5 Days in Telluride

The Telluride Historic District covers about 80 acres of the former boom town and became a National Historic Landmark in 1961 for its well-preserved late mining-era buildings. Silver and gold built it, the railroad arrived in 1891, and the last mine closed in the 1970s.

Start near the corner of Colorado Avenue and Pine Street, where the San Miguel Valley Bank stood. On 24 June 1889 the young Butch Cassidy, with Matt Warner and two of the McCarty brothers, robbed it of around 21,000 dollars and fled to Utah, his first real bank job. The bank burned down less than three years later, and the building that replaced it in 1892 (the Mahr Building, 129-131 West Colorado) carries a plaque. Then walk east to the end of the street, where the box canyon closes in around Bridal Veil Falls.

The gondola is Telluride's best idea. It links the old town with Mountain Village over the ridge, runs free for everyone, and in winter operates from 6:30am to midnight every day (20 November to 4 April, after autumn maintenance). It opened on 19 November 1996 and carries about 3 million rides a year. The ride takes about 12 minutes and tops out at the St. Sophia station, 10,540 feet up, where you can ski on and off the mountain.

Board at the station in town, next to the base of Lift 8, where the sales office is. After skiing, the gondola is also the way home.

Mountain Village sits at about 9,600 feet and is a different kind of place: a purpose-built resort, founded in 1987 and incorporated in 1995, with pedestrian streets, shops, restaurants and the main lifts at the door. It lacks the age of the town below, but you can ski to the door.

Learn the layout before you ski. The Chondola mixed lift, the Village Express and the Sunshine Express all start here, and the Heritage Plaza ticket office sits beneath the gondola station. For a quick, cheap lunch before the half-day ticket starts, The Pick sells hand-rolled burritos and bowls in the village core.

The Village side is where you warm up. Afternoon half-day tickets are valid from 12:30pm every day, which suits a first afternoon at altitude. The Sunshine Express (Lift 10) and the Ute Park Express serve the beginner and intermediate runs, and Ute Park has separate beginner and intermediate terrain park lines. Galloping Goose is the long way down, and the resort has called it its longest run at 4.6 miles.

Keep it easy. The mountain's real character is steeper, but you are at 9,000 feet or more and have only just arrived. A few laps near the Village Express and Sunshine will tell you how the snow is and how your legs feel.

The resort lists Tracks Cafe and Bar at 670 Mountain Village Boulevard as classic bar food at a moderate price, and it is a handy place to end the first afternoon. It sits right in the core of Mountain Village, a short walk from the gondola station and the lift bases.

Keep it simple after a first day at altitude. Big Billie's at the base of the Chondola is the family-style alternative on the resort's dining list.

Ride the gondola down and eat in town. Brown Dog Pizza at 110 East Colorado Avenue is the pick for the first night, and the restaurant's own site calls it home of Detroit-style pizza, with a light, airy crust and crispy edges. It says it is open daily from 11:30am to 9pm and doesn't take reservations, so go early or expect to wait on a busy night.

It suits a first night at altitude, when you want something filling and plain before an early start.

Start on the town side. The Oak Street Lift (Lift 8) is next to the gondola station, and Lift 7 is a short walk away beside the free Carhenge parking lot. These two lifts give access to the lower front face, a group of blue runs and the start of everything steeper above.

Take two or three laps here to warm up and read the snow, then ride toward the Plunge Lift. Lifts open at 9am.

The Plunge is the front face in one run, a steep line straight above town (see the resort's mountain page for the trail map). The Plunge Lift runs beside it, and one ride on that chair tells you everything about the run's steepness and moguls before you commit.

Optional, expert terrain. Open-source map data marks The Plunge as advanced and the Lower Plunge as expert in places, and the resort's trail map is the authority. If black runs and bumps aren't your thing, ski the blue runs nearby and watch from the chair.

Next to the Plunge are the other steep front-face runs: Spiral Stairs, Bushwacker, Mammoth and Kant-Mak-M, with Power Line and East Drain alongside. Map data rates Spiral Stairs, Bushwacker and Mammoth as advanced and Kant-Mak-M, Power Line and East Drain as expert, but conditions change daily, so ask the lift attendant or patrol on the day.

Optional again, and for strong skiers: a comfortable intermediate should skip them. The reward for experts is town directly below you as you ski toward it.

Gorrono Ranch is the resort's own mid-mountain lunch spot, and it's listed on the dining page as burgers, barbecue and chili at a moderate price, on the Misty Maiden trail. It is the hill lunch most people remember, since you ski to it.

It gets busy between noon and 1pm, so eat early or late. The food is simple and filling, and you are back on skis fast.

The New Sheridan has been on this corner of Oak Street and Colorado Avenue since 1895, according to the hotel itself, and its Historic Bar is the place to see the old town as it was. It calls itself Telluride's oldest bar, and next door the Chop House serves steak and wine at a high price.

Come for one drink. The bar is a short stroll from the gondola, and the walk back along Colorado Avenue passes the Sheridan Opera House.

Prospect Bowl is the big addition of 2000-2002, roughly 730 acres of beginner, intermediate and expert terrain. The Prospect Express (Lift 12) and the Lynx surface lift serve it, and the runs are wide and mostly rolling. Map data lists Magnolia, Sandia and Stella as blue and Madison and May Girl as green, with the steeper Prospect Creek and Prospect Woods more advanced.

This is the mountain's best intermediate terrain and the place for relaxed laps, with the first real look at the high peaks.

See Forever is the signature run, and it earns the name. Ride the Gold Hill Express (Lift 14) to the top and follow the ridge: you look across the San Juan Mountains, with some of the highest concentration of 13,000 and 14,000-foot peaks in North America around you. Open-source map data rates the run as intermediate, a long traverse and descent rather than a steep drop, which is why more skiers can enjoy it.

Take your camera and your time. On a clear morning you see peaks in every direction. The ridge is exposed and cold in wind, so dress for it.

Alpino Vino sits on the See Forever trail, just below the top of Lift 14, at 11,966 feet. The resort lists it as fine wines and Italian delicacies at its highest price level. Local tourism material bills it as North America's highest fine-dining restaurant, and lunch here is a splurge you plan.

Book ahead through the resort and arrive hungry. If the bill doesn't suit, the High Camp Warming Hut at the top of Lift 12 does sandwiches, soups and snacks for less.

Galloping Goose is a run named for the railcars that served the region's mines. The Rio Grande Southern Railroad's Galloping Goose railcars crossed Lizard Head Pass until 1952, and the free bus loop in town carries the same name. On the mountain it is the long way down, a 4.6-mile cruise that the resort once billed as its longest run.

Map data rates it easy, and it winds back toward Mountain Village. It is a good run for tired legs late in the afternoon.

Telluride Brewing Company's winter address is the taproom with a pizza kitchen in Lawson Hill (156 Society Drive), a short drive or bus ride down the valley from town. It is listed Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 8pm, so this Wednesday works, and closes early in the evening. The company's Mountain Village brewpub (568 Mountain Village Boulevard) was shown as closed for the off season on 31 October, with no winter date given.

Order a pint of Colorado craft beer and a pizza, then head home before the roads get dark.

Revelation Bowl is the big bowl behind Gold Hill, reached by the Gold Hill Express (Lift 14) and then the Revelation Lift (Lift 15). It faces northeast and collects a lot of snow, and it opened in the 2008-09 winter. At the bottom, on the resort boundary, the Bear Creek Overlook gives a view over the valley.

Don't mistake it for easy terrain. Map data rates its named runs, such as Majestic, Silvercloud, Liberty Bell and Bee's Run, as advanced, and the hike-to gates start at the top of the lift. Advanced skiers only; an intermediate who wants to see it should ask patrol that morning which lines are suitable.

The Gold Hill Chutes are the steep gullies off the ridge above Revelation, and the resort's hike-to page tells you plainly what they are. Chutes 3, 4 and 5 are permanently closed, and chutes 1, 2 and 6 to 10 are not open continually, so you check the signs each day. Chute 2 is a 15 to 20 minute hike, and chutes 6 to 10, reached by a hard left off the Revelation Lift, are 20 to 30 minutes, with a bridge and staircase to chutes 9 and 10.

They are expert-only, and the resort says so. For most people the right move is to look and skip the hike. If you go, go with a partner, ask patrol about conditions, and carry a beacon, probe and shovel.

The High Camp Warming Hut sits at the top of the Prospect Express (Lift 12), and the resort lists it as sandwiches, soups and snacks at a moderate price. It is a simple stop, but its position at the start of the Black Iron Bowl hike makes it the place where people regroup, warm up and decide whether to go up.

Eat and drink before the hike, and go early or late, as the hut is small.

Black Iron Bowl is the signature in-bounds hike-to area, named for an old mining claim. You ride Lift 12 and then walk out along Prospect Ridge, and the resort gives hike times from the top of the lift: about 5 to 10 minutes to Genevieve, 20 to 25 to Lakeview and 30 to 45 to Mountain Quail. The terrain drops about 1,000 vertical feet and includes the Mountain Quail couloir, steep faces, open glades and chutes.

This is for experts only. The resort's own warning says the upper mountain holds some of the steepest terrain anywhere, with cliffs, exposed traverses and rock. To try it, hire a guide: the ski school offers Steep & Off Piste private lessons and a three-day camp (19 to 21 February 2027).

Palmyra Peak is the high point of the extreme terrain: a 13,320-foot summit whose north face holds well over 200 acres and almost 2,000 vertical feet of skiing. It is reached from Black Iron Bowl by a long hike of one to one and a half hours, and the resort calls it some of the most spectacular in-bounds terrain in the country. Runs such as Tram Shot, Sunrise and Electric Shock drain into Upper Moraine and lead back toward Black Iron Bowl.

For almost everyone the honest answer is to look and photograph it. The hike is long and technical. An expert should go with a guide and leave time to get back before the lifts close.

Allred's sits at the St. Sophia station, halfway up the gondola, and the resort lists it as contemporary American cuisine at its top price level. The resort's own history says Allred's was completed the year after the gondola, and it was built by Ron Allred, the developer of Mountain Village. The gondola tops out at 10,540 feet here.

It's a splurge: save it for the one night you want a long dinner. Book ahead, and ride the gondola up and down; it runs until midnight.

Bridal Veil Falls is a 365-foot waterfall at the head of the box canyon above Telluride, and in winter it freezes into a column of ice. The tourism board says the four-wheel-drive road to the falls is closed in winter, but you can drive to the end of the box canyon and see it from there. A privately owned historic power plant sits on top of the falls.

Do not try to walk up to it: the tourism board says hiking and snowshoeing up to the falls is discouraged because of rockfall and avalanches. Ice climbing here is a serious activity for experts.

For a walk in snow, choose a trail made for it. The tourism board says designated snowshoe trails start from both Telluride and Mountain Village, and the resort's winter activities page lists guided snowshoeing among the activities that require advance reservations. The Top-A-Ten Nordic trails at the top of the Sunshine Express (Lift 10) are open to anyone with the 25 USD (22 EUR) single-use lift ticket.

Stay off the groomed Nordic tracks, as the tourism board asks. A guided tour is the safe way to go if you don't know the terrain. Be in the car by noon.

Ouray sits at 7,792 feet in a narrow valley ringed by steep mountains, which earned it the nickname Switzerland of America. It has several hot springs in the area, and the Ouray Hot Springs Pool, at the north end of town, is the biggest, with several pools at different temperatures. The pool says its water is sulfur-free, and the posted adult price is 30 USD (27 EUR), with the public admitted from 11am to 8pm.

After four days of skiing, a long soak is the right ending. Bring a swimsuit and a towel (showers cost extra) and go in the middle of the afternoon.

Ouray's Main Street is a national historic district of late 19th-century buildings, including the Beaumont Hotel, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Walk its length before the light goes. The town grew from mining, and at the peak it had more than 30 active mines.

The Ouray Ice Park is the main winter draw. It's a man-made ice climbing park in the Uncompahgre Gorge, free to visit, with more than 150 named routes spread over almost 2 miles of the gorge. Its site still showed the 2025/26 season as closed on 31 October and had announced no 2026/27 opening, so check before you count on it: the hot springs and the town carry the day without it.

Ouray Brewery is a family-owned brewpub on Main Street serving craft beer and hearty American pub food. Its site lists 11:07am to close daily and says it often closes before 7:30pm because of waiting lists and staffing, so go early.

Have an early dinner here, then start back by about 4pm: the road over Dallas Divide can ice up after sunset. If the weather turns, stay the night in Ouray.