Sept 5, 2023
Written By: J.Couch
We took our time this morning getting up. By 10am we had eaten, cleaned up and packed up camp to head to Telluride. The drive down to Ridgeway and west towards Telluride is a very pretty drive and worth it in itself. The road takes you across another small pass with mountain views in all directions.
We got into Telluride around 11:30 but couldn’t check into our camp site until 3pm. We got lucky and found a place where we could park our trailer by the community pool and walked into town to look around. Town is only about a 5 minute walk from the campground so it’s easy to get there. We walked up and down that main street of town which is Colorado Ave. There are lots of art galleries, restaurants and tourist shops selling shirts and souvenirs.
After going up and down Colorado Ave, we stopped at Stronghouse Brew Pub that was rated one of the best bars in the U.S. by U.S.A. Today. They don’t offer a whole lot that is plant based, but we got a basket of fries minus the beer cheese dipping sauce. They actually had the non-alcohol Athletic Octoberfest which was very good and I have had a hard time trying to find this in the stores. Heather got herself a fancy mixed drink.
We headed back to pick up the Jeep and trailer and go check in to our camp spot. This campground is not very big and you can not get in the gate until 3pm when Fred gets there to check you in. All these spots are dry camping, so no power, water or sewer. We were there for 3 days so we were hoping that we wouldn’t fill all the tanks and run out of batteries and water. We did have some battery backups for cell phones to get us through but those didn’t last long. We set up camp again and grabbed a few snacks, then headed for the trailhead of Bridal Veil Falls which is about 2 miles up the street.
We got there about 4pm to start the 1.2 hike to the base of the falls. Parts of the trail are rough and at spots you have to climb over rocks and trees. There are a couple smaller waterfalls that you can stop at on the way up or back. We chose to see those on the way back, we wanted to make sure that we had enough time at the main falls first. We got to the end of the trail and as we came out of the trees we saw an amazing view of the waterfall. It was coming over the cliff face with the old power plant hanging on the edge above. It’s a spectacular view from there and it was quite a climb to get there, but worth it.
Below are a few of the old photos that I found at the Denver Library Digital Collections.
The sun was starting to set low in the sky and the shadows crawling across the face of the mountains were very pretty. There were lots of people still making the trip up as we were getting ready to head back down. We headed back down and along the way we stopped at a couple of the other waterfalls. After about 2 hours and 15 minutes from starting our hike, we made it back to the parking lot.
We headed back to camp to make some dinner and turn in for the evening. We have to be up early for a jeep tour over Tomboy / Imogene Pass. Until tomorrow. Click to the next day to see that adventure.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
