Salt Lake City, Moab, Telluride

Kristine and I planned a trip out to Telluride, Colorado, with the main focus being the small ski-town's famous bluegrass festival. It's been running something like 45 years, and is 4 days long. We knew we wanted to drive out to Telluride. We were surprised to learn that the drive from Salt Lake City is similar in length to the drive from Denver. Hence we decided to drive in to the festival from the west. Moab is conveniently situated along the route.

We spent our first morning in SLC checking out Temple Square and grabbing some breakfast.

The street art in SLC was on point

The Tabernacle in Temple Square - amazing acoustics

Salt Lake Temple

Next up was Antelope Island State Park. It's a 45-minute drive to this island situated about 10 miles into the southeast corner of Great Salt Lake. A causeway led us out to some great hiking with amazing long-distance views of Utah and the lake. The flies were pretty terrible, though.

Antelope Island State Park

We packed up and started to drive south east. After a taco stop on Provo (amazing) we drove through the mountains heading towards Moab. 

The mighty Colorado River in Moab

 We stayed at a motel right in Moab. We got up early and went right to Arches National Park.

The La Sal mountains, seen from Arches National Park

Hiking the Arches

After Arches we grabbed a bite at a great local diner and then began the drive to Telluride. We just punched in the hotel's address and headed out. We'd learn later that we probably should have just stayed on the interstate and went through Grand Junction, adding just a bit of time. The drive was treacherous; crazy steep switchbacks and rock falls. I spent a lot of time driving one-handed while I dried off my sweaty palm on the other hand.

The drive up to Telluride itself wasn't so bad. The altitude (about 9000') was smack in the face though. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they had overbooked our hotel and we were upgraded to a suite.

We stayed in Mountain Village, which is situated about 900 feet above Telluride. There's a free gondola that runs up to the top of the mountain then back down into Telluride. It takes about 20 minutes and runs until pretty late at night. We took this gondola at least 20 times during our stay.

Gondola from Telluride to Mountain Village

The next day we went to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

The artist's have quite the view from stage

The weather would change minute to minute

By the third day in Telluride we were acclimated to the altitude and ready to do a bit of hiking. The Ridge Trail took us from Mountain Village up to a high ridge above Telluride. 

The Ridge Trail

The next day we did the Bear Creek Falls hike, which is the most popular hike in the area. It originates right in downtown.

Bear Creek Falls Trail

We were left in awe by the sheer scale and power of this avalanche site we came across. This avalanche had happened just weeks prior to our hike.

Some avalanche damage

I grabbed a slow-mo of the falls. The water was very brisk as it was coming right off the snow pack. I filled the water bottle right off the stream and it was absolutely delicious.

It was a great trip, some fantastic memories with my favorite human being on Earth. Although I'd love to go do it all again, I'm excited to top this trip with Kristine some day soon. The pacific northwest is on our radar, as are many other national parks.

Thanks for reading - Erik