Telluride
A Silver Mining Town Of 1878 In A Box Canyon At 8,750 Feet, Its Entire Downtown A National Historic Landmark District, Now A Ski Resort Linked To Mountain Village By A Free Public Gondola. · Telluride, Colorado
Telluride sits at the closed end of a box canyon with thirteen-thousand-foot walls on three sides, which means there is one road in and the same road out - and that geography is most of why the town feels the way it does. Silver built it from 1878, the mines closed, and the ski area opened in 1972 into a town that had almost emptied, which is why the entire downtown survives as a National Historic Landmark District rather than as a reconstruction. A free public gondola connects the old town to Mountain Village on the ridge above, runs into the evening, and is the only free gondola public transport system in the United States. The film festival each Labor Day weekend premieres films that go on to win Oscars, and the bluegrass festival in June fills the box canyon with sound that has nowhere to go. The town sits at 8,750 feet with one road in and out, which is why it stayed small, and why a single closure on the highway can strand it.
Telluride, San Miguel County, Telluride, Colorado, 81435, United States
A year-round resort town. The ski season runs roughly late November to early April. The free gondola operates most of the year, closing for maintenance periods in spring and autumn - and when it is down, the town and Mountain Village are a long drive apart despite being minutes apart in the air. The Telluride Film Festival takes the Labor Day weekend and the Bluegrass Festival the third weekend of June; both fill every bed for fifty miles. Shoulder seasons are genuinely quiet with many businesses closed.