Telluride

William and I had the chance to sneak away to Telluride, Colorado at the end of summer.  (Many many thanks to our parents for babysitting so we could have a much needed and waaaaaayyyyy overdue break)!  I didn't realize how much I needed this getaway until we were there.  For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could "let it all go".  William and I laughed more on this trip than we have laughed in several years.  It. Was. Awesome.  We had never been to Telluride before, and we loved it!  It is very different than any other place we've been out west.  It is apparently a popular place to visit in summer months, and we could see why.  It's very family friendly, and there is so much to do.  If you aren't interested in leaving the city, there is a free gondola that can get you from one side of the mountain to the other.  The town only has two main streets, so it is pretty tiny!  There were lots of families there.  In fact, we felt like we were the only people that didn't have our children in tow!

 We went on a hike every day.  William was like a kid in a candy store.  Most days we came back, soaked in the hot tub, then swam for a minute, and would finish off the day going out to eat dinner.  The weather out there was absolutely perfect.

The longest (and hardest)  hike we went on lead us to an alpine lake called  Hope Lake.  Just before William took this picture of me, a bear cub ran across the trail about 15 yards in front of us.  We stayed far enough behind long enough that we didn't cross it (or it's Mom) again.  I'm so glad William has lived out west and has had enough experience in the mountains that he always knows how to handle situations.  ;)

 

William brought his fly rod along for our journey up to Hope Lake.  The picture below is the first fish he caught of the whole trip.  As he was reeling the trout in, he told me he was fishing with my Dad's fishing rod and was using my Dad's "orange special" fly that he created.  The tears wouldn't stop flowing, I do not know what came over me!  The pictures never do justice, but it truly was a beautiful trout.  

The picture below was the moon setting that was taken from our room our first morning there.  It was beautiful to watch.

 We saw tons of waterfalls.  This particular one was at the back of Telluride at the end of a short hike we did.

Then, we hiked to this one, called Bridal Veil falls, which is the longest waterfall in Colorado.  Can you see me at the bottom of the picture? And, I wasn't even at the bottom of the falls.  There would have been no way to fit the entire fall in the frame of our camera had we been any closer.  

They used to mine this area a lot, so there were mine trails everywhere.  It is amazing to me how people could have navigated the mountains back in the day, especially where we were.  The mountains were so steep!  There were a few mountain roads we attempted to drive, but we had rock on one side and a steep drop off on the other.  Nary a space to pass a car coming in the other direction, and did I mention there were no guard rails?  Our stomachs couldn't handle it.  We had an amazing trip, so many details I don't have time to share, but we hope to make it back there someday!