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Dallas to Seattle Day 3: To Telluride

23 April 2021 • 550 km / 342 mi (map)

Added to Eric Scouten :: Travel on 13 June 2021
Colorado 5 New Mexico 3

After Taos, it was time for some high desert plains and some mountains. I landed this next night in the ski resort of Telluride.

Visiting a remote ski resort in a shoulder season is an … interesting experience. Though there were still a good number of visitors, the oxygen was clearly out of the room for the month. Very few restaurants were open, even for takeout. I did manage to find good food, but it wasn’t easy.

The adobe storefront of Untitled Fine Art gallery in Taos, New Mexico, with dark wooden posts and beams, large display windows, and ornate carved metal double doors marked “Welcome.” A budding tree and clear blue sky rise behind the flat-roofed building, with ristras of dried red chiles hanging by the windows.

Untitled Fine Art ... too cute not to notice!

A brown “Welcome to Colorful Colorado” state line sign mounted on a rustic wooden frame stands beside a two-lane highway in a flat, open high-desert landscape under a heavy gray overcast sky. Dry scrubland and a wire fence stretch to the horizon on the right, with distant low hills visible in the hazy distance.

Not so colorful just yet.

A yellow roadside sign reading “NO SNOWPLOWING 7PM - 5AM” stands beside a rural two-lane highway west of La Jara, Colorado, next to a large leafless cottonwood tree. The straight road stretches toward the horizon past open fields, fencing, and a speed limit 65 sign under an overcast, cloudy sky.

A wide, flat high-desert plain north of Center, Colorado, where dark cattle graze on bare brown ground dotted with leafless trees, beneath a vast sky of heavy gray and white clouds with distant blue mountains along the horizon.

A lone bare tree stands on a flat high-desert plain of pale dry grass, with a single dark car passing along a low road beside it. Snow-dusted peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise in the distance, partly veiled by heavy gray clouds.

A dramatic curtain of rain or virga falls from a towering gray storm cloud over a flat, dry prairie, with distant mountains on the horizon and a weathered barbed-wire fence in the foreground beneath a partly blue sky.

A panoramic view of an empty two-lane highway stretching toward a rounded, forested hill across open high-desert plains near Gunnison, Colorado, with dry grassland and sagebrush beside a wire fence and dramatic gray storm clouds filling the sky.

A cracked, weathered paved road leads toward a distant metal ranch gate across open high-desert rangeland south of Gunnison, Colorado, with barbed-wire fencing, dry golden grasses, and rolling brown hills under a heavy overcast sky.

Snow falls over a high-country ranch pasture south of Gunnison, Colorado, with a few cattle grazing beside a wire fence, bare willows and dry grass in the foreground, and hazy hills fading into a gray overcast sky.

A rural fairgrounds or rodeo arena outside Ridgway, Colorado, with white rail fencing, covered grandstands, and a bare dirt lot in the foreground, set against snow-dusted mountains partly obscured by heavy gray storm clouds.

A broad green pasture bordered by a wooden split-rail fence in the foreground, with bare cottonwood trees and a red-roofed barn in the middle distance. Forested foothills and snow-dusted mountains rise beyond under a dramatic sky of building storm clouds and patches of blue.

A dirt road curves through a valley lined with bare aspen and willow trees toward snow-capped mountain peaks, under a bright blue sky scattered with large white clouds. Patches of snow remain on the brown hillsides and a weathered wooden rail fence runs along the left side of the road.

The main street of Telluride, Colorado, lined with historic brick and wood-frame storefronts and an American flag hanging from a street lamp, with cars parked along the curb. Towering snow-dusted peaks rise behind the town under an overcast gray sky.

Main Street (actually Colorado Avenue), Telluride

On the way into Telluride, they had these fun locally-themed COVID warning signs:

A weathered white “Welcome to Telluride” sign on wooden posts beside a dirt road, featuring a whimsical illustration of a mountain lion dressed in a cowboy hat and green coat, wearing a blue face mask and holding yellow flowers. Snow-capped San Juan Mountains rise under a clear blue sky in the background.

A weathered white sign reading “6’ DISTANCE” mounted on wooden posts in a dry grassy field, illustrated with elk spaced 6 feet apart as a playful social-distancing reminder. Behind it rise snow-capped mountains under a clear blue sky near Telluride, Colorado.

A hand-painted roadside sign reading “SCRUB YOUR HANDS” with illustrations of marmots and seeds, mounted on wooden posts in a dry field beside a dirt road near Telluride, Colorado, with snow-capped mountains and a clear blue sky behind.

A roadside sign in a dry grassy meadow reads “WEAR A MASK — Required in all indoor public spaces,” illustrated with a fox dressed in a hat and coat and wearing a blue surgical mask, set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains under a clear blue sky near Telluride, Colorado.

A white public-health sign on wooden posts in a grassy field reads “If you’re sick, stay home & get tested” and shows illustrations of a masked nurse, a child in a mask, and a bed. Snow-capped mountains and evergreen forest rise under a clear blue sky in the background near Telluride, Colorado.

Taos, New Mexico, to Telluride, Colorado · 550 km / 342 mi
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Dallas to Seattle Day 4: To Salt Lake City →

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