A letter from a local
A box canyon with a free gondola.
Telluride sits at the dead end of a box canyon with 13,000-foot walls on three sides and Bridal Veil Falls hanging off the back. The free gondola — the only one of its kind in America — floats you over the ridge to the ski area in thirteen minutes. Commuting has never been this scenic anywhere.
The lifts are five minutes from anywhere in town; Bear Creek's waterfall trail leaves from the end of Pine Street; the Via Ferrata traverses the canyon wall for the brave; and the Jud Wiebe loop is the town's morning constitutional. Summer festival season means bluegrass echoing off the cliffs.
It's tiny, remote, and priced accordingly — but nobody who has watched an October snow squall roll up that canyon has ever asked me why.
— Fern