Recommended hikes close to Telluride?

Hi all,

Very excited to be heading back to Telluride after 10 years. Stopped in town once or twice before and spent time in the San Juans but never been to the Festival. Super stoked to be coming this year. We’ll be arriving on Monday and we plan to do some hiking, Wetterhorn Peak on Tuesday if we can swing it but I’m looking for suggestions for some hikes that we shouldn’t miss if we don’t want to drive to far out of town.

We’ll be staying at Ilium if that helps in the decision.

Thanks,

Sean

Please be more specific. Depending on your cardio, Low Earth Orbit, where the Shuttle goes, is “close to Telluride.”

Hi Dean,

Ok, I’ll be staying at Ilium and arriving on Monday. We’re going to try and head over to Wetterhorn Peak on Tuesday, (all are welcome to join if anyone wants to go for a nice long walk/scramble [the top section is requires a little climbing but nothing too hairy] in the mountains) but that’ll be an all day affair as it’s probably 2.5 hours to the trail head but we’ll be driving he Alpine loop so you could do worse for a nice drive in the mountains. Depending on how motivated/tired we feel on Wednesday morning we may head over to Mt. Sneffles and Yankee Boy Basin but we have tickets for YMSB on Wednesday night so we want to be back to camp in time to shuttle over.

So, what I’m looking for are some other options that would be, say, under an hour drive from Camp Ilium but still get you into the high country. Our cardio is good, both of us acclimate well to the altitude and we’ll have a 4WD to got over Ophir Pass. Don’t think I want to tackle Imogene or Black Bear though.

Also, I’ve heard you can walk over to Telluride from Ilium. Is it a trail or just a hump down the forest service road? The idea of walking over to the Festival in the morning sounds very appealing if it goes through the woods.

Thanks,

Sean