My fiance and I are Telluride noobs and were lucky enough to land a camping spot in Town Park :wave
Since we will be in the area starting on Saturday, we are interested in catching some great day hikes prior to the festival.To this end, I have been searching for hikes in the Telluride area, and as I assumed, there are TONS of hiking spots. :eek
Instead of filtering through all of the hikes myself, does anyone have any great day hike recommendations that will not require us to drive to the trail head?
Tried to decipher where you’re from in your profile and had a good laugh. (West Virginia?)
No matter the area of origin, I’ll tell you what they told me before my first landing at 8,750 ft. above sea level. DO NOT try to hike up the side of a mountain the first few days after getting there. :thumbsup
McFly - I can highly recommend the Sneffels High Line loop, it’s 12-13 miles, six hours or so with trailhead access from Town, same as Jud Weibe. It’s get above timberline and tops out over the Sneffels range towards the town of Ouray. Its a full day but does return back to town via a connecting trail. Its is a classic high alpine Colorado hike. ~ Happy Trails. Paul
Sneffles highline is awesome, but I would seriously doubt you can do it this year unless you bring snowshoes…it’s iffy festival week any year, and high snow levels this year should make in really tough until July or so
question to add to this - my wife and i have done a few half day hikes in telluride - looking to do a new one this year - i am torn between jud wiebe and bear creek falls - any recommendation? i assume either will be nice but thought i would ask :thumbsup
The easy answer is to do both. Neither is a long hike and they’re very different from one another. I like the JW because it’s on the opposite side of the valley from the gondola. It lets me look at the valley from a different perspective. You’ll get some great views from here.
Bear Creek takes you to a waterfall which is also beautiful. It’s an easier hike and a busier trail.
If I had to pick one, I’d do the JW, but that’s just my personal preference. Neither will disappoint.
I haven’t heard about Sneffels … but probably snow on the north side of the saddle up high. We didn’t get nearly as much snow as central / northern colorado, so might not be as bad as some expect.
An alternative would be to take the weibe from Oak st. and go counter clockwise, but catch the waterline trail which splits off to the west from the intersection (just off the weibe) where you’d start out on the counter clockwise on the sneffels highline. The waterline trail wraps along the cliff band along the highway into town and then makes a 90 to the north into Mill Creek. After about 30-40 minutes you’ll cross a bridge and about 50-100 yards past the bridge there’s a post with switch backs going up through a aspen grove. It’s super cool once you’re up to the top of the ridgeline where the aspen grove is 20-30 minutes … then you go through a few meadows and then up into the trees a bit higher. In another 30-40 minutes there’s a trail post where you would’ve been on the sneffels highline coming down (if you’d gone counter clockwise). it’s nice to go up that ridge for 20 minutes for the views & backtrack to the sign post & continue on the deep creek trail. You could catch the eider creek turn off in about 15 minutes from that sign post … which is a nice trail that leads to the mill creek road (and shell station), or continue on deep creek to that trail head by the airport. The eider creek cut-off shortens the loop a bit, but any of these options should be a bit drier than all the way up and around sneffels loop … but there still could be snow at that post I recommended to go up 20 minutes (then backtrack)
We need to find a good two day hike with overnight camping for my daughter and her beau. They had planned on going to Maroon Belles on the way into Telluride but it is closed because of snow. They have prepared for their hike for months and are really bummed that it has fallen through.
Any suggestions on where they can go?
… snow could very well be an issue on the high CO mtn passes. One thought might be hiking into the Bells from the South side, the Crested Butte side. The high passes could still be snowy but I think an overnight could be put together with a trail map. Another option but no so close to Telluride is doing a backpack into the Lake Como Basin or into South Colony Lakes both in the Sangre de Cristo Range near Great Sand Dunes National Park. Lake Como accesses the basin into three fourteeners of the Blanca range. South Colony is in wilderness, Lake Como is popular with ATVers. Good luck.
:concert