanted to create a fraternal society that would "bind in one association the Jew and the Gentile, the Catholic and the Protestant, the agnostic and the atheist."                                                                                                                                                               

An interesting bit of info on this organization: Woodmen of the World occupied the tallest building in Omaha, and the tallest building between Chicago and the West Coast, (19 stories) for many years. It remained Omaha’s tallest structure until 2002. We've all heard of other popular organizations, but not many people know of the Woodmen.

 

In 1922, WOW began it’s own radio station, WOAW.  At that time, WOAW’s 500-watt signal reached ships in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  Later it became one of the most powerful radio stations in the country.  In 1949, the broadcasting company decided to launch WOW-TV. One of the first performers on the television station was local resident, Johnny Carson.

 

We passed through the tiny town (population about 500) of Placerville, Colorado.  We find this interesting as we are from Placerville, California, another small town.  There is another Placerville in Idaho and we have visited there as well.  Not much to this town except a fire department, park store and post office.

 

Even though the pines surrounding the area have been devastated by the Pine Bark Beetle, the forests around this area have almost totally escaped harm. 

Back to Telluride.  The town is cute, clean and very dog friendly.

They even have flowers in the middle of the street.

Murals on the buildings.

It's also a large biking community.  All types of bikes.

Unfortunately the Mushroom Festival ended just as we arrived.  Who would've thought it would end at 1pm on the weekend?

Hurley couldn't care less about this statue.

Matching Door Greeters.

This bike was covered all over in material including a fuzzy seat.

The Old Stone Jail

Haven't seen a Dog Parking Zone before.

Decorating your bike is quite popular here.

Goose #4

 

And the best part of the day?  Riding the free gondola up and over the ski resort.  And dogs are welcome.  Every other gondola has a paw print on it indicating dogs can ride along.

Not too sure Hurley cared for it much.

Looking back down at Silverton.

Wuh?

Someone painting a sign 1/2 way up the mountain. 

Mountain Village on the other side.

A little stop over at the Telluride Brewery.

 

And conveniently located next door was the telluride Distilling Company.

Her husband built the distilling machine himself.  They are both chemists.

 

Some T-Rex statues at the nearby gas station.

 

On the way back it was getting late and we were hungry so we stopped at one of the only places open in Ridgway called the Colorado Boy.

Oh look at all that Arugula!

Best thin crust pizza!

 

A run-in with Aliens next!